The new East Pier (“Aile Est”) is a major improvement of the Geneva airport, mainly serving large aircrafts with international destinations. The highly transparent building (520 m/1,700 ft long and 16 m/52 ft high) adapts to the terrain with a slope of 0.2 degrees. On one building side, the wall slopes outwards toward the airfield at 26 degrees while on the opposite side, the building slopes inwards at 26 degrees. Gartner cladded the new pier with a steel façade with glass panels of 2.5 x 5 m (8.2 x 16.4 ft) in size, meeting the high noise insulation requirements.
Design & engineering, manufacture and installation of steel and glass façades, louvres, louvre windows, doors for the terminal airside and landside areas and the transition building between the old and new terminal.
In total, Gartner produced around 10,000 sqm (107,600 sq ft) of façades for the new “Aile Est” and 2,600 sqm (28,000 sq ft) for the “Processeur“. The East Wing is composed of seven gates consisting of three and four modules, respectively, with a length of 20 m (66 ft), subdivided in grids of 2.50 m (82 ft). Each grid has a height of 10 m (33 ft) and consists of two glass panes weighing around 1.3 tons. Structural tolerances are compensated for by small expansion joints between the modules while large expansion joints between the gates are designed to compensate for building movements. An exterior steel frame is reinforced by a “Raidisseur“, an exterior steel truss. The glass panels which are partly installed one above the other are held from the inside by pressure bars made of aluminum. In some parts of the façade, the glass panels are installed in the steel frame with setting blocks serving as a stiffening component. Louver windows, which only open in the event of fire, serve as smoke vent in the gable façades and in every “Porte” on the landside.
OWNER CLIENT: Genève Aéroport
CONTRACTOR: HRS Real Estate AG
MANDATAIRES RBI-T: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners / Atelier d'architecture Jacques Bugna / Ingérop Conseil & Ingénierie / T-ingénierie SA
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