Concrete waffle slab reduces costs

MADRID – This new structure type, Holedeck, allows for a cheaper and more sustainable way to build. It saves about 40cm in height every floor and as a result it also makes savings on the quantities needed for facades and partition walls. It is especially suitable for sustainable facilities such as solar energy.

Alarcon+Asociados, a Spanish architecture office, have developed and patented this new structure internationally. It eliminates the need for ceilings as it is not necessary to hang air conditioning, lighting, electricity or water pipes.

The idea is simple: why do you have to lose space? Why not place the facilities pipes into the slab? The patented solution is a new concrete structure where reusable molds can be dismantled to create a riddled hole structure, where facilities can be introduced.

Vicente Marquez (the first person who used Holedeck for his new office building: Logytel) compared this new system to a wooden coffered ceiling. He left the structure at plain view, as the structure hides the facilities pipes. It reminds others of the internal morphology for bones.

For more information consult the website: www.holedeck.com.