Bovid Catwalk

Chelyabinsk, Russia, 2015


 

Incide Engineering fully designed a Catwalk a height of 14 meters is designed for horizontal communication between the buildings of the business center “BOVID” on the fourth floor level and the hotel and “Vidgof” at the level of the third floor. The length is 77.6 m. The height of the transition from floor to ceiling is 2.1 m.

The shape of the facility resembles a transparent cylinder, which consists of several sections. The unusual shape of the structure is formed by octagons which are compiled with bearing rings, rotated relative to each other to 22,5º. Glass modules have a triangular shape. Each 4.18 m long section accounts for 16 equal triangles, and there are 273 triangles for the whole catwalk. This is the first and so far the only facility  in Chelyabinsk  created from completely translucent glass Guardian with Schuco aluminum profile.

An important engineering feature of the object is that it is also an overpass for the construction of heating pipeline and plumbing. Underground laying is not possible because of close location of a large number of urban underground highways. Communication facilities are hidden under the wooden flooring. Constant temperature is maintained by a modern air heating combined with ventilation.

It was a stimulating and challenging experience, for two reasons. The first is the context that hosted this transformation and in which the challenge was faced: a new context, both from a regulatory and environmental point of view.

The other decisive element was the possibility of proposing an innovative architectural solution, which would combine the structural solution with that of the envelope.

The result was greatly appreciated by the client and had a considerable media coverage, which also led to the publication of the project in the Russian architecture magazine “Architettura e Design”, in the number 01 (107) 2016.

The catwalk was  designed by Incide Engineering together with “JVK-Cimolai” LLC representatives.

An integrated approach to work, willingness to search for innovative solutions in unusual situations allowed us to implement the project at the highest level. The object was built within an individual project. You will not find a similar catwalk neither in Chelyabinsk nor in Russia“, – said General Director of “JVK-Cimolai ” LLC Alexander Leonov.