Markthal (Market Hall): The reason you need to visit Rotterdam 🇳🇱

The Markthal (Market Hall) is a residential and office building with a market hall underneath, located in Rotterdam. The building was opened on October 1, 2014, by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

Besides the large market hall, the complex houses 228 apartments, 4600 m2 retail space, 1600 m2 Horeca and an underground 4-storey parking garage with a capacity of 1200+ cars.

The artwork Hoorn des Overvloeds (2014) in the famous Markthal in Rotterdam is by Iris Roskam and Arno Coenen. It is the Horn of Plenty and refers to the Cornucopia from the ancient Greek mythology. Hence the many enlarged pieces of fruit, vegetables, grains, sweets, fish, flowers and insects.

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What are Cable-net Glass Facade Systems?

The load acting on the glass is transmitted to the structural support system which is the cable-net structure via the glazing system and eventually to the boundary or building structures such as columns and beams. This concept allows large open spaces up to the full height of the facade in the building where the glass cladding is the interface between the exterior and interior of the building.

Source:

The two cable-net facades are 34 meters in height and 42 meters wide. The cables have been pre-stressed in between the concrete arch and the foundation of the building, closing the building at both sides. The galvanized steel cables have a diameter of 31 millimetres and are fixed in heavy steel boxes, embedded in the concrete structure. The 22 horizontal and 26 vertical cables are the only structure of the façade and the cables divide the glass surface in a grid of 1.5 by 1.5 meters.

By means of a hydraulic tension bridge, the cables have been pre-stressed step by step with a maximum applied pretension of 300 kilonewtons per cable. During this operation, the cables have been stretched around 150 millimetres each. The cables have a surplus capacity of 50 kilonewtons to absorb the impact of creep in the concrete over the first couple of years. 

The maximal theoretical wind load can cause the façades to deform 700 millimetres inwards and outwards. Although this is one of the characteristics of cable facades, amplitude in the middle of the glass surface of 1400 millimetres is considerable. Under such deformations, the glass panels are protected against too much torsion by special rubber profiling at the corner fixation of each laminated heat-strengthened glass panel.

Also, the silicon joints in between the glass panels contribute to the flexibility of the façade. However, in the corners of the façade, the glass panels are fixed on 2 sides. Here only one corner of the glass panel can move, causing substantial torsion of the glass surface. Octatube has dealt with this by employing its more than 10 years of experience in cold bending and twisting of glass.

Source: International Facade Community