The “Student Activities and Athletic Facilities (SAAF)” project comprises ten buildings on a built-up area of more than 200,000 square meters. They include sports and leisure activities for students from all disciplines with a capacity of around 40,000 people. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) from the USA were the design architects. They worked with Gulf Consult (GC) from Kuwait, the engineering office for the project.
The centre of the area is formed by two six-storey main buildings, each with an “Athletic, Recreation and Aquatic Centre (ARAQ)” for men and women. They house centres for performance, leisure and water sports as well as parts of the student works. An inner courtyard physically divides the women’s and men’s sides with the same range and scope. The project also includes two smaller sports facilities, two information points, the Studentwerk headquarters, a bus stop for the campus, a tennis hall with 2,000 seats and an outdoor football and athletics stadium with capacity for 15,000 spectators.
A limestone facade gives the main buildings (ARAQ) a noble and natural look. Characteristic are the triangular windows, which are arranged modularly and match the orientation of the sun. Part of the approximately 75,000 square metre facade was fastened with 15,000 FZP II M8i internal thread anchors. The construction of the facade started in 2019 and was already successfully completed at the beginning of 2020.
“We impressed the facade builders with our comprehensive technical support, from planning and calculation to on-site implementation support,” emphasises Jan Zimmermann, Market Manager for Facade Systems. “The advantages of our Zykon plate anchors also speak for themselves.” The FZP II is fastened in the conically undercut borehole in natural stone in a positive-locking manner and completely without expansion pressure. This technique provides lower plate bending moments than edge fixings. In addition, higher load capacities are achieved compared to the alternative solutions.
Our undercut anchors are not even visible in the joint pattern and thus contribute to a high-quality and harmonious facade appearance. They combine secure support with high aesthetic standards for the facades of the ARAQ centres.
