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Calgary New Central Library

Calgary, Canada

Calgary Library Resembling a graceful ship sailing into the future, Stuart Olson Construction relies on Doka‘s formwork solutions to create the architectural requirements of the new Central Library.

Calgary’s old library was built for a city population of 400,000 people. With the growth in Calgary and the surrounding area to almost 1.5 million people, it was time to increase the size of the library as well as modernize it.

The New Central Library located in East Village, will be 240,000 sq. ft. The challenging design, resembling a graceful ship sailing into the future, includes geometric exterior cladding and vast open interior spaces. The project, expected to be completed in 2018, will serve Calgarians for centuries.

The Challenge

The design is the greatest challenge. There is very little repetitive work on this project due to very high slabs and architectural exposed walls, columns and slabs. Therefore, most of the forming solutions are custom. Many steel and concrete components are being built simultaneously and incorporated within each other.

The Facts

Location: Block 127 East Village SE Calgary, Alberta

Construction work performed by: Stuart Olson, Construction Ltd. / Entuitive Consulting Engineers

Square footage: 240,000 sq/ft

Architect: Snøhetta / DIALOG

Type of structure: Commercial Building / Library

Products used

  • Core: Framax Xlife, Interior Shaft Platforms, MF240
  • Shear walls and columns: Framax Xlife, Top 50, Pourform ph plus architectural plywood
  • Floors: Dokaflex, Eurex supporting props, Custom Steel Formwork.

The Solution

  • Doka was the only formwork supplier that was able to provide a tieless solution for the architectural columns and beams. Doka provided a tieless column solution to be able to pour a 800mm x 1000mm x 11000mm column.
  • The ability to combine multiple Doka formwork systems to provide architectural and tieless formwork accommodated the needs of the client.
  • Doka also provided a system that was set in conjunction with a concrete precast wall to pour an encasement around an existing operational LRT track.
  • Slab design includes large architectural beams cast without ties.
  • Doka’s in-house team of engineers utilized AutoCad 3D modeling from the architect to complete the execution and assembly drawings for the customer.
  • Certainty of schedule and planning including weekly meetings with the Stuart Olson Company to stay on top of the ever changing project demands and ensure the formwork solutions achieved the high quality architectural concrete finish.
Calgary Library Complicated column cross-sections, large column heights, many formwork re-use cycles, tough specifications regarding the concrete finish – Column formwork Top 50 can handle them all.
Calgary Library Doka provided a tie-less column solution to be able to pour a 800mm x 1000mm x 11000mm column.
Calgary Library
Calgary Library Due to architectural exposed walls, columns and high slabs, most of the forming solutions are custom.
Calgary Library The combination of Framax Xlife wall formwork and Doka climbing formwork MF240 proves its versatility on all tall structures. The formwork and climbing scaffold are linked together as a single unit which can be repositioned in one single crane cycle.