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France

Angouleme Multimedia Library

Project description

The city of Angouleme in south-western France is home to an impressive new multimedia library, designed by the architect Françoise Raynaud. The design of the building is based on the concept of an assembly kit game with five stacked boxes, each one corresponding to a different “universe”. The first three are inspired by the words Imagine, Understand and Create. The fourth, devoted to entertainment, culture and relaxation, allows the media to be crossed and the worlds to be linked, while the last houses administrative and logistics functions. Due to the building’s highly unconventional shape, it was particularly important to ensure the correct interaction between the structure’s various “building blocks”.

mageba scope

RESTON-SA shock absorbers were used at specific interfaces to secure particular blocks and control their relative movements. The shock absorbers were designed for seismic/dynamic loads of 51 kN each, with a longitudinal movement capacity of +/- 30 mm. They were equipped with spherical bearings at each end to accommodate minor transverse movements.

Due to the relative small loads, an innovative external channel was developed by mageba’s design engineers to ensure precise damping performance. After fabrication, the units were extensively tested in accordance with EN 15129, and the entire solution was certified with the CE label, by Politecnico de Milano.

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Two of the RESTON-SA shock absorbers, in a wooden crate for shipping to site

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The dampers were tested at Politecnico di Milano, Italy in accordance with EN 15129

Key Data

Products:

RESTON-SA shock absorbers

Installed:

2014

City:

Angouleme

Structure:

Library building

Floor area:

5,600 square metres

Architect:

Françoise Raynaud (Loci Anima)