Year: 2016

Location: Gdańs, Poland

Country: Poland

Owner Builder: Gdanska Infrastructure Wodociagowo-Kanakizacyjna

Contractor: BUDOMEX Sopot

Designer: PPROFIL Design Studio

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Problem / Solution

During the renovation of the historical underground water reservoir called Stara Orunia in Gdańsk limited load-bearing capacity of the structure and poor thermal insulation of old brick vaults were among the problems that had to be solved. Both difficulties were successfully overcome by replacement of the old heavy vault filling with lightweight aggregates.

Experience

An underground water reservoir must be effectively protected against adverse impacts of numerous external factors. This is particularly true of historical buildings subject to heritage conservation laws in which the existing structure may not be replaced or radically modernized. In this project of renovation of a historical water reservoir, the main goal was to preserve original vault ceilings of unique historical value. In such cases, expanded clay is irreplaceable as the filling of the ceiling structure because it helps to reduce internal forces in brick arches.

Why expanded clay?

After removing the soil cover from the water reservoir roof, brick vaults were repaired, waterproofing was made and the whole ceiling structure was filled with expanded clay aggregates size 10-20mm. This lightweight ceramic aggregate is five times lighter than the removed soil. Additionally, the thermal efficiency of the new filling is also much higher. This way, thanks to replacement of the old filling with expanded clay, two major problems were solved in the renovated facility.