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Architects: Gualano + Gualano: Arquitectos
- Year: 2012
Text description provided by the architects. The ground floor opens onto the street and creates a new horizontal door, wide and long. The building is now open at pedestrian level. It is crowned above, generating a new presence aligned with its neighbor.
To create this long access, we decided to cut the bearing wall on one of the facades. Rincon Street is the most active, connected with the banking area, and where many public buildings of interest in the Old City are located. We decided to operate on this bearing wall. The width of the wall, between 50 and 70cm, means the load must be transferred to two columns in a row, in order to contain the mass of the wall.
We built foundation blocks under the beam on the corner chamfer, and in required exterior areas on Rincon facade. We placed the two lower I-beams on the exterior side of the facade along its entire length and on the corner chamfer, verifying their perfect wedging under the foundation blocks and existing beam. They were already welded together, and with the outside brackets welded on center at the location of each steel column. The exterior steel columns were placed on center on the flanges of the beams with the orientation shown (12cm side parallel to the facade). The two upper I-beams were placed on the exterior side of the facade along its entire length and on the corner chamfer, verifying its perfect welding to the upper section of the wall. They were already welded together, and with the outside brackets welded on center at the location of each steel column.
After sufficient days for the setting of the upper and lower wedges of the beams, the interior masonry was demolished in sections, centered on the metal columns and alternately, so as to place the upper and lower cross bracing I-beams between the longitudinal beams.
