Title: The Congress Palace at Oran, a distinctive building in a high seismic risk zone

Author(s): Ortega Cornejo, M.; Matute Rubio, L.; Millanes Mato, F.; Aguirre Gallego, C. M.; Ayuso García, P.

Publication: ACHE

Volume: 63

Issue: 265

Appears on pages(s): 33 - 50

Keywords: steel structure, seismic zone, bracing system, high strength bolts, hanged building, auditorium.

DOI:

Date: 1/5/2012

Abstract:
The Oran Congress Palace is divided in three buildings with different structural types and resistant mechanisms. The restaurant building, the entrance building which is hanged and presents wide zones without pillars, and the main building, which locates in each side the office building and the Head of Government building, and in the central zone the big auditorium with a total capacity for 3 000 people seated and a main structural cover with 60 m span.The buildings of the project, very conditioned by their location in a high seismic zone, were designed and constructed in a record schedule. The complete steel structure, with around 7 900 t weight, was totally prefabricated in Spain, achieving a great agility in the on-site assembly, by dividing the structure in modulus of easy transportable dimensions, by making the unions slip resistant using preloaded high strength bolts.