School building extension with TS3 technology
26. Aug 2021
The Feld school building in Richterswil is being topped up and renovated at a cost of 7.6 million Swiss francs. Around four million Swiss francs of this will be invested in the two-story addition using TS3 technology. This will create an additional 1,542 square meters of space for classrooms, group rooms and a music room.
The two additional floors on the Feld school building solve the space problem in the Richterswil community. Several classrooms, group rooms and a music room will be created on an area of 1,542 square meters. The project includes a total of 300 square meters of reserve space that can be integrated into school operations as needed. In this way, the municipal council is taking into account Richterswil's longer-term population development.
Large-format panels with TS3 technology
A 34 cm thick cross-laminated timber panel was installed on the existing roof of the school building as a load distribution panel. It enables a flexible room layout in the extension, independent of the existing load-bearing structure below. The two-story extension now stands on this. The TS3 technology is used for the load distribution plate, the floor slab and the roof of the extension. Schilliger Holz AG supplied pre-treated cross-laminated timber panels that were joined on site by joint grouting with a casting resin to form large homogeneous large-format panels. Depending on the floor, the panels have a thickness of between 280 and 340 millimeters and are up to 13.5 meters long. A total of 540 meters of TS3 joints were created. Saxer Holzbau recently completed the erection work.
The cross-laminated timber panels were pretreated in the factory and provided with sealing and segmental bands (white and black bands on the face). After positioning, they were joined together by joint grouting. Finally, on the underside of the ceiling, the joint is hardly visible. Beams are no longer necessary.
The TS3 technology
The TS3 technology is the result of over ten years of research and development by Timbatec Holzbauingenieure Schweiz AG together with the ETH Zurich and the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Biel. The process connects wood components to each other by joint grouting and without pressing pressure on the face side. Together with the specially developed connection detail at the column head, the TS3 technology enables biaxial load-bearing and point-supported large areas of wood - without the joists that have been common up to now. These large surfaces are ideally suited for floor slabs such as those used in the addition to the Richterswil school. Installations can be installed without obstacles and continuously adapted to changing requirements, and point-supported ceilings do not require load-bearing walls. This allows flexible room partitioning and easy conversion of the rooms.
