The hotel school in Portalegre, opened in 2008, is a work of Tourism of Portugal responsibilities, who chose the partnership architect Eduardo Souto de Moura and Architect Graça Correia for its idealization. The mark of its big consoles (nearly eight meters) leaves no doubt as it complexity, feasibility and magnificence views.
To better understand the particularities of the project in necessary to distinguish the different areas of use of equipment and its geometrical arrangement. It is possible to distinguish two zones: a body that is symmetrically distributed relative to a central corridor that separates the classrooms and office, and another body with ample space for academic practice that characterizes this building –its kitchen and dining room.
The latter body also has two floors underground (basement and technical gallery) where some technical and sanitary facilities. From the implementation standpoint of view, the building is L shaped with higher arm with about 105meters of development (axis West / East) and cited as the area of classrooms and offices. In the kitchen area of approximately 23x20m and technical gallery, U-shaped has an area of about 120 square meters.
Under the structural point of view, the building has a laminar structure of reinforced concrete walls set the architectural typology and ensure a good balance of structural and support to meet the demands which it is exposed.
The walls are all of the outer contour and the interior needed for the proper performance of the building in all directions and on support the slabs. In the area of classrooms, these walls have 20cm to 30cm thickness ranging from, spaced about 6.20 meters.
It should be noted that the strong support of eccentricity in the loca
In the Kitchen and dining area, this mesh walls cease to exist because of the need to create great spaces for the mobilization of personnel, these walls reaching a maximum spacing of around 14m in both directions, forcing the timely placement of metal profiles that allow support to the respective slabs on the upper floors. The slabs were adopted, the first body, massive reinforced concrete with thickness 25cm.
The second body have been adopted thickness of 35cm on the R/C floor, in the coverage, where the spans permitted, were used thick 30 cm slabs; areas of vertical members (constituting their support) with a spacing over significant, it was necessary to use solutions of composite slabs with HEB profiles 360.
In the transition zone of the two bodies have also been used with mixed profiles HEB cantilevers 220 and lower compression plate of concrete, with 10cm thick.
As for the foundations are generally resorted to solutions of the of indirect type foundation: piles were used with their massive header connected by lintels and slab mat foundation linked to the previous general areas in the basement and technical gallery.
In the case of walls strongly requested by cutting and bending moments, an effect caused by the strong eccentricity cited above, the stabilization was caries out at the expensive of micro-tensile stakes using in order to refocus the actions at the foundation level.
