EDP challenges OTIIMA in avant-garde project by Alejandro Aravena and Carrilho da Graça

• Facade system adapted with profiles and exterior shading elements in fiberglass, providing excellent thermal efficiency.
• Tests carried out reveal extraordinary safety standards under high wind loads.
• Commitment to sustainable materials, opening doors to the future with zero carbon policies.

Designed by Alejandro Aravena, the award-winning Pritzker architect, in collaboration with the architect Carrilho da Graça, the new EDP headquarters was born with the aim of being a unique project in the Lisbon metropolitan area.

Built with a VEC (structurally bonded glass) façade system, adapted with fiberglass profiles and exterior shading elements, the building uses an innovative solution in Portugal.

As Pedro Vila Pouca, Operational Manager at Otiima, explains, “The building will be made up of large highly efficient glass panels equipped with fiberglass profiles that give the system excellent thermal efficiency. The entire façade was rigorously dimensioned respecting the highest safety standards due to the high wind loads to which the building is subject. A great coordination role was assumed between engineering and architecture so that the fiber shading canopies could be executed with about 4 meters of height in single pieces”.

With sustainability at the forefront and responding to the requirements of what is one of the most innovative projects in national architecture and engineering, Otiima not only established a strategy for optimizing transport but also invested in alternative materials. An example of this is the use of fiber, an ecological material, which demonstrates the company’s ability to create value with innovative systems, opening doors to the future with zero-carbon policies. The new building is also committed to the use of materials resulting from the demolition of existing buildings on the site and is distinguished by the use of sustainable materials from Otiima.

“Otiima is a pioneer, worldwide, in projects with this level of complexity, as it is a company with vast experience in terms of a close relationship with highly renowned architects and the follow-up it gives in highly demanding projects from the point of view of technical and operational, positioning itself in haute couture metalwork”, adds Pedro Vila Pouca.

This is a project that combines an aesthetic language with the elegance and visual simplicity of an incorporated glass façade, through a cleaner and faster assembly system that provides more flexibility in construction. The work has 3700 m2 of the facade that is currently in the execution phase.

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