Geoplast and Winter Olympics, a long lasting collaboration
by Nikola Tosic, 8 November 2017
During the years, Geoplast’s solutions have been chosen a couple of times for the construction of some facilities for the Winter Olympic Games.
Winter Olympic Games is a major international sporting event held once every four years, for sports practiced on snow and ice. In particular, Geoplast gave its contribution during 2006 Turin Winter Games and 2014 Sochi Olympics Games. The products used for this purpose were:
- Modulo, the permanent crawl space formwork;
- Geopanel Star, the reusable adjustable columns formwork in ABS technopolymer;
- Geotub, Reusable formwork system in ABS technopolymer for circular and oval columns.
2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy
The Olympic Village
For 2006 Winter Olympics Games was chosen Modulo, our permanent crawl space formwork, that perfectly lent itself to the foundations of the Olympic Village, which was the residence of the athletes during the games.
Turin’s Olympic Village project, was coordinated by an Italian Architect, who proposed a variation on the theme of urban residences. In fact, the residential zone has been built to a housing principle governed by few choices: a chequerboard plan overlooking the hill; a surface design entirely given over to pedestrians; the varied repetition of the same building type – a 6-7 storey block proposed approximately 40 times in a unifying and orderly style that intensifies to the west and thins out to the south. The whole shares the faith expressed by experiences in Berlin during the ’90s, which with easy and sustained attention to the suburbs fashioned similar urban densities, using a pattern and repetition of buildings that nonetheless managed to retain their specific individuality (here played using color too).
Modulo was used for the foundations of the residences and was a good choice because it physically separated the building from the ground guaranteeing a healthy environment for the building’s inhabitants. It protected the residences from Radon Gas and Rising damp and increased the load-bearing capacity of the foundation. The final result is a modern building with a monolithic structure, stable and with an excellent seismic resistance. Modulo really contributed to the construction of an environment that could definitely offer a better living quality for the athletes that stayed there.
2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia
Sochi Bobsleigh Track Race
For the project of the Bobsleigh Track was chosen Geopanel Star, which was used to build the columns of the large installation from where the bobsleighs depart and descend. The track was located in the Sliding Center “Sanki”, Rzhanaya Polyana, right next to the Krasnaya Polyana Resort in Sochi, Russia, a cozy and picturesque town half hour ride from Sochi. This is one of the only bobsleigh tracks in Eastern Europe, built in 2012 for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, 1km long, 121m elevation and 17 over-banks giving an impressive maximum speed of 120 km/h.
Geopanel Star is a modular and reusable formwork, made of high resistance ABS. It makes possible to create different size columns with the same panels and it does not need any mechanical mean for the movements in the worksite. In this case, it was perfect, thanks to its high strength it was possible to build the high columns of Bobsleigh track. In fact, our solution can take all the wear and tear of a construction site, while simplifying the concrete forming tasks and improving the site logistics. It is adjustable to any column and worksite size.
Fisht, Sochi Winter Olympic Stadium
Fisht Winter Olympic Stadium was built with the contribution of our solution for round columns Geotub. The Stadium was designed by Populous and British design consultancy BuroHappold Engineering. The roof was built from approximately 36,500 square meters (393,000 sq ft) of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) and was designed to give the roof the appearance of snowy peaks. The stadium was named after Mount Fisht, it has a 40.000 capacity and was built for 2014 Winter Olympics to host the opening and closing ceremonies.
Geotub perfectly lent itself for this purpose, because it allows the production of round columns up to 6 meters and can be reused more than 100 times. The panels are very light to use, install and dismantle without using releasing agents. The internal smoothness of the formwork, guarantee a pleasant finishing look and the final result is possible without using cranes or any other mechanical lifting means. In this case, it made easier the construction of a large Stadium like the Fisht.
