How ventilated foundations benefit buildings
22 July 2019
Among our foundations solutions, ventilated foundations are the most used and required by engineers and clients. They were used in various projects with additional benefits:
- Protect a building and its inhabitants from damp and harmful gases, eliminating it with ‘chimney’ effect from floors and walls,
- Prevent damages in ground floor construction caused by settling of both buildings and soil,
- Create crawl space for various uses,
- Reduced volume of concrete used and level of energy consumption in construction process,
- Provide easy installation due to their light weight and modularity,
- Save time and costs of the construction.
Here are projects that illustrate possibilities of ventilated foundations the best:
Morocco Mall, Casablanca
Monolithic foundation of Morocco Mall were built with Modulo and Multimodulo, creating space for pipes and infrastructure conducts and appliances.
Teatro Luigi Russolo in Portogruaro
Multimodulo was used to create the slab of the foyer and sloped surface for seats of public. The crawl space under seats was used for ventilation of the large central theater space.
Extension of refrigeration warehouse near Padua
Ventilated foundations and the elevated floor built with New Elevetor are protected from ice spreading in soil and cracks it causes.
City of Arts & Sciences Foundation in Valencia
Monolithic foundations were built with Modulo, serving to ventilation and passage of infrastructure system elements.
Link House in South Africa
As in other residential projects, Modulo was welcomed in the project for Link House. The whole house was designed as highly sustainable, making no harm to nature. Ventilated foundations were foreseen to protect the inhabitants from toxic gases and to provide resistance to cracks when sinkholes occur in the ground.
Botanical garden in Padua
Besides ventilation, crawl space in foundations built with Modulo provide better thermic insulation of the interior space. This is achieved by using the natural air flow, especially useful during summer. The air flow regulates the temperature and the moisture level, which is important for plants inside the building.
As proved here, ventilated foundations are useful in any type or scale of the building. They protect the health of the inhabitants and users and consequently present the resource for various technological and functional improvements of the buildings.
