The Rome Auditorium is certainly the most prestigious complex built in our capital city in the last ten years. This futuristic center stands between the Parioli neighborhood and the viaduct of Corso Francia, next to the Olympic Village built for the 1960's Olympics and next to the Sport Arena designed by Pierluigi Nervi.
After countless difficulties, in October 2000 the building began: the complex consists of three covered concert halls - that will seat a total audience of 4,600 people - and five sound studios where to rehearse and record concerts.
The first-rate contractor is the consortium company "Auditorium Roma S.C. a r.l.", which includes Impregilo S.p.A. and Colombo Costruzioni S.p.A. Also the design, the technical supervision on the building site and the technology used are state-of-the-art. This complex was conceived by Renzo Piano, one of the most famous architect in the world, and designed in his "Renzo Piano Building Workshop" in Paris (France).
The fan-shaped building has an outdoor amphitheater in the center, flanked by three buildings with a roof in the shape of a "tortoise shell". The above-the-ground volume is about 400,000 m3, which required about 5,500 tons of rebars and over 38,000 m3 of concrete, mainly Rck 30, 40 and 50.
This is where the SCC Unical project comes into the picture.
For some particular structures the consortium engineers requested a special concrete that had never been used before in the building site: it had to flow easily also in presence of a very thick netting of reinforced bars and it had to fill completely even the most intricate and thickly reinforced shapes, without leaving any gaps.
The answer was the SCC (Self Compacting Concrete), a new kind of concrete mix that flows into the forms faster and with no segregation, does not require vibrations and makes quality and durability independent from the labor. In conclusion, it is a very flowing, homogeneous and steady product that is laid and compacted by force of gravity alone, with no external intervention whatsoever.
Generally speaking, the "SCC system" proved to be the ideal product for filling all the spaces with a great amount of rebars.
The use of SCC showed other very interesting features, in particular:
1. it needs less workers during the pouring stage because it "goes far" without any mechanical vibrations
2. it develops a quick compressive strength, so the forms can be removed in a shorter time than the standard concrete thus increasing the forms rotation rate, which will eventually lead to lower operation costs
3. it requires less equipment on the building site and prevents health problems for the workers because the concrete needs less handling and the concrete mix needs no vibrations.
The mix design of the SCC used in this building site was prepared by Stefano Petrollini, manager of the Unical lab for the Latium Area, but the supplying was a team work of all the workers of the concrete plant in Guidonia (Roma). They really made easier the sales department task and the relationship with the management of the building site.
We have just begun using this fantastic product, but there are all the makings for a great future: in fact, we are living a historical and, so far, unusual moment in the building industry. These last months of research and applications show that we could offer the market "the egg and the hen", since we could be able to supply a new building system at definitely lower costs!
There's a long and open way in front of us… In fact, we think that we haven't yet established all the advantages of this new product, but the commitment and the enthusiasm of our company in testing and promoting it will shortly make even the most skeptics change their opinions!