Centre d’Enseignement de l’Ouest Lausanne, Renens. High school with large sports hall and grandstand.

A high school complex for 1,300 learners is being built near Lausanne, Switzerland. The core part of the school, which also serves the needs of adult education, is a very large 2-storey sports hall with grandstand in the two basement levels. Above them on and on ground level, two towers on opposite ends, one with 4 levels and one with 5, will house the class rooms.

Irregular layouts, offset transitions in the basement, high demands on site and worker safety as well as cramped innercity site conditions represented a challenge to planning, site management and logistics. For reasons of earthquake and groundwater safety, the building has double outside walls with an insulation between them and the walls vary in thickness. Singlesided pouring of high walls asked for a powerful formwork solution. Contractor ADV Constructions SA chose MEVA’s sturdy support frame STB 450 to support the single-sided formwork and used MEVA’s SecuritBasic safety system for maximum safety on all other walls. The Mammut 350 wall formwork attached to the support frames and the SecuritBasic system delivers the superior concrete finish that is asked for.

Smooth and patterned concrete finish on 21,000 m² wall area

The inside walls have a different concrete surface on both sides: The side of the walls showing to the class rooms has an immaculate architectural concrete finish while the side to corridors and staircases has a board pattern. The all-
plastic facing alkus, an integral part of all MEVA formwork systems, masters both requirements well. In the first case, the facing’s consistently smooth surface provides a consistent architectural concrete finish from the first to the last pour; in the second, boards screwed onto the alkus facing provide the required pattern.

Tight schedule achieved only with high performance formwork

Most walls are under 3.50 m high. The large Mammut 350 panel covers these heights in a single pour without ganging and horizontal joints. A 70 cm height extension is only necessary when pouring the few 4 m high wall sections. The support frame STB 450 handles all pour heights without height extension, saving further time and accelerating the work flow.