Fornale Engineering managed the structural design for the wooden extension of a private villa in Bergamo.
The project involved the construction of a room adjacent to the existing building, featuring almost entirely glazed walls on the two sides overlooking the city below.
The load-bearing walls were constructed using a vertical wooden platform-frame structure.
One of the remaining sides is completely glazed, while the other features an LVL laminated veneer lumber pillar supporting an LVL beam that carries the floor slab.
The structure is completed by a triangular entrance vestibule made of CLT with support on two sides.
The uniqueness of the project stems from the architect’s aesthetic requirements, which called for a coffered roof slab (designed to support a green roof).
Given the span of the main beams and the significant superimposed loads, the use of standard glulam would not have yielded satisfactory aesthetic results.
It was decided to use LVL beech laminated veneer lumber, which offers significantly higher mechanical performance.
This made it possible to construct the slab using 50x320mm beams topped with a structural Q-type LVL board acting as a composite element.
Assignment: Executive design of wooden structures, LVL project
