Factory building becomes living space with Meva products
Steyr in Upper Austria is known for its eventful history as an industrial town
Today the small town is primarily home to a large number of students. It is thus necessary to create living space for these young people. The conversion of an old factory building gave rise to an attractive hall of residence.
The factory buildings in the middle of the town, where the Styr flows into the Enns, bear witness to a time when a great many products were still produced here. In the 18th century sabres and rifle components were forged here, and later on military vehicles, bicycles, motorbikes and cars were manufactured. One of the disused factory buildings is now being put to work for a new purpose – as a hall of residence for students. To achieve this, the listed building had to be carefully renovated in accordance with the regulations that apply to the preservation of historic buildings.
For GERSTL, the construction company responsible, this meant section-by-section deconstruction and renovation within the existing structure. Walls were adapted, new walls built and the timbered ceilings had to give way to sturdy reinforced concrete slabs. The roof truss and the roofing itself were, to a large extent, replaced. As the spatial conditions were predefined by the existing structure, it was necessary to use a particularly flexible, easy-to-handle formwork system. For this reason, the GERSTL team relied on the slab formwork MevaDec and used 400 m² of panels for a total slab surface of 2,500 m².
The new, comprehensively optimised generation of this system has been confirmed as the quickest slab formwork with drop head on the market. However, on the construction site in Steyr operating times tended to be of secondary importance. The main criteria were a high level of flexibility and the ability to adapt to the building layout as well as simple, effortless handling. As MevaDec does not need to adhere to a fixed grid pattern, it was possible to install the formwork with a minimum of filler areas and integrate the existing old steel columns into the reinforced concrete slabs without difficulty.
MevaDec proves its flexibility
For the project in Steyr the new generation of MevaDec was employed with both the quick drop-head-beam-panel method and the simple panel method, which only requires two components: panels and props with pre-installed prop heads. This allows for very simple logistics and is particularly suitable for building layouts involving small surface areas and filler areas. Thanks to the clever design of the prop head, the panels are automatically secured to prevent them coming loose and moving unintentionally.
The result of the work performed by GERSTL really is impressive. The principal thus decided that the formwork pattern on the slab surfaces should be left as it is, and simply had the concrete covered with a hydrophobic coating. The old building, which had been used most recently as a fitness centre, now shines in new splendour as a three-storey hall of residence with approx. 3.90 m high, 25 cm thick ceilings. It is to become a new home for 88 students.
Data & Facts
- Project
Hall of residence, Steyr, Austria - Principal
Familienwohnbau gemeinnützige Bau- und Siedlungsges.m.b.H., Vienna, Austria - Contractor
GERSTL BAU GmbH & Co. KG, Wels, Austria - MEVA systems
MevaDec slab formwork - Engineering and support
MEVA Schalungs-Systeme Ges.m.b.H., Pfaffstätten, Austria.
