The Imocom, in association with Hilton Group, is developing

in Quinta do Lago, Algarve, the luxury enterprise “Conrad

Algarve Palácio da Quinta”.
This includes a “six stars” Conrad Hotel brand with 160
rooms, 80 apartments, 2 villas, 6 pools, a business centre
and a Spa, with a total gross floor area of about 60 000 m2.
The architectural design and the overall coordination were
developed in partnership between the English office “John
Seifert Architects” and the national office “Palmer-Grego
Arquitectos”.
The apartments are arranged in two sets of symmetrical
buildings on a central mall with a South North orientation.
This mall serves as access to the hotel which is located in
the Northern.
The structure is fully implemented in concrete.
Due to its large plan dimension the main construction will
be divided into 18 structural bodies separate by expansion
joints. There are also three other constructions separated
from this set.
With this organization we tried to separate the building
in structural bodies with similar seismic characteristics,
ensuring symmetry and avoiding major discontinuity of
mass and stiffness, limit the effect of temperature changes
and concrete retraction and defined bodies with similar
foundation conditions.
Each body structure consists of a continuous structure,
fully cast in situ. Generally, it will consist of a structure that
associate multi storey frames formed by beams and columns
at the periphery, with framed structures made of massive
flat slabs and columns or structural walls in the interior.
The foundations are direct through footings, in most
situations or by slab foundations in the C5 and C6 bodies’
cases. At the roofing level, in order to hide the technical
zones or to support skylights there are steel structures.
The programmatic requirements of the buildings forced to,
in many situations, the execution of structures with some
complexity.
In the case of bodies A1, B1, A3 and B3, it was necessary
to create at the floor level 0, transition beams to match the
mesh structure of the basement, conditioned by the needs
of circulation and parking, with the mesh needed in the
residential area of the upper floors.
For the body P2, wholly located below the central mall,
was adopted a length of 112 m so as not to interrupt, with
expansion joints, two small depth lakes existing along the
facades of apartment buildings. This high length in plant led
to the need to examine with particular care the effects of
temperature changes and concrete retraction.
This body and the bodies P1, P3, P4, P5, are situated below an
outside lane road with no traffic restrictions and with garden
areas of considerable height of land. Were therefore designed
for high gravity actions unusual in the design of buildings.
Situated in the hotel “ball room”, level 0 of C3 body, it was
necessary to create an area of about 16.60 m by 20.00 m
with no columns inside and with a double ceiling height, On
the ceiling of this space and supporting the columns of the
upper levels there is a grid of beams, prestressed in one of
the directions.
Note also the area of the hotel lobby with zones with
quadruple ceiling height, crossed by columns that are
disconnected from the remaining structure