A post-tensioning solution for a post-modernist villa

September 25, 2019

Architect Mohammad Kabbaj’s luxury home in Morocco demonstrates how CCL’s structural solution helped to create a stunning, brutalist villa in the California district of Casablanca.

The structure is located on the site of the architect’s childhood home. The design is based around fair-faced concrete and large spans to allow for open-plan interiors and floor-to-ceiling glazed elevations.

Although the original design included traditional reinforced concrete slabs, the drop beams required to support the weight of the slabs would have compromised the open-plan design. For this reason, CCL was approached to provide a post-tensioned solution for the first-floor slab and roof which would enable the architect’s vision to become reality.

While the first-floor slab was designed in a conventional way, the roof slab, which is pitched, features numerous different angles and is cantilevered to overhang the façade on every elevation, presented a more complex challenge. CCL’s design combined longitudinal post-tensioning tendons with transversal reinforcement to provide the structural support required for the cantilevered overhangs, and at the same time address the challenges of the zig-zagged pitch.

The project was featured in a recent article in iBuild magazine. https://issuu.com/chrislilly/docs/ibuild_july_2019/18