Bamboo « contemplation » exhibition pavilion, in Arles

As part of the Rencontres de la photographie 2018 (photography encounters) in the town of Arles, C&E ingénierie joined forces with the Colombian architect, Simon Velez, to design a pavilion with a bearing structure in bamboo.

The structure is 68 metres long, 16 metres wide and 9 metres high and is made up of a set of Guadua bamboo frame arranged according to a 2.5 centre distance assembled by steel framework hoops at variable heights to make it extremely rigid. Everything in this project was new – the use of a material not used in Europe as a structural material, development of assembly methods that limit the amount of drilling and a Colombia-France production method. We were entrusted with all the working drawings and plotting plans prepared on the basis of a BIM model. The constructionsite run by GTM Sud started in April and opened to the general public on 2 July. The preliminary feasibility study was carried out by the Colombian engineer, Andres Gomez Roldan.