Olympic Games 2024: Composite Timber/Concrete Building PB9 in Saint-Denis, France

The five-story building on a PB9 lot is designed to be modular, multifunctional, and in line with the ecological requirements of the City of Paris, with an estimated total usable area of 2,500 m² (26,910 ft²).

The specifications include sustainability and carbon footprint reduction criteria, focusing on the selection of materials and the construction methods used. The energy needs of the common areas will be covered by solar panels.

Like most of the lots in the Athletes' Village, PB9 is scheduled for two phases of operation. In the Heritage phase, it will comprise 25 housing units.

PB9 features contemporary architecture combining timber, concrete, and metal panels. The five-story building (R+4) consists of a ground floor made of concrete and four upper floors made of timber.

The timber structure is based on a glued-laminated timber beam-to-column system with ribbed floors made of Kerto-Ripa boxes forming horizontal diaphragms. Cross-laminated timber walls and two concrete cores provide stability for stairwells and elevator shafts.

The 2D prefabricated elements, such as the timber frame walls, timber floors, and composite timber/concrete roof slabs, significantly helped to optimize construction time, reduce delays, and minimize the environmental impact of the construction site.

The design was based entirely on BIM, including a 3D model of RFEM. This allowed for the individual load calculation and analysis of the global behavior of the timber/concrete composite structure, as well as of each precast element. They were designed in the RFEM add-on modules.

The expertise of the Gustave engineering office and the use of Dlubal software supported the rigorous selection of materials and optimized prefabrication. This project represents an exemplary solution for the 2024 Games and beyond, in line with the carbon neutrality and climate resilience objectives of the City of Paris and Solideo.