Sageret | Verosvres (France)| 2 June 2017 (AFP):
In an immense warehouse, an ocean of blond wood. Raised by winches, huge wooden beams will soon support higher and higher buildings and ambitious buildings such as the Cité du Vin de Bordeaux or the cathedral of Créteil.
Here, “glued-laminated” beams are produced by gluing together wooden strips, which allows very long spans – limited to the height of the tree for solid wood – to be reached and forms Architectural complexities.
Some 10,000 m3 of this production site of Arbonis – the subsidiary of the giant Vinci dedicated to wooden construction – employs 75 people in Vérosvres, in the Saône-et-Loire region.
This niche activity enabled Arbonis to generate a turnover of 46 million euros last year: a drop in 13.7 billion euros made by Vinci Construction (a subsidiary of Vinci), But which already represents 5 to 7% of the market for the construction of wooden buildings in France.
“It is for us a strategic channel whose activity progresses much faster than the rest of the construction,” says Jean-Christophe Terrier, Deputy Director of Vinci Construction France, by visiting the site. And for 18 months, the sector is experiencing a boom.
“We have gone from a gloomy to a genuine interest on the part of private investors, who are increasingly sensitive to the carbon footprint of their buildings. We are overwhelmed with substantial tenders for the construction of Large tertiary buildings, “reports Terrier.
Arbonis, which targets 60 million turnover by 2020, is recruiting for its four production sites: the other three are in Chemillé (Maine-et-Loire), a unit also dedicated to laminated, In Péguilhan (Haute-Garonne), which provides timber framed walls, and La Charité sur Loire (Nièvre), specialized in modular 3D production.
From the Vérosvres warehouse, in the heart of the countryside, sophisticated building elements have been developed in 3D models (or BIM, a data management system dedicated to building) such as the Cité du Vin de Bordeaux with its curved silhouette, The Créteil cathedral, the Nice stadium and the Aqualagon project of the Villages Nature project in Seine-et-Marne: a 28 m high pyramidal building, home to the largest water park in Europe.
To read original article (in French) – please click here.
