With the aim of revitalising the agricultural area in the Chinese province of Sichuan, the Tianfu Agriculture Expo Park, which has an exhibition area of around 75,000 m2, is the largest wooden structure in China to date. The HASSLACHER Group has supplied 3,500 m³ of special glue-laminated timber (glulam) components since October 2020, with more to follow.
Unique hybrid Vierendeel truss
At the Tianfu Agriculture Expo, five halls in the form of a vaulted structure are planned for the roofing of this area. The Vierendeel truss arched girders span a length of 115 m and reach a height of up to 45 m. Each truss segment weighs up to 30 tons. Canadian firm StructureCraft is the structural engineer and builder for the roof structures, working closely with the local design institute CADG for the past two years to design a world-first hybrid Vierendeel truss made of wood and steel – a signature design by Gerald Epp from StructureCraft.
Glulam single element manufacturing
All glulam elements are individual and made to order, and were manufactured at the HASSLACHER Group’s sites in Hermagor and Kleinheubach, provided with the necessary joinery work and delivered to Chengdu as a kit by rail on the new Silk Road. Installation of these structures is now well under way on site, managed by StructureCraft’s site teams.
The entire machining was controlled entirely by an automated digital fabrication process for generating CNC files directly from the StructureCraft Rhino models.
