ULMA's first project in Chile
The project involves the building of a school with a capacity of up to 1,000 pupils ranging from playgroup level to 4th year of secondary school, as part of a high quality educational system.
This work has been a great challenge for the studio of the architect Humberto Eliash. As the architects explained "it is a building involving great thermal inertia, covered in its entirety with ten centimetres of insulation, and this meant that it was not possible to install just any cladding system, since no more than 40 kilos per square metre was allowed. Natural stone was the initial option, but the thermal constraints required to install it in the traditional way by attaching it onto the insulation made it unfeasible given its great weight. A search was then made for a similar material that ideally could be installed as a ventilated façade without altering the exterior insulation design and we came up with ULMA engineered stone panels. They offered to develop cladding that would have a texture and colour similar to the natural stone selected in the beginning ".
According to Mr. Eliasch, "the size and weight characteristics of polymer concrete and the versatility of obtaining the desired colour in the stone texture we were looking for as well as the possibility of installing it as a ventilated facade respecting the thermal envelope made us settle for the ULMA facade ".
500 m2 of ventilated engineered stone façade have been installed, namely the Vanguard range, in the colour especially designed for the project and with the stony texture EARTH. The panel format chosen for the project was 900 x 300 mm.
"Noteworthy is the fact that the client wanted a tried and tested product, but we managed to convince them to use the ULMA panels, although they had never been used before in the country, we knew they had already been installed with great success in numerous countries in Europe" emphasized the architect Marcela Schmauk.
The ULMA Ventilated Facade panels are made of engineered stone. This material offers significant advantages such as: lightness, minimal water absorption and a wide range of textures and colours. Likewise, it is 4 times more resistant than traditional concrete and 100% recyclable.
The ventilated façade is considered a sustainable constructive solution, combining innovation and energy efficiency, providing improved thermal comfort, and is capable of reducing power consumption. This is another of the reasons why ULMA was chosen, because as the architect Humberto Eliasch says "our projects are always designed in harmony with the environment and for us it is a permanent commitment."
Discover our Vanguard range and the advantage our Ventilated Facade system can offer.
