Russian Orthodox Cathedral
ArmaPET tops the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Paris
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral is a Paris landmark. Designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, one of the world’s best-known contemporary architects, this centre of spiritual and cultural life is only a few hundred metres from the Eiffel Tower. Five eye-catching golden onion domes crown the cathedral, which combines traditional ecclesiastical architecture with the needs of a modern cultural-religious centre.
Lightweight structural core material
Traditional onion domes consists of a timber or metal framework covered with leaves of gilded copper, slate or ceramic. For this cathedral, however, architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte wanted to create smooth domes, rather than faceted ones. According to Louis Lafargue, Project Director at Wilmotte & Associés, "We wanted something quite monolithic, without joints, like abstract scale objects placed on the building, with huge, very smooth modules. And these domes go from concave to convex, which complicated things even more."Using Armacell's unique foam cores, the weight of the bigger dome was reduced from 42 tonnes to just 8 tonnes.
Optimised construction period with offsite fabrication and modular construction
The domes were produced off-site at Multiplast’s factory in Vannes, France, approximately 500 km from Paris, which made the project quite unique: the production of the domes was begun even before the building’s foundation was completed, and thus the project schedule could be considerably shortened. The domes’ reduced weight allowed for less supporting structures and facilitated, as well as, speeded up handling during assembly. It took only 15 minutes to put the bigger dome of 12 x 12 metres by crane in place. To manage transportation to Paris, the big dome was produced in 14 pieces and the smaller ones in five pieces each.
ArmaPET - Innovative and eco-friendly products
Armacell's innovative and eco-friendly products manufactured with a patented rPET foaming technology which converts recycled plastic bottles into high-value foam materials for composite structures.
