Project Cihlovka: measurable savings thanks to Xella materials and services

The Cihlovka Project is an example of a sensitive redevelopment of an old manufacturing area

The first phase was designed as an energy-efficient building, while the second phase aims even higher and has become the first passive apartment building in Hradec Králové. An important motive for the authors was to preserve the character of the location with its industrial tradition. The new building of the second phase of the Cihlovka project has six above-ground floors and one underground floor, with apartments located from the first above-ground floor, while part of the ground floor is designated for commercial spaces. The layout of the floors is similar, with the recessed sixth above-ground floor containing atypical apartments with spacious terraces. All size categories of apartments are represented in the project (1+kk to 4+kk).

The load-bearing walls of the lower floors are made of monolithic reinforced concrete and Silka limestone sand-lime bricks

The investor of the project is NOHO, and the design was developed by architects from the studio Med Pavlík architekti s.r.o. The entire construction was carried out by the general contractor STAKO s.r.o. from Hradec Králové. Xella initially created a BIM model of the building and, after the price quotation was approved, produced detailed laying plans for individual walls. "The construction of the exterior and load-bearing walls is built from large-format Silka Tempo blocks of 180 and 240 mm. The main motivation for the investor was financial savings and an increase in usable area, and the thermal mass and acoustic properties of Silka lime-sand blocks also played a significant role. The progress so far has been rated very well from the investor's perspective; the construction workers handled the walling of large-format blocks with the help of mini cranes. The only complication was the change of workers and the need to train a new team, but we managed that together as well," says Josef Čermák, key account manager at Xella.

Measurable savings due to Xella materials and the Xella blue.sprint service

The BIM model of the building, large-format Silka Tempo blocks, and Ytong Klasik partition walls, along with precise laying plans, saved the investor over 1,000 working hours, a ton of mortar, nearly 25,000 workflow steps, and also provided an additional 42.5 m² of usable area compared to walling with 300 mm thick brick blocks on perimeter and load-bearing walls. The investor also appreciated the high strength and air-tightness of the building. The BIM model proved to be a significant advantage in this project: for Xella's offer, it served as a clear and precise basis, and during construction, each wall had its laying plan, enabling the workers to know where each wall element belonged.

Xella's competence center services streamline work at all stages of the project

Xella offers digital building planning as part of its Xella blue.sprint concept. As confirmed by the Cihlovka project in Hradec Králové, this service leads to significant time savings at all stages of the project, even during the construction phase. Expert technical consultants are available to the investor during the design phase, supported by specialists from the competence center. The result is the processing of the building into a BIM model, material breakdown, and price calculation. After the documentation is approved, Xella prepares materials for the construction using Ytong, Silka, and Multipor materials, optimizing the quantity of materials even before actual construction. Based on the information obtained, they then adjust the production and supply of materials needed for the specific building.

The Xella blue.sprint digital planning concept enabled the realization of an optimized and efficient building design

Similar to the Hradec Králové Cihlovka project, Xella is capable of saving future additional costs for new building investors, thus bringing concrete financial savings to the budget. One of the most preferred outputs is the list of conflicts that Xella can identify in the digital twin of the building. Here, the main advantage is the financial savings that can be seen even before the start of construction. Architects and designers especially appreciate the time savings in creating projects from the study phase to the execution documentation.

A significant group of customers for the Xella blue.sprint concept also includes construction companies. They benefit from support in creating wall laying drawings. The benefit is not only the time and labor savings during execution but also precise material reports. Moreover, this report is optimized for deliveries of whole pallets to eliminate waste of construction materials. This aligns with one of Xella's main goals, which is to reduce the negative impact of construction on the environment.

More information about the project can be found at www.cihlovka.cz, and the advantages of buildings designed with Xella's blue.sprint digital service and constructed from large-format Silka Tempo blocks are detailed on www.xella.cz.