B&B Guimarães

Guimarães, Portugal

This unique project is the first timber-hybrid construction of its kind on the Iberian Peninsula. The project consists of two separate blocks: one is a hotel for the B&B Hotels Group; the other is an apartment block with 44 units. The structure consists of a combined podium in reinforced concrete, supporting two four-storey CREE buildings overtop. The CREE system is around 44,000 square feet of the total size, and the CREE floor panels span 6.3-meters and 8.1-meters respectively. Flush with the floor system, an interior steel girder supports these floor slabs.

The perimeter columns are exposed glulam and integrated into the façade panels. These façade panels were fully prefabricated in the shop, allowing for a quick and reliable installation of the system. Once the floor panels were in place, the building was weatherproofed and protected from rain — allowing the follow-up trades to commence their work much faster when compared to a traditional approach. ASPECT provided structural engineering for the mass timber and concrete portions of the floor panels, as well as the mass timber and light wood frame walls. ASPECT is also engaged as the structural engineer and provided fabrication design services for the CREE components.

Construction photos courtesy of Grupo Casais and CREE.

ClientB&B HotelsArchitectMário FernandesStatusCompleted (2023)