Unique Formal Spatial, Structural and Functional Realization This buildings

diameter of 160 meters probably makes it the largest cylinder in the world. Four of
its eleven floors are underground. The ground floor is eleven meters below
groundwater level and 10.2 meters below sea level. A so-called diaphragm wall,
extending 35 meters into the ground, prevents water infiltration from the side. On
top of the cylinder, its glass lid has an inclination of nearly 16 degrees towards
the north. As a result, floor space decreases from the bottom to the top storey, but
the load from the building increases towards the south

Diaphragm Wall The groundwater level is 11 meters above

the lowest basement slab level. The designer, Snhetta/ Hamza Associates, briefly
considered constructing the basement within a circular sheet pile cofferdam to
resolve the problem. The vast building size ruled out internal propping and Egyptian
law would have banned the use of ground anchors beneath the existing buildings in
close proximity. Therefore a bold decision was made. A diaphragm wall believed to
be the largest ever attempted, was constructed to a total depth of 35 m. The wall
was continuously reinforced without joints, a technique that has never before been
tried outside the Far East.

Bored Piles Because of the asymmetrical design of the internal

superstructure, variations occur in the intensity of loading to the piled raft. Large
dead loads occur to the south of the site, placing the piles in compression. At the
north section of the site tension piles are necessary to account for the uplift created
by the water pressure as a result of minimal dead loads. In the central area of the
site, the piles are in tension or compression, depending on loading conditions. There
are 131 piles, 1,500 mm in diameter with a single underream, or bell-shaped
bottom, that are mainly under compression; 325 piles 1,200 mm in diameter with
two underreams that are mainly under tension; and 143 piles 1,000 mm in diameter
with two underreams that can be under compression or tension.
 PHASE II The Superstructure Despite the fact that the
Library building has floors with very large spans and walls that have a perimeter of
about 570 m, no expansion/contraction joints were provided. This required the
designers to conduct a sophisticated thermal analysis, one that regarded the entire
building as a single unit under the effect of uniform as well as nonuniform changes
in temperature. A three-dimensional finiteelement computer model was developed
to idealize the Library building, the raft foundation, and the piles. Three-dimensional
shell elements were used to model the raft, the floor slabs, and the walls. The
columns were modeled using three-dimensional frame elements. The piles were
modeled using onedimensional spring elements. The stiffness of the piles varied
depending on the diameter of the pile and on whether it was subjected to tension or
compression. Due to the necessity of providing large spaces that are free of
columns, the spans of the Library floors are relatively large and the dimensions of
the concrete columns are relatively small 1,000 mm in The New Bibliotheca
Alexandrina 130 diameter. Waffle slabs were used to cover the large spans. The
small dimensions of the columns have been compensated for by increasing the
amount of vertical reinforcement and using relatively high strength concrete. Shear
walls and cores were designed to provide the required lateral load resistance. It is
only from the inside of the Library that the scale of the Project becomes apparent.
Its tall, slender columns and high roof create a cathedral-like atmosphere. The
elimination of columns in some floors required the use of hangers with which the
floors above are supported. A sophisticated structural analysis was required to
examine the stability of the structure supported on reinforced concrete hangers
under various load cases. The concept of having alternative load paths was also
adopted in such cases. Should the hangers fail, the hanging floor will still be stable,
but it will suffer some serviceability problems, such as deflections or cracks. These
problems, however, will be correctable. The columns supporting the roof of the
Library are spaced on a grid of 14.4 by 9.6 m. These columns, including capitals, are
up to 16 m in height and 70 cm in diameter. They are rigidly connected to their
lower ends and restrained from lateral movement by the roof girders at the top
ends. Column capitals are precast on the ground, lifted to their specified position on
top of the cast columns, and are rigidly connected to the columns by welding
around the steel base and sole plates
 Roof Construction The roof design proved extremely
complicated to manufacture and erect. Only after the erection of a full scale mock
up in the factory in Austria, which included a complete water test, was the design
accepted for constructability. The tolerances were very tight from bay to bay and
resulted in extraordinary precautions during the erection of the concrete beams.
The roof structure is composed of precast girders of reinforced concrete weighing up
to 18 tons and a diagonal secondary steel system to support the roof glazing and
cladding. The girders are simply supported on column capitals in the form of a grid
14.4 by 9.6 meters grid. They are fixed to the column capitals by a single anchor
that permits rotation at the supports and eliminates temperature effects, thus doing
away with expansion joints in the 160 m diameter circular roof.