Zara Opera is a flagship store for the Inditex group. Situated in the heart of the city of light, very close to Palais Garnier (National Opera building in Paris). After its last extension, it covers today more than 4000 squared metres divided into five stages of sales floor and other four stages dedicated to warehouses and engine rooms.
The hot and cold water system of the building is supplied by urban rings . From there, an air handler and fan coil system was assembled to supply hot and cold air to the different areas in the building. Fan coils, which have already been discussed here, have a water battery and a low pressure fan which work both in heating and cooling mode.
Architecture is pivotal so we should adapt.
One of the main challenges that we had to face was the lack of space to install climate control machines. To do so, we used dual zone and trizone air handlers out of stages aimed at offering services to the customers. These solutions are not really common in our commercial installations. However, this time it was the most suitable solution due to lack of room to install the machines.
For this installation, double and triple battery were ordered thus atmosphere temperature adjustment became a little harder. Nevertheless, it is an excellent solution since it fulfills its function perfectly.
Another critical point during this project was the smoke ejection system in the sales area. 10 extractors were installed and 2 fresh air suppliers on each stage, which is quite high number since installations generally have 3-4 smoke ejection systems. However, due to special requirements of this massive store, it had to be carried out this way.
Design challenges the proposed solution
The fact that we need to adapt to building architectural requisites has been discussed here already. However, avant-gard installation designs where little detail has been taken care of really challenges us and this time was no different.
On this occasion, one of the client´s requests was to make slots in the ceiling, separated by certain distance. It might have been a controversial decision due to the fact that French control bureau were a little skeptical to approve such smoke ejection system. Once its efficiency was proved, it was validated.
As you may have noticed, each project is a different challenge that puts pressure on the engineering phase, where potential solutions to be implemented are discussed as well as the installation phase. It is very important to bear in mind that we need to adapt to the available space which is not always sufficient. However, in the end we always manage to find a solution to this. Time and cost wise.
If you would like to learn more about this and other installations, please feel free to leave a comment on our blog!