El Dorado airport in Bogotá, Colombia is the third busiest in Latin America and the region’s number one for cargo. The airport’s new international terminal presented numerous design challenges with regard to rainwater management. The airport also wanted to achieve the highest standards for sustainability, capturing and reusing rainwater across the site.
The extensive roof area of the new terminal included a mixture of traditional straight sections and highly distinctive lighting domes. The centrepiece of the terminal was itself a large roof dome. These architectural features would make it difficult to establish a standard run-off for rainwater.
The use of traditional downpipes would also be impossible, due in part to the full-length glass walls. Not only did the design team need to respect the building’s aesthetic. They would also need a solution which allowed the downpipes to be installed as a largely standalone construction. In addition to draining roof surfaces effectively, the airport would need to channel excess water to storage tanks for re-use. These were located around 300 meters from the terminal building, and were almost level with it. This prevented the adoption of straight gravity-fed drainage.
We were impressed not just by how easy it was to install all Wavin systems, but by the high quality of technical support offered by Wavin’s specialist design team throughout the project.Project Developer
Wavin was able to provide end-to-end solutions for rainwater dispersal from the roof; transport to the storage tanks; and indeed for the tanks themselves. Wavin QuickStream was adopted for all collection and dispersal to the tanks, which were constructed using the highly modular Wavin Aquacell system.
The installation contractor, Hidro-Obras, was impressed not just by the ease with which all Wavin systems could be installed, but by the high quality of technical support offered by Wavin’s specialist design team throughout the project.