From a sketch supplied for the client by a precast concrete company of a completely closed shed and not so adapted to the weather conditions from the State of Maranhão, FGMF developed a Project for the plant of the company VAE Voelstalpine, in Bacabeira, destined to meet the orders of the railway transportation concessionaires, as well as of the company Vale do Rio Doce. The challenge was maintaining the functionality and the main dimensions of the shed, with its free spans and ceiling heights, adjust it to the climate conditions of that region, make it more beautiful, elegant and aligned with the guidelines of the international group and not changing the original budget.

The project follows a concept adopted in other plants of the group around the world – a large shed, a 30-meter wide and initially 60-meter deep large shed with the possibility of expansion up to 100 meters, in which the parts are manufactured. The free span is prevailed by large metallic lattice and needed for the main activities of the plant, such as the rotation of metallic trails which reach up to 24 meters long.

The main building constitutes of a set of metallic pillars also with metallic lattice on the roofing, with closure either of metal roof tiles or of concrete blocks. By the shed, there is the covered stock area, destined to storing small parts and raw-material, and the administration which, always connected to the plant, optimizes the processes. In the front part of the shed, the heads to be worked on or the ready sidetracks lay before leaving the plant. Three conveyor bridges – 10 or 30-meter long – transport all the material throughout the plant.

Once the manufacturing process and the products do not demand total isolation of the external environment, we proposed a building that could protect the machinery and the workers from the heavy rain of the region, but that could allow the maximum of natural ventilation throughout the day. Taking advantage of the height of the roofing beams, the roof tiles for closure either are in its upper or lower portions. With that, a series of closed louvers with industrial shutter was created to enhance ventilation and lighting inside the shed. The side closure was divided into vertical and inclined plans in order to create areas of light and air intake. The ventilation is natural all over the shed and these project strategies have already presented results in the first tests of end of project, in which the inside temperature is, on average, 6^oC lower than the outside. The whole plant is visually linked to a linear garden which is landscaping and rest for the workers, and there are extractor fans and water sprinklers that make the energy consumption much lower than that of the other units of the group in countries such as Austria or Switzerland.

The gatehouse and the lunchroom, besides the areas of maneuver, raw-material trial, sidetracks assembly and trucks weighing, occupy the rest of the glebe. Due to its distance from the big centers, yet the complex has a worker village, with houses destined to the workers’ housing. These houses have a simple built system and are adapted to the local culture of housing constructions, but with contemporary character and closure of screen with wooden louvers in order to shade the interior of the constructions.

The plant also counts on its own railway switch, accountable for providing and draining the production of the plant by railroad. The trains enter by the center of the plant and the conveyor bridges are responsible for providing and discharging the trains.