Tekla UK Model Competition 2008

Company: Billington Structures Ltd.

Job: Vantage

Currently under construction, this project is a joint venture between Marriott Construction and Kier Build for developers Hampton Brook.

This 250,00sq ft scheme, undertaken on a design & build basis, will be the biggest office development in Milton Keynes for many years and has a projected completion date of spring 2009.

The scheme, known as Pinnacle MK, is being built to meet the Building Research Establishment’s BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating in energy efficiency and will provide 180 underground car parking spaces and over 60 secure cycle bays.

The development comprises of two linked buildings (Block A - six-storey, Block B - eight-storey) and a detached building (Block C - five-storey). The ground floor level will house retail/restaurant together with associated external works and drainage.

Supplied & fabricated over 1500 + Tonnes for Block A, B & C with 150'ish tonnes on the underground car park.
 

The Blade is Reading’s most significant office development for a decade.
Its iconic design will provide cutting edge headquarters accommodation
on 14 floors within a 5 minute walk from the mainline railway station.

Fronting Abbey Street, between Kings Road and Forbury Square,
The Blade will be Reading’s tallest office building, rising to an impressive
128m, creating a new landmark for the town.

The building will provide a total of 109,302 sq ft net, completed and
available for occupation in Q1 2009 in floors from 5,630 sq ft.
A separate residential building with split level restaurant unit is being
undertaken simultaneously, together with a newly landscaped walkway along the Holy Brook.

Superstructure will be a steel frame with fabricated beams supporting composite steel decking and reinforced concrete slab. Lateral stability is provided by sheer walls in the escape cores.

Drawing Office - MBSI Detailing Ltd.
Architect - Sheppard Robson
Structural Engineer - Ramboll Whitbybird
Steelwork Contractor - Royden Engineering Ltd
 

The Kings Waterfront Arena and Convention Centre is an iconic structure forming the centrepiece of Liverpool’s 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations.

Located on the Mersey riverfront adjacent to the Albert Dock and ‘Three Graces’ World Heritage Site, the brief demanded a development of the highest architectural quality. The resulting building provides a landmark that will define Liverpool’s regenerated dock areas.

Accommodating a variety of uses on this tight urban site presented great architectural and engineering challenges. The project’s 10,000 seat arena, 4,000m2 exhibition hall and 1,350 seat auditorium are housed in a single facility arranged as two elements joined by a central public galleria. The mass of the building’s façade is broken into three bands of varying translucency, breaking down the scale of the huge complex. The challenges of accommodating three distinct uses, each requiring long span structures, within a complex roof geometry, demanded an innovative structural design for which steel was the only viable material.
 

This contract was Thompson Holidays headquarters where a courtyard was enclosed and covered, with the floors edged by glass panel balustrade supported by cutlass shaped stainless steel balusters, a semicircular platform area, two bridges, two curved stairs and a 4 flight oval staircase cantilevered from a central support core. The roof had tubular curved "canoe" shaped roof trusses.

The Gloucester Quays project is a major £300m mixed use regeneration scheme. The scheme will consist of an exciting mix of designer outlet shopping, waterfront restaurants, cafés and bars, two hotels, food shopping, homes and workspace.

Our in-house Technical Department prepared 3D Models to ensure the client requirements were being met. The concept design (including key connection details) was presented as a live walk-through rendered model to the architect for review in real time during early design team meetings. This process ensured that key details were agreed early in the scheme allowing us to proceed through to detailed design and drawing with confidence.

The Main Atrium Roof Structure, principally comprises of CHS gull wing trusses supporting by a central spine truss; the central spine truss is supporting at its ends by support trusses on the concrete cores and intermediately by 3No. support podiums.
 

Epsom Grandstand is a steel frame structure comprising trusses extensively on the 1st floor, 2no 18m trusses on the 2nd floor, and 13 lines of shaped, curved plate girders at roof level.

On 1st & 2nd floor windpost are fixed with self tapping concrete screws or mesh sleeve resin anchors to PCC planks. Cantilever shaped UB’s around the perimeter of 1st and 2nd floor support PCC balconies.

Of particular challenge for the draughtsman was modelling the various intricacies at roof level. The curved PFC’s at the edge of the roof are both at an angle to the main build as well as being at a higher level than the supporting steel. Particular attention was required to ensure the roof line was maintained, a ‘hip’ situation is created, which tends to want the member to twist as it goes around the curve. The central raised roof at the back of the job had similar complexities except the curved PFC was hung from the underside of steel. Again particular attention was required in order to ensure the roof line was maintained.

Contractor: Willmott Dixon
Structural Engineer: Capita Bobrowski (formerly NRM Bobrowski)
Architect: Limbrick Ltd.
 

The new Cabot Circus development in the heart of Bristol, which opens in September 2008, will provide the public with a modern, fashionable shopping experience. The main architectural feature of the development is a dramatic glass shell shaped roof, which covers the main central area and extends over the new streets.

The complex structural steel grid shell roof comprised of over 900 cast nodes & was fabricated as a series of faceted ladder frames with linking infill members, which were then welded together on site.

The glazed roof extends to over 3000m2 and contains around 300 te of steelwork.

As well as the feature roof, SH Structures also supplied and installed a new glazed footbridge which links the development with a new multi-storey car park.
Fabricated from around 165te of plate, the 90m long curved bridge has a series of dramatic angular portal frames which support the glazing system.

Concept Design: Nayan Kulkami
Project Architects: Chapman Taylor Architects
Consultants Engineers (roof structure) SKM Anthony Hunt
Main Contractor: Sir Robert McAlpine
Steel Fabricator: SH Structures
 

The Bueller Wheel will alter forever the skyline when it opens in 2012.

At 234m there will be panoramic views of over 60 miles across the city. One complete rotation will take just under an hour.

The structure is fabricated off site in 26m sections. These are then transferred to barges for the 70 mile journey to site. The whole structure when complete will weigh 3700T.
 

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, Missouri

The model consists of a theatre and concert hall with a link bridge between them. The building is curved with the front of the roof forming part of a torus. The rear is made up of radial trusses that step at each radial grid line.

£24m sports centre incorporating full size football pitch, indoor athletics facilities, nine court sports hall, squash courts, fitness suite and 500 seat mini-stand overlooking external running track and hockey pitch.

70 metre span curved tubular trusses to Football Hall, 18 metres to apex, 10 metres to eaves. 5 metre deep main support girder to Athletics Hall spanning 63 metres and 42 metres. 1750 tonnes of hot rolled steel.

Main Contractor - Barr Construction
Steel Contractor - Solway Structural Steel
 

Architectural framework for the new Ashton Market development at Ashton Under Lyme. The refurbishment of the Ashton Market Hall and market square. The Victorian Grade II listed building was ravaged by fire in May 2004. During extensive public consultation over 2000 people viewed the designs for the new market hall and market square and the scheme received listed building consent and planning approval in July 2006. Works started on site in February 2007. Weight- 400 Tonnes.

Drawing office: Subbit Structural Detailing Ltd
Client: Billington Structures Ltd
Contractor and project manager: Laing O’Rouke Northern
Engineer: Atkins Design
Architect: Taylor Young Partnership
 

Company: AC Bacon Engineering Ltd.

Job:  Travelodge, Escape Stair

Escape Stair at New Travelodge, Elstree Way, Borehamwood.

Main Contractor: Barnes Construction.

Pengam Footbridge: Parc Coetir Bargod / Bargoed Woodland Park. 18m span bow string, tied arch form bridge with curved transverse beams. The bridge’s balustrade members are arranged to produce moiré interference patterns along the length. All the balustrade and transverse beams lie on radial lines from the centre of the arch radius, further emphasising the curve of the main arch members. Also included are column supported approach platforms.

Client: Caerphilly County Borough Council Planning Division (Countryside)
Fabricator: Concrete & Timber Services (CTS) Ltd, Shepley, West Yorkshire
Artist/Designer: John Packer
 

This structure was sponsored by Land Rover to celebrate their 60th Anniversary. It was built in layers of welded frames and then single rakers between the frames. The unpainted finish was required to give it a rugged, rock like texture. The structure featured five Land Rovers – one of each model. After the 3 day show it will be dismantled.

Height: 34 metres
Drawings: 2560
Parts: 3415
Bolts: 4890
Net weight: 106 tonnes
Gross weight: 120 tonnes

Client: Land Rover UK
Concept and Design: Gerry Judah
Project Management: Peter Harris
Consultant Structural Engineering: Capita Bobrowski
Fabrication and Installation: Littlehampton Welding
Lighting: Starlight Design
Photography: David Barbour
 

Due to the disability discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) the footbridge was constructed to allow easy access for disabled people to cross over from one platform to another using Lift shafts & ramps. The bridge will be at the south end of the station.

Ultimate client - Network Rail
JL Engineerings client - Birse Rail, Project Manager: Mr John Mcdowall
Designers to Network Rail - Mouchel Parkman
Production of 3D model & fabrication drawings - MBSI Detailing Ltd.
Fabrication & Installation contractor - JL Engineering Ltd, Warrington, Tony Boyle
 

New Primary School at St. Josephs College, Ipswich, Suffolk. This project was to construct an innovating new primary school in the grounds of an existing college; the curved shape of the building was influenced greatly by existing listed buildings including an unusual design of an existing chapel ( a prototype for the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool). The building is light, eco-friendly and complementing its woodland surroundings. A challenging but rewarding project for all parties concerned especially for the site personnel.

A brief history of the project:
We were asked by R.G. Carter Ipswich Ltd. to provide a budget quotation for a new primary school to be constructed in Ipswich; this price had to be a base for future negotiations for the project costs. To prepare our price we started with a basic model which produced initial material lists and drawing of the proposed project.

The second stage after a meeting was to create another model based on the Architects and Structural Engineers revised drawings. To add to the challenge delivery time was shortened to meet the completion date as this project was behind schedule before it began.

As we were involved with this project at an earlier stage than usual, we've managed to partly influence the steel design which proved to be beneficial financially to our client and at the same time assisted the Architect & Engineers to produce their detailed drawings, Sped drawings and fabrication for earlier delivery of steelwork. This early involvement reduced the need for an extensive RFI lists and associated time lost awaiting replies also shortened the period required for drawings approval to a few days rather than usual two weeks.

This project was a successful story of collaboration between all parties from Architect, Structural Engineer, Contractor and Sub-Contractors, North Bay Engineering Ltd. is proud to be involved in such a project.

Structures Details:
The new primary school at St. Joseph College cater for around 200 children aged between two and eleven. The steel structure is fabricated from 44.6 tonnes of steel which provides support to timber joists and pre-fabricated TJI PRO 550 joists roof construction.
 

The Old Station House in Jersey is a modern extension to a residential building comprising of both mild and stainless steelwork and extensively glazed. Adey Steel provided both the mild & stainless steelwork for the structure including the helical staircase which is currently in manufacture.

Load bearing cold rolled steel structure (Kingspan Metro System). Offsite manufactured cold rolled panels consist of studs and tracks. Wall panels and floor cassettes manufactured and boarded/insulated in factory environment prior installing on site. Category – Under 150 Tonne (Cold Rolled Steel, Hot rolled steel)

The bridge is a cable stayed footbridge spanning approximately east west in direction. It comprises a short span to the west and long span to the east. The deck is curved in both plan and in elevation and is constructed from steel with a concrete deck. The concrete deck has a proprietary non slip surfacing for pedestrian use and pedestrian handrail with lighting incorporated. The tower comprises a single steel spike inclined to the vertical.

At the spike base there is a link bearing which in turn is accommodated on a steel pier which also supports the deck at this location. The long span is supported on a steelwork frame within the Plaza construction for the development. This support will be integral with the main development steelwork. The short span is founded on a reinforced concrete abutment which also provides the kentledge required to balance out the long span loads. Cables are attached towards the top of the spike, to the outside of the deck and to the abutment.

Longitudinal steel beams and transverse steel beams at about 3.2m centres. The deck is constructed using lightweight concrete which acts compositely with the transverse beams and spans from the top flanges of these members. Cables support the superstructure at connections to the outside of the longitudinal steel beams. These connections are at about 6.4m centres.

Special thanks to R&R Engineering for entering the model.

Manufactured & Installed by: R&R Engineering
Director / Project Manager: Steve Wingett
3D Model & GA Drawings: Architectural Corporate Draughting
Draughtsman: Andy Curran

The opening of the Bridge shall be the End of August 2008
 

The McDonagh Station development in Kilkenny, features a 1600m2 courtyard surrounded by listed buildings. The new development included creating a glazed canopy to cover the courtyard retail area.

Supported on sixteen CHS columns the roof is made up of 114dia curved tubular ladder frames. The roof structure was fabricated then trial assembled in four large sections to ensure all the dimensional tolerances were achieved before being sent to site in transportable loads.

Architect: Anthony Reddy Associates
Specialist Glazing Contractor: Mero-Schmidlin (UK)
Main Contractor: McNamarra Construction
 

The Harbour Hide is a 3 storey residential property, purpose built to clients specification and forms part of the Avonmouth Hotel complex at Mudeford Quay, near Christchurch in Dorset.

The complex consists of Town Houses, Mast House and a Restaurant / Bistro.

The structure consists of 43 tonnes of fully fabricated steelwork, which projects out from a central circular ring beam on each of the 3 floors, which has been specially manufactured by our fabricators. The steelwork also includes many curved members.

This project is on going and due for completion in December 2008.

Steel Detailer: Scott Black
 

Jacob Street is one of the tallest buildings in Leeds containing 564 bedroom student accommodation. The building has panoramic views of the bustling city.

On the top of the accommodation is a steel framework fin, containing the buildings gym. The steel roof fin is visible, seen across the city. Weight- 6 Tonne

Drawing office: Subbit Structural Detailing Ltd
Client: Sabre Structures Ltd
Contractor: Ocon Construction
Engineer: Sabre Structures Ltd
 

Company: Littlehampton Welding Ltd.

Job: Watermark Place Sun Shade Structure - London

This structure has 350 square oak columns supporting galvanised RHS frames. The frames have custom extruded aluminium blades at 336 ctrs. The frames are braced with stainless steel wire cross braces.

The timber columns are spliced together with stainless steel cruciform plates and bolted with M24 s/s bolts.

The structure has a mixture of stainless and galvanised rod braces. Due to the mix of the materials and the problems of bi-metallic corrosion, there are many nylon and EPDM isolation sleeves and gaskets.

Due to each level having different radiuses there is very little repetition, which is why there are over 4000 assemblies.
 

Gainsborough Entrance Block - Load bearing cold rolled steel structure (Kingspan Metro System) reinforced with hot rolled elements where necessary. Offsite manufactured cold rolled panels consist of studs and tracks. Wall panels and floor cassettes manufactured and boarded/insulated in factory environment prior installing on site. Cold rolled steel, hot rolled steel, timber - secondary supplier facilitated the timber roof trusses.

This is a design and build project for a private dwelling to be built on a private estate in the North of Scotland, the main structure is in pre-cast and the outer leaf of the building will be clad in granite which is fixed to the concrete using channels cast into our panels.

The construction is due to start in mid August and the pre-cast construction should be complete within 6 weeks. Total approx. weight of pre-cast units is 400 tonnes.

The model was particularly useful when trying to clarify design issues with the Architect and engineers. Also the 3D models of the units were very useful when showing the factory production details.
 

The stair is a 2-flight helical stair comprising glass panels between balustrade. The treads are steel trays with a timber infill.

Client: B&W Engineering

Student: Hannah Simmons

University / Placement: The University of Bolton, MBSI Detailing Ltd.

Job: Lecture Theatre

I am currently a Student at The University of Bolton studying Architectural Technology. I have recently finished the first year of my degree and decided to find a summer job to build my qualifications and gain experience. This resulted in MBSI kindly offering me a place for 12 weeks in which I would expand my skills and develop my very slight knowledge of Tekla Structures Modelling.

A recent University Assignment of mine was to design and model, either hand drawn or using CAD, a Lecture Theatre Building suitable for The University of Bolton Deane Campus. The assignment was set to help develop skills and understanding of the process of design. The new development was briefed to consist of 5 lecturing halls; these including one 70 seater hall, two 50 seater halls, and two 30 seater halls. It also had to have office accommodation for ten lecturers, male and female toilets, a security office, office space for 2 technicians, a cleaning stock room and the caretaker’s office. Using the brief of this assignment I decided to model my design using Tekla Structures.

The Design Process

I started by beginning to model the main shape of the building using basic columns and beams. When all the beams had been added, using the appropriate size and class, bracing was attached where needed to show further support. The roof was produced using curved and straight beams, and holes were modelled at regular points along each roof beam to create easy admission for any wires and pipes running through the building. Roof trimmers were also added for extra support.

A second and third floor was later modelled into the main design to give the building extra room which could be used for office space or a canteen. In addition to this an open balcony garden was modelled off the second floor. Thicker beams were introduced for extra floor support and hand railing was added around the open area.

Student: Paul Evans

University / Placement: Thames Valley University, Buro Happold

Job: Travelodge Hotel, Heathrow. UK

This is a dedicated steel superstructure for a Travelodge Hotel. The structure will accommodate a variety of fully fitted out modular containers comprising of double and single hotel rooms. It is designed to take into account the loadings and unique connection system of the modules.

Student: James Green

University / Placement: Odda Design Ltd.

Job: Munitions Store

This structure forms the inner security cage of a munitions store for the British army. It will house a range of bullets and shells, and for this reason the exact location cannot be disclosed.

Design Process

The project started with a survey of many existing columns which were to be incorporated into the final design. I first drew up in plan, where the columns were positioned in conjunction with the survey taken. From this I introduced firstly the panelling in the correct positions and then from this I welded the panels and arranged the bolts so that there were no clashing parts.

After some careful planning i introduced roofing into the inner sectioned areas with adequate connections added.

Finally I placed bracing in the corners for extra support and rigidity.

Client - Allied Fabrications Ltd.