Projects
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We suggested to the Architect that this retro-fitted staircase was too important to leave to a staircase manufacturer and he let us have our fun:
This 200m x 100m x 12m clear height building was a warehouse, on the coastal plain north of Chennai in southern India. The site is extremely exposed and subject to cyclonic storms. The foundations had already been laid and the design had been done by the contractor, using concrete columns and heavy steel trusses.
This large development was designed by a ‘tier 1’ consultancy and good friends of ours. Our contribution was to redesign the foundations eliminating the piles; the substructure used about the same volume of concrete and quantity of reinforcement, but with less excavation. The objective had been to rescue the program; a side benefit was a huge cost saving.
Following on from our services on the Michelin development Andy was given overall Civil and Structural Engineering design leadership for this massive chocolate factory (thought to be the largest in the world at the time). The 2-storey production hall and goods inwards warehouse combined were about 450m long.
We were delighted to be asked by Medical Architecture to work on this teaching hospital outside Harper, near the East end of the country, for Partners in Health – a Boston based NGO. A major constraint was the lack of a recognisable construction industry in the ebola-ravaged country, but we needed structural steel to make it work.
Two of the four lifts which were to be reinstalled in these open atrium shafts had to go to basement floor level.
This meant that the piles and ground beams supporting the back and central walls seen here had to be cut and re-cast one storey lower in the ground.
This historic structure required sensitive handling. Space was at a premium, and it had been decided by the designers that box frames had to be installed for all major openings.
We used a device which had been successfully trialled at trialled at another historic Mayfair building of note, which massively simplified temporary propping.
We undertook the structural design for the £¾m enabling works including both temporary and permanent works. This 9-storey building with two basement levels was altered whilst the upper 7 storeys were occupied. The masonry removed at ground floor level made a substantial improvement to the net lettable area!
We have participated in our share of barn conversions but this one was very untypical. The client wanted a glass end elevation but there were issues; the wind loading is severe, and the steel portal frame wasn’t configured to provide the necessary supports. The glazing required that the structure would not move by more than 6mm during ‘design’ snow and maximum wind uplift conditions. And the detailing had to be airtight and distinctly non-agricultural.
We are willing to design anything within reason and the cradle above is a case in point.