Category: BLOG 2013/14

Blackfriars station: Architect – Pascall + Wilson Architects
Engineer – Jacobs and Tony and Gee and Partners
Contractor – Balfour Beatty
Building component: Steel I beam – component is used  in bending.

Material properties: Bending is caused by compression and tension on opposing surfaces of a material – the further these two forces are, the less bending there is. The I beam increases the distance between these two surfaces with minimal material. Steel is malleable and flexible, making it suitable to be placed under bending. It also makes the manufacture of the ‘I’ shape easier, as a solid steel beam can be hot rolled on either side.

 

Travelodge Covent Garden | Architect + Engineer + Contractor t.b.c

Part of Facade – Pre-cast Concrete approx. 400 mm thick, 2.5 m x 4 m

Concrete mix – 1 part Portland cement, 2 parts dry sand, 3 parts dry stone, 1/2 part water  – Pre-cast in factory & transported to site

 

*British musuem World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre (17,000m2), Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, Arup (setcvice) and

Ramboll UK (structural), Mace
*glass and stone – spans in between glass/stone in-situ steel frames –10/50mm thick and no more than 5m by 5m
*Precast glass rainscreen panel (silicon dioxide (SiO 2), sodium carbonate ( Na 2 CO 3) )/rainscreens of shell fragment-saturated
Roach stone – precast/cut in factory and transported to site – strength: 4.5N/mm2 / 45N/mm2 – density: 2,579 kg/m3 / 2,195 kg/m3
– 72h curing in glass mould

/

 

Materials w1

Two case studies:

– the white cube gallery

– ASAP Marketing Suite

 

Dalia

 

Project: AA Hooke Park Student Housing Unit

Design: AA Design and Make (MArch program)

Engineer: Arup

Material: SLATE.  Slate is a finely grained foiliated metamorphic rock. Because it is foliated it can be split into thin sheets and used for cladding and roofing applications. Slate has a low water absorption rate which makes it an ideal material to be in contact with the elements – it is so water resistant it can even be used as a vapour barrier. Often it is sealed to increase longevity and improve its appearance.

Most slate in the UK is sourced from Wales and Cornwall – and it is a very traditional building material. The slate being used in this project has been reclaimed from nearby house that has been demolished. They drove a truck in the middle of the night to claim the tiles that were destined for the rubbish heap. The dimensions of the tiles being used is roughly 10″ x 20″ and in traditional terminology they would be referred to as “Narrow Countesses”. At Hooke Park the tiles are being used as a wall cladding on the exterior of sections of the building and are resting on a modern synthetic waterproof membrane manufactured by 3m. The beautiful purple coloration of this slate suggests that it originates from Wales.

(2nd Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Slate_Size,_Narrow_Countesses.JPG)

The Leadenhall Building

Client: The British Land Company plc

Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Structural Engineer: Arup

Contractor: Laing O’Rourke

Building Components: Prefabricated Nodes

Material Properties: Steel alloy, fabricated via ‘rolling’ offsite, coated with epoxy intumescent for corrosion and fire protection. These are then easily constructed on site with various fixings, such as bolts to allow for minimal welding.

(please see my document ‘The Leadenhall Building‘ for extended analysis) 

Holloway Bus Garage

– Architect/engineer/contractor t.b.c.

Main building component: Yellow bricks (roughly 20cm*12cm*6cm, size varies from brick to brick, with 1cm mortar) as the sole material of the wall.

Making of the bricks: clay mixed with sand, ground and mixed with water to reach a certain consistency. Then the mixture is pressed into mould and fired to achieve strength. The yellowish colour may be caused by high lime content in the clay-sand mixture.

The bricks are manufactured in factory, transported to site and bound with mortar to build the wall.

The choice of material:

1. The clay brick has a solid porous structure that makes it light and economical for transportation.

2. Despite its relative lightness it works well under compression. The bricks are stacked in a very regular manner to achieve a structural stability.

3. One major concern about the bus garage is the danger of a bus crashing into the wall. In this situation, the brick structure, with relative independence among its components, wins over steel and concrete structures, both of which being a more continuous system. When the bus crashes, the concrete will crack, and the steel will bend, and both of these failures will spread across the wall, which requires a large portion of it to be replaced. However, with a brick structure, the failure doesn’t spread from brick to brick, and only the damaged ones need to be replaced. This is also proved by that the large metal mesh windows are only at the top part of the bus garage, higher than the level where the bus might crash into.

4. The brick is also a more durable material which doesn’t require much maintenance, opposite to the steel frame that needs to be repainted every few decades.

5. The brick alone is not perfect for insulation. However, as we can see from the large openings and windows of this building, this is less of a problem for a bus garage.

6. On some side of the garage, the lower part of the wall used another type of brick with a higher density. This might be out of concerns over flooding, as the top edge of this part is level.

 

 

 

title project: + architect + engineer + contractor

building component:

material properties etc.