Steel completes greenest public building

Having received a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating the Brent Civic Centre has the distinction of being the greenest pubic office building in the UK and the fourth greenest in the world.

Working on behalf of main contractor Skanska, Bourne Steel has recently completed the steel erection for the project. A total of 1,000t of the material has been utilised to form a full height glass fronted atrium, that connects a concrete framed council office block to a nine-storey steel framed drum shaped civic building.

Five 30m long steel plate girders support the 31m high atrium roof and these are supported at their ends by columns on the interior face of the office block and civic drum.

At 950mm deep and 350mm wide, the girders and their associated steelwork create a 7.5m grid that is in-filled by ETFE pillows.

Steel members were designed to arrive on site in their longest possible lengths to reduce the amount of time spent on site splicing sections together, as well as to reduce the risk of working at height.

The girders each arrived in 15m long sections and were lifted using tower cranes, which were designed specifically for the weight and reach required to install the members.