Commercial
FACT FILE
Three Snowhill,
Birmingham
Main Client:
Ballymore Properties
Architect:
Weedon Architects
Main contractor:
BAM Construction
Structural engineer:
WSP
Steelwork contractor:
Severfield
Steel tonnage: 4,500t
NSC 23
September 18
ordinate deliveries. Using its offload system
has proved particularly useful, allowing the
unloading of two steel deliveries at one time
despite the tight conditions on site.
The building wraps around a large central
atrium, which allows plenty of natural light
to penetrate the building’s inner areas as it is
topped with a glazed roof. This glazing also
spans over the double-height upper floor,
creating a large light-filled breakout space.
A series of steel CHS trees, each with
either two or three branches, along with CHS
rafters support the glazed roof on this upper
level.
Large parts of the building’s roof support
plant areas and, in order to create a visual
screen to hide the equipment, two elevations
have a 5m over sail. This high-level element
is formed by a series of cantilevering trusses.
Possibly the most standout feature of the
scheme are the raking façades which, as
well as providing the building with some
architectural highlights, help the project to
maximise the available floor space as the
building’s floorplates gradually increase as
one ascends towards the uppermost floor.
The building’s north west and north east
corners both feature raking façades, formed
by a series of CHS columns, founded at
basement level on large 5m-high steel nodes.
The nodes have bolted connections to the
raking columns, which merge at the ground
floor level, and to perimeter perpendicular
columns. Weighing approximately 9t each,
the nodes are either connected to two or
three columns, depending on their location.
Another sloping façade is located on
the south east corner, where a portion of
the building, extending from level three to
eight, is suspended from three large raking
columns.
“Severfield’s design department has been
key in developing solutions to issues such
as the hung steelwork on the south east
elevation, which had to be temporarily
propped before it was fully suspended,” says
BAM Senior Site Manager Charlotte Owen.
Summing up the benefits of the steelframed
design, Ms Owen adds: “The
steelwork frame installation sequence
has allowed us to maximise programme
benefits for following trades. For example,
the floorplates being split in to four areas
allows us to concrete the floors in two halves
and then start installing the curtain walling,
while still ensuring exclusion zones are
maintained for the steelwork erectors.
“By using steelwork, we have been able
to monitor progress closely and forecast
key milestone completion dates as the piece
count is easy to measure on a weekly basis.”
Three Snowhill is due to complete by
Spring 2019.
The structure has a
large central atrium
that will have a glazed
roof
A steel composite
design was
chosen for the
new scheme
The raking façade’s
columns are founded
at basement level on
large nodes
/Fabrication#Handling_and_transportation
/Steel-supported_glazed_facades_and_roofs#Atrium_Roofs_and_Sky_lights
/Steel_construction_products#Structural_hollow_sections
/Trusses
/Facades_and_interfaces
/Construction#Site_bolting
/Design
/Braced_frames
/Braced_frames
/Facades_and_interfaces#Curtain_walling