Complex curves made easy with steel

The latest issue of Steel Solutions – a bi annual supplement created in association with the monthly Architecture Today magazine – is released on Friday (6 February) when it can be downloaded from here.

Each issue of Steel Solutions, which is produced for the architectural community and others with a professional interest in designing and building in steel by architects, contains several case studies of current projects and expert articles on steel related technical topics.

This issue includes a visit to Bblur Architecture’s Slough Cultural Centre, a ‘covered street’ forming part of the £450M Heart of Slough regeneration. Cost and speed are cited as key reasons for selecting steel for the fan like shaped three storey structure that is curved in two directions. Steel also allowed the designers to achieve a sculptural form with relative ease.

Bblur Architecture coordinated use of the master 3D CAD model that underpinned the BIM approach, allowing main contractor Morgan Sindall Construction, engineer Peter Brett Associates and steelwork contractor Caunton Engineering to work closely together from the earliest stage.

Complex curves also featured on the HOK and PLP Architecture designed Francis Crick Institute, a state of the art biomedical research facility in London. The twin winged laboratory buildings are four and five storeys high, linked through an eight storey cruciform atrium that creates four distinct science ‘neighbourhoods’ housing some 1,500 staff.

Steelwork contractor Severfield (UK) fabricated 2,300 tonnes of structural steelwork for the project where Laing O’Rourke was main contractor and AKTII was structural engineer.

Another article explains issues behind calculating embodied carbon of steel framed buildings for comparison against alternative materials like concrete. Lifecycle assessment is usually used to determine carbon impacts of construction products but, the article warns, it is crucial to follow the lifecycle stages set out in BS EN 15804 as ‘cradle-to-gate’ based data used by some manufacturers ignore some of the lifecycle stages that a ‘cradle-to-cradle’ analysis would incorporate.