Overlooking the Grand Union
Canal opposite Paddington
Station, an innovative new
workplace, which offers up
more than a passing nod to the famous
builder of the rail terminus, is taking shape.
Named in honour of Isambard Kingdom
Brunel, the Brunel Building would
undoubtedly have delighted the famous
engineer with its exposed engineered
steelwork and multiple connections, which
sits perfectly next to his giant iron-framed
station shed.
Together with exposed steelwork,
the industrial palette of the building
also includes exposed concrete flooring
and cores as well as service runs,
accommodated within cellular beams, all
left in full view.
“As well as offering recognition to
Brunel, as his first-ever bridge was once
located on the northern boundary of our
site, the steel design has enabled us to
express the structure in a contemporary
way and create the desired clear internal
spans,” says Fletcher Priest Architects’
Senior Project Architect Chris Radley.
The scheme has been in the offing for
nearly 14 years, but finally started to come
out of the ground last year once Laing
O’Rourke had been awarded the contract by
Derwent London.
The design had always envisaged a standout
commercial building, one that would
make people stop and look up, and that is
exactly what is now being delivered.
Topping out at 17-storeys high, the
building’s most visually exciting component
is its exoskeleton that sits in front of the
cladding and allows the structure to have
continuous glazing to all facades.
The glazing will offer the occupiers,
especially those on higher floors, some
spectacular views of London, while the exoskeleton
will provide solar shading.
The exoskeleton is a diagrid of steel
beams that rakes out and then inclines
back in at level nine as it wraps around the
building’s four elevations. Connecting the
skeleton’s beams are a series of nodes, that
depending on their location, have up to
seven beam connections.
The largest of the multiple nodes are
generally 6m in diameter and weigh
2t, while the diagrid’s steelwork is a
combination of UC sections and fabricated
plate girders up to 17m in length.
The fabricated column sections that
make up the exoskeleton have a common
overall dimension of 350mm x 400mm,
with flange and web thicknesses optimised
to suit loads.
“The skeleton is an architectural feature
as it supports vertical loads, but does not
contribute to the overall lateral stability of
the building as this is done by three cores,”
Commercial
A nod to an engineer
Exposed steelwork is the order of the day for a new
eye-catching commercial development in west London.
Martin Cooper reports.
FACT FILE
Brunel Building,
Paddington, London
Main client:
Derwent London
Architect: Fletcher
Priest Architects
Main contractor:
Laing O’Rourke
Structural engineer:
Arup
Steelwork contractor:
Severfield
Steel tonnage: 2,350t
Brunel Building
features an eyecatching
exoskeleton
18 NSC
steel
July/Aug 18
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/Bridges
/Design
/Multi-storey_office_buildings
/Steel-supported_glazed_facades_and_roofs
/Use_of_steel_in_cladding_systems#Solar_shading
/Simple_connections
/Steel_construction_products#Standard_open_sections
/Steel_construction_products#Plate_girders
/Concept_design#Structural_options_for_stability