C O M M E N D A T I O N SSDA 2018
FACT FILE
Architect:
FaulknerBrowns
Structural engineer:
s h e d
Steelwork
contractor: Harry
Marsh (Engineers) Ltd
Main contractor:
Tolent Construction
Client: The
Foundation of Light © Alex Upton
NSC 27
October 18
“The concept part for the
Beacon is very simple. A
stacked box of learning
and sports facilities on a
tight constrained site next to the mega
structure of a football stadium,” explains
FaulknerBrowns Partner Michael Hall.
“The box base in brick is robust and
cost-effective. The upper football barn
in lightweight, light-transmitting panels,
doubles as a glowing beacon at night.
Steelwork was a natural choice here for its
speed, ability to span long distances, and
aesthetic qualities in the exposed areas.
“It proved the ideal solution to
articulate a simply detailed floating
structure over the brick box below.
Ultimately, the simplicity of the concept
and materiality have combined with great
effect to harness the life-changing power
of sport.”
Overall, the project is a combination of
a school, offices, a 12-court sports hall that
doubles as a 3,000-seat performance venue
and an indoor football pitch on the roof.
s h e d Director Marc Horn says: “Early
in the design concept we decided that
a steel frame would provide a flexible
solution that would allow the design
to develop right up to the start on site.
The Beacon of Light,
Sunderland
The Beacon of Light is a unique landmark in
Sunderland providing educational aspiration
through the power of sport.
Without the steel frame the project would
not have been affordable, nor would it
have been as dramatic and elegant.”
Using a steel frame allowed the
project team to design and specify steel
driven piles that prevented any potential
legacy contamination being brought to
the surface. This also kept the amount of
piling to a minimum, thereby reducing the
environmental impact and allowing the
M&E flexibility by creating clear soffits in
the main service run directions.
There are a lot of trusses in this project
and the uppermost and longest ones, at
60.5m-long, are the nine that form the
Beacon’s roof, creating the open columnfree
space for the third-storey football
pitch.
They are fabricated from box sections,
150mm × 150mm × 10mm top boom
and 200mm × 200mm × 8mm bottom
boom. The top boom was pre-cambered
for steelwork contractor Harry Marsh
Engineers by specialist bending company
Angle Ring.
The trusses are 4.1m-high and weigh
13t each. They needed to be brought
to site in three pieces and were erected
individually using Harry Marsh’s on-site
mobile tower crane.
Moving down the structure, another
two series of trusses were required to
create the column-free space for the multiuse
sports and performance hall, as well as
the areas that overlook it.
Spanning a distance of 34.7m and each
weighing 13.7t, nine 4m-high trusses form
the hall’s roof and support approximately
half of the floor for the football pitch
above.
These trusses are supported at one end
by the building’s perimeter columns, and
internally by another series of three spine
trusses.
The storey-high spine trusses are
positioned in a row, at second floor level,
across the building’s width, effectively
forming the demarcation between the
sports hall and the teaching zone.
The judges say a new landmark in
regenerating Sunderland, this glowing
cube of a building, a home for the
Foundation of Light, is a community
supported combination of school, sports
halls and 3,000-seater performance venue.
It even includes a covered football
pitch on the roof. The steel frame
economically resolves structural
challenges from foundations to its 60m ×
60m clear span fabric roof.
/Leisure_buildings
/Leisure_buildings#Stadia
/Leisure_buildings#Ability_to_span_long_distances
/Braced_frames
/Design
/Trusses
/Fabrication
/Fabrication#Bending
/Construction#Steel_erection
/Education_buildings