Concrete finishes 6

These photos are taken of an apartment building designed by Jackson Clements Burrows in Fitzroy. At the Real Lecture a few weeks ago, Tim Jackson described how they came to use these concrete panels for the outside of the building. Red panels are three shades of a red wash over concrete, designed to blend with the handmade red bricks of the surrounding buildings. Green panels (and other green elements) give a kind of virtual vegetation to this inner urban site. This is an interesting building as its form came from the architects standing in the street and feeling the wind uplift between tall buildings. They decided to use that effect to circulate air in the building. The building has a deep chasm through it that circulates air and provides circulation space. (see middle photo)

Timber Portal Frame

I did not come across any timber portal frames in real life so I have looked on the net to get some examples.

Found the site recommended in the lectures: oak.arch.utas.edu.au/research/portal

I came accross this building, the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre, designed by Greg Burgess with engineering by Peter Ytrup. I visitied this building a few years ago. I remember being struck by the design of the building but did not know much about it. I can't imagine this building being built of anything but timber. A glass/steel/concrete building would seem completely wrong culturally and asthetically. I guess thats why its great to know about long span timber construction.

This building has adbobe walls which are tied to the main structure of round poles that look like they have just been chopped down. The main roof frame is supported by a curved LVL ridge beam. Presumably it is relatively ease to craft the undulations of the roof out of this method. Timber is easier to mould into undulations than steel. I imagine it could be done on site. Getting large curved steel beams all the way out to Uluru would have been very difficult. The frame is all connected by plywood gussets. It seems that steel was used to brace the building.

Cutting Plan for Model

Band Beam and Slab

I will use a band beam and slab for my building. A band beam is a wide shallow beam that works in conjunction with the slab to provide the necessary structural capabilities. Services can be run alongside beams. The thickness of the slab depends on the spacing required between columns. A thicker slab will mean columns can be placed further apart.

I have chosen to place columns in a 4m grid for the showroom. I have calculated the depth of the slab and beams and the spacing of colums based on the following table:

Beam Span = 20 x depth of slab and beam together.
My slab and beam is 200mm thick so columns will be 4m apart. Recommended spacing of 4200 will work with a 4mx4m grid.

(Source: Design Guide for Long Span Concrete Floors Cement and Concrete Association and Steel Reinforcement Institute of Australia 1992 from Construction and Structures Reader)

On-site research for Assignment (cantilevered conrete floor)

This photo shows a cantilevered concrete floor with edge beam, band beams and round columns. This is exactly what I plan to use in my building. As can be seen in the photo, services can be run next to beams.

On-site research for Assignment (column reo)

Reo for columns is designed by engineers. Shop drawings are done and column reo is made up off site. When it is required for construction it is lifted on site by a crane.

On-site research for Assignment (concrete floor construction)

Concrete floor construction. Slab constructed over formwork. Photo 1 shows formwork being erected on concrete slab that is shown in construction in photos 2 and 3. This slab will form a second level concrete floor.