Steel Beam support to WaterStones Book Shop

This weekend I found myself in the centre of Birmingham, and we happen to pass by Waterstones book shop to the rear of new Street, its being hacked about to make way for the new reail station and tram system. But what caught my attension was the way the lower ground floor to the old bank building, now a waterstones, had been exposed, to reveail the old sign I can only think that the planners would, quite rightly, have been all over this, I went into the store to purchase a new Michelin guide for France, and the very helpfull chap told me, they arer recording the information and it will be carefully covered over, and left in place.

Excellent I thought, as I looked at it, but then I started to look at the support structure and the Steel Beam support held up by what looks like cast iron pillars. The beam is a plted and ribbed stell section, not so often seen these days, my father, a steel engineer, said most engineers might not know how to detail this correctly, so I took some time to take a few photos and record the detail

I wonder how good the steel is, from the distance I was able to view it, I wonder how far rust has eaten into the beam, but looking at it, I thought it just needed cleaning and painting.

Still an interesting detail now exposed for a short time, and if your in the area, well worht a visit to see it for your self. in fact the whole area is worth a visit as the station is being reconstructed, I almost said refurbed, its not, it being reconstructed, take a look at the new stainless steel facade, the reflection is interesting, can’t say I like it and I wonder if the sun path has been looked at.

I have more photos in my Flickr account, take a look by clicking on todays photo

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• Architectural Technologist – Door Hinges
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Architectural Technologist – Wiki House

Some time back I mentioned that a group of students had worked out a rather neet way to provide the structure for small developments, via the cutting of ply panels, to form whats now known as the Wiki House.

Well it’s not gone away and they have done a little nore work on the design and added some more plans. Its all in Sketchup, so easy to view, I actually imported them into Vectorworks, and viewd then there as well.

I like this type of research, the structure is very interesting and uses so little in terms of manufacturing, any one can print of these sheets, the different sections needed are laid out for a large sheet of ply, so it could not be easier, fitting then together might need a little training, but a couple of youtube videos would be good for this. Existing videos show the basics and well worth watching,.

Simply each frame is made up of two ply layers, the panels of one layer offset from the other so the joints are always covered by the other, hence the ability to make the spans they can. Simple joints and ply pins joint and pull the frames together, in a process thats well understood of you ever look at old timber frame structures.

The videos below are just two of many on YouTube, that show the simple construction of the Wiki House.

The CPD here is a load of different things, from simple structure, to cutting of ply, to third world housing, to 3D drawing in Sketchup and exporting to Vectorworks.

Architectural Technologist – Classic Example of load

I was at my grand daughters christening this weekend, and I could not help looking up as the minister went on for a while about welcoming in little Stevie into the church, the walls were bowing out, and not just a little, there was a significant bow to the top portion of the wall. The answer as to why is obvious and I suppose is the CPD of this article, take a look at the photo I took, shows the roof structure is not so well braced, and the slate roof covering was enough to move the walls. Ok so this roof has been like it for 500 years and is not going anywhere.

but the real CPD is not the bowing of the roof, but the way our medieval designers worked out how to build, mostly I'm afraid by example and experience, I suspect that little or no calcs were done, or that the designer even new what this statement even meant.

Risks were taken, and sometime they worked, but so often they did not and building fell down, or repairs were made to stop walls spreading. Steel ties were added, or buttresses build on the exterior. The picture I took, does not clearly show the bow, but it was there, the roof structure is just about visible, try downloading it and zoom in.

If you ever get chance to read Ken Follett's “The pillars of the Earth”, your see what I mean about structure and design.

The secondary CPD is that old adage, observation, for me it was forced upon me by a boring lecture, but so often we walk about with our eyes closed, so this week, the CPD is observation, and walking.

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Architectural Technologist – Scaffolding

I saw this on my walk round Cambridge yesterday, and it struck me that this was not the way to load up a walkway. Simply, a scaffolder has erected a two story scaffold on a timber walkway, that's in turn supported on a metal framework, embedded into the river.

I looked at it and the timber planks are about 19mm plus, thick, but they bear onto a metal frame. I might have let this go if the scaffold was bearing directly over the metal fame, but it was not, it was bearing on just timber, mid to left span !!!!!.

Would I have bedded direct into the river, no, I would have at least put a sole plate down to spread the load, the contractor might argue that it's just to protect the people walking along the path, whilst they paint, or repair,and no loading would occur, that might be, but it just did not look right. Needless to say, we did not hang about, and left.

Still my walk round Cambridge was well worth the trip, an excellent city with lots to look at, and observe, the gardens, and there are a lot of college gardens the general public, just don't seem to know about are in fine form at the moment, so well worth a visit.

We went into Kings College and paid up to visit the chapel, a very interesting building with an excellent vaulted ceiling, and in one of the side exhibition area a very good model of the construction. Unfortunatly it was behind a glass screen, and lit in such a way, that to get a good picture I had to use a flash, so no picture, as the glare was just to much.

But the explanation of the fan arch ceiling was excellent, I made some notes so will try and write them up later.

I only managed to find one Bench mark on the entrance to one of the college, still a good find.

I last visited Cambridge for the CIAT AGM, so had a good idea where to go, the college garden are excellent, so is the punting, we did not partake, but watched the locals trying to avoid the tourists, excellent fun we thought.

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Architectural Techniologist – Timber beams

I had a conversation recently regarding the use of timber floor joists, a manufacturer asked why I always specified sawn cut joist, why did I not allow natural un-sawn logs, after all there are loads of old houses that were built with them and they are still working fine.

The simple answer is that un-sawn timber would not fit all the metal joist hangers and I know of no standard I can use to size the timber for span. But I love the idea of using timber like this so I intend to look more closely at the idea.

As an alternative to sawn timber joists, I have been specifying I-joists, the engineered timber joists with a top and bottom string of timber with a ply or similar web, the span tables for these are all over the web. I like these simply because of the span, but sustainably they have to be looked at. Take a look at James &Jones they have a typical spread of products, I have no tie to this company, they just have a good site.

Take a look at the other type of I-joist the ones with metal webs, these allow for greater use of inter floor trunking and air distribution and pipe and cable runs to be hidden away and designed for, with specific access traps, and service trays. The passive house presentation I went to at the begining of the year showed these as standard.

Jon Pickup gave me a set of vectorworks CAD files for these all in different sizes, I realy need to make these up into a 3D format and create a sample beam.

Today's picture shows the underside of an i-joist floor, notice the t&g boarding. s for CPD there has to be a good half hour just following up my blog by looking for these products on the market, most timber mills seem to have a good selection, as for self build, the metal webs opens up a raft of advantages, but be aware of certification, making them up your self might bring problems, but it's an interesting thought.

Simpson Strongtie, have a large range of metal I-joist hangers and details, and again I have no tie, (pun) they just have a good site.

 

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Architectural Technologist – The weight of a feather

This is one video you have to watch, I was spell bound for the entire video, Miyoko Shida has perfected an amazing act, where she starts with a feather, and balances it on a stick, which in turn is balanced on another stick and so on with about 10 or so other sticks, all equally balanced, but relying on the weight of a feather, you sit in wonder, and finally she removes the feather and all crumble.

There is CPD here, believe it or not, it's structures, a question of balance, each stick is a little longer and has a larger counter balanced end, to react to the weight of all the other sticks and ultimately the feather.

No more, just enjoy.

 

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architectural Technologist – Structure of the Arch

I got a great email from Ian Martin-Harvey of Air Architecture & Design, a Technologist over in Wolverhampton, who sent me a link to an old Open University video set on the structure of the Arch. old it might be, but so is the Arch, it's one of the best I have seen, and simply goes throught the basics of what and why an arch works.

I watched all of them there are 11videos in the set, each not very long, I watched all of them within 40 mins and that's with a break, I then went of to do some research, look at arch pictures and see if I could better the videos, I could not. So with the videos and my research, I think an hour of quality CPD is in order.

So if your a student or seasoned Technologist, please take the time to look through this set of Arch Videos, they are realy well worth it. I tried to watch them on my iPad, but they are a flash set so main computer only.

I have collected a nice set of arch picture on my Flickr account, I have seen as I have travelled, some in stone, some brickwork, some simple door arch's some more complex as vaults, but if you sit and work out how and why as shown in the videos, you can easily work out the structure and lines of force.

Today's picture is of an arch I saw on a recent trip to York, and shows clearly the structure.

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Architectural Technologist – it’s snowing

At last the snow has come to the UK, we get so little and when it does arrive it throws the country into apoplexy, an inch is bad, but two inches is well complete shut down.

But as alway, my point is not on our ability to cope with snow, but the buildings we design, and in particular snow loads on roofs, I sit here looking at the pitched roofs on my neighbours houses, and wonder what would happen if a real snow storm came, I lived in Switzerland for a while and a good meter or more is not unusual.

The load this generates and the underlying need to support the snow is a great area for a little CPD, from loads to drainage, to ice dams to routine maintenance taking the snow away.

You might also throw in a little bit of weather analysis, and the way the planet is tilted, the cause of all our weather, hence the picture today and just what's happening to the weather cycle, globally.

 

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Architectural Technologist – Beam calculations, do or die

Although Vectorworks has a nifty beam calculator, I rarely if ever use it, I prefer to send drawings to my engineer for him to size, he does not charge much and I alway pass the bill onto the client as an extra anyway. But the question for today's CPD is, should you do your own engineering calcs. My own thought is that why take the risk when it is so easy to get an engineer to do it and take the risk. Ok understand the process, even do it now and then to check your engineer, and keep your hand in, but let some one else do it.

Saying that, I almost always use the same engineer, so I send dwg files to him as I get on with the remaining drawing, by the time I want to add the beam size he has returned the calc, so it's also a time issue.

If your CAD package has no built in beam calc program, try one of these I saw on a Vectorworks L list recently,

Try the free beam designer, originally from Weyerhaeuser

http://www.woodbywy.com/services/s_forte.aspx

or my fave:

Www.steelbeamcalculator.co.uk

http://www.beamchek.com/aboutus.html

And this looks interesting:

http://webstructural.com

Try also this link to a timber beam calc sheet

www.yourspreadsheets.co.uk/timber-beam-design-to-eurocode-5.html I like this as timber beam calcs are not the norm in the UK

www.structural-engineering.fsnet.co.uk is also have a spreadsheet, that I was given once, but as its locked can't see if its any good, although a technologist I know uses it a lot.

You might also try one of the free services from the lintol manufacturers, they will also do the calcs for you, but you might have to wait a little if the que is long, the benefit of this is the lintol cost are a lot lower than a piece of steel.

I sometimes like to use timber as a lintol, I have talked about this before, and some time ago I got a friendly timber engineer to do the calcs for several window and door sizes, this has again stood the test of time, but even now I do the calcs once in a while to keep my hand in and check. See the timber beam link above

For students and technologists alike, who want to refresh beam and simple calcs, try the book in today's photo, “Structural Engineers Pocket Book” by Fiona Cobb, it will not let you down, I have a link to amazon under my “Recomended books”, for the UK, with a low price of £15.81

So there it is beam calcs should you cod it, or just understand and keep your hand in once in a while, I prefer the latter, why take the risk for less than £50 a beam which seems to be the going rate.

 

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Architectural Technologist – Plywood Structures

I wrote some time ago about the Wikihouse designed by a couple of students, well yesterday at the Timber Expo, I came across two more ply would structures and I found quite be accident a great video on YouTube about the same style of construction.

Basicly it's a method of joining ply would together much like the way the pieces in a jigsaw are linked together, using special links or cleaver cut edges that link two or three pieces together, with often no more than a peg.

Plywood dome

The first was on the TRADA stand and was the main centre piece covering the whole stand, in a series of linked domes, the structure was made up of flat pieces of ply linked by a metal hinge, with openings having right angle returns linked via mortise and tenon type joints to give rigidity to the arched opening, with the main done getting rigidity fron the way the panels were joined, very nice and very pleasing to look at, the photo today is of one of the many entrances. The main panels seem to form slight ridges that give the main dome it's structure, I have loaded up more on my Flickr account.

Next came as a complete surprise, in the shape of a 3rd year Architectural student Lewis Clarke, who had won a competition for his structure, Unfortunatly it was stuck away in the far end of the hall, and did not get the recognition his clever design warranted, again it was a ply structure held together with no more than pegs, but like a plonked I forgot to take a photo.

Next and perhaps the best find was the video below of a structure made by an American Rob Bell. Designed in Sketchup, there are just loads of pictures and free Sketchup files on the 3D Warehouse gallery to recreate his method of building. His site Zomadic.com is just loaded with articles on his building method, you must get over to his Flickr account to see his pictures of the structure he built for Burningman, a lots more. I downloaded the bootiesattva model and its great to view. Watch the video and follow the other videos on his YouTube channel for more videos on using Sketchup.

Is there a point to all this. Of course, it's a very pleasant structure, and I can easily see it being used as say emergency structures covered in tent material, or even exhibition structures, they certainly are eye catching, the only need in all these different designs is the supply of plywood, a cutting machine, would be nice, but with a push these patterns could be cut by hand.

I still rate the wikihouse as the best, offering so much and it's open source, so free to all to use, but the others are still very good to study.

 

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