The major residential block is situated on the busy corner of North Street and Berkeley Street adjacent to the M8 motorway at Charing Cross in Glasgow. The L-shaped building is 8 storeys high, with basement car parking and a penthouse on the 7th floor at the corner of the building. There are 49 flats, 8 of which are duplex (2 storey). All were sold in early stage of the development. Offices are located at street level.

The architects' original design concept was to use concrete floors supported on load-bearing masonry walls with a steel framed podium over the basement car park. However, the structural engineers considered that a completely steel framed building would provide a more effective solution.

The constraints of the site meant there was limited space for storage of materials. There was considerable potential difficulty in the delivery and handling of materials, and the removal of any waste created by traditional methods of construction.

 Slimdek achieves the minimum construction depth without downstand beams. It allowed the client and contractor to benefit from off-site fabrication, accuracy, speed of construction and good in-service performance within the total construction cost limits defined for the project.

The final solution uses 280 Asymmetric Slimflor Beam (ASB) sections supported on Square Hollow Section (SHS) columns with Rectangular Hollow Section (RHS) edge beams within a floor depth of only 300 mm.

Steel lift shaft frames were used to provide structural stability to the frame and steel staircases provided internal access to all levels during construction.

Spans lift shaft frames were used to provide structural stability to the frame and steel staircases provided internal access to all levels during construction.

Spans of 7 to 9 m were achieved by the ASB beams, giving the architect complete flexibility to the internal planning.

All internal walls used plasterboard and sound check boards on lightweight steel framing to minimise the load on the frame and also to reduce the use of wet trades. All SHS columns were enclosed within the wall construction, reducing the need for further fire protection and increasing speed of construction.

The building is a clad with a mixture of brickwork, rendered blockwork and stone, with copper-faced mansard slopes, copper and composite panels on the roof.

Located in the Jinrong street of Beijing city, the building was awarded the steel structure demonstration project of National Construction Department. The structure form was steel frame-concrete core canister system. The steel column was trunk.

Application benefits

• Speed of construction
• Minimum storage of materials on site
• Non-combustible construction
• Exellent acoustic insulation
• Good in-service performance
• Shallow construction with facility for service distribution
• Cost effective construction system

Construction details

The 280 ASB 100 beams support SD225 deep decking and span up to 9 metres between SHS columns. The columns are of minimal cross section (120 mm square) and were designed to fit within the separating walls.

At each floor, the ASBs run over the capping plate of the SHS columns, thus minimising deflections by developing continuity of the beams, which were delivered to site in lengths of up to 15 metres. The base plates on the SHS columns of the next storey sit on top of the ASBs, which are stocky enough to transfer the compression load through to the column below.

The edge beams are 200 x 100 mm RHS with a 15 mm thick steel plate welded to the bottom which supports the deep decking. It provides a neat edge to the floor. The overall slab depth is 300 mm.

For enhanced resistance to impact sound, a flooring system using timber battens with a resilient layer on a mineral wool quilt, supplied by J Danskin and Co Ltd, is used. The battened floor system readily permits the distribution of the service across the floor. The acoustic test results for the as-build project are given below. The results are considerably better than the new Part E of the Building Regulations and also the enhanced Quiet Homes Standards. 

Key information

Number of storeys	8
Living area (m2)	50 m2
New-build home

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