Assessment Of Construction Performance And Technology Requirements For Multi-Storey Constructions

It is envisaged that the ICEC will incorporate a large feature entrance of tubular steel and glazing elements to provide a striking showpiece upon arrival. The fully covered area should be capable of staging small exhibitions so a lattice roof is proposed to create (near) column free space.

a) Identify and briefly describe a suitable classification of AESS to be used for the entrance structure and justify your choice.

b) Using pictures, diagrams and technical specification as appropriate, provide recommendations as to the form, fit and finish of the AESS components. As a minimum this should include the basic design, the connections between members and glazing elements, fire protection and finish, cleaning and maintenance requirements.

Site Infrastructure and Buildings Assessment

This report involves the assessment of the likely and available requirement for numerous techniques for the appropriate qualification and description of the current advanced forms of construction. The assessment seeks to evaluate and appraise design solutions for multi-storey constructions in terms of construction performance, technical, and technology requirements. The construction targeted for this assessment is in the prime position on Gateshead Quays which is a 10-acre site identified by Gateshead and Newcastle councils in the Urban Core Plan and Core Strategy.

The assessment of the site seeks to investigate the infrastructure and buildings around the site which may affect the construction process and design process. This site is situated directly adjacent to the Millennium Bridge and located in the region between BALTIC Centre and Sage and adjacent to the Millennium Bridge. The Gateshead Quays masterplan site extends to 49.94acres from Bridge in the western section to Mill Road in the Eastern section as shown in figure 3. The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is an opening bridge spanning meters across the River Tyne at quay level joining leisure and commercial developments on both sides of the river (Castells, 2014).

The construction process and design process of the buildings around the site has a significant impact on the long-term sustainability of the project to be situated in the site especially in the areas of thermal insulation standards, sound insulation standards, and space provision. The constructions around the site will determine the design proposal since they will directly affect the health and safety, productivity, and satisfaction with the design (Ofori, 2012). The figures below show the location plan and relevant local construction images of the site:

Historically, the site above used to be the Roman defensive site to visionary 21^st-century architecture and portrays a critical story of the growth and birth of the major settlements of the North East region. An economic revival in the middle 18^th century realized the industrial revolution become prominent; heavy engineering, rope-making, chemical manufacturing, ironworks, glasswork, and coal transportation followed. The steep topography of the Tyne Gorge offers prospects for far-reaching panoramas, open expanse, and dramatic character (Halliday, 2010). The figure below shows the topography of the site:

The Gateshead Quays masterplan development site straddles specifically three character regions identified within the study of Tyne Gorge which is defined by their character and scale. These include:

• Settled Hill; 5f Salt meadows and 5e Central Gateshead
• Gorge Slopes; 3e South Shore Road
• Historic Waterfronts; 1c Historic Gateshead Waterfront(Nawy, 2015)

The waterfront region was historically an industrial region with the construction from controlled by warehouses and industrial works. Numerous sections of the current site are dominated by the HMS Calliope, Hill Gate, and the South Shore Road which minimizes the accessibility to the river (Burgan, 2010).

Benefits of Hybrid Concrete Construction for Hotel Development

The development of structures of large-scale along broadened streets and heavy flow of traffic has resulted in the loss of integrity and human scale of the townscape of Gateshead. The current activity hubs within the site of Gateshead Quays include numerous building destinations and public realms such as the Sage Gateshead, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the adjacent Baltic Square, BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, and Gateshead Heritage (Nawy, 2015). The urban pattern of streets and spaces around Gateshead creates a hierarchy as shown in the figure below:

The most prominent current spaces within the site include Maidens Walk, Brandling Streets, Oakwellgate, Baltic Square, Performance Square, and St Mary’s Square. The scale of the current spaces within the site is huge and do not have the human scale. There are regions of intertidal mud specifically those located along the River Tyne’s southern bank (Burgan, 2010).

The hybrid concrete construction (HCC) is the amalgamation of precast concrete with insitu concrete, steelwork or other materials and has emerged recently as a way of improving the performance of the structure. Some of the benefits brought by using the hybrid concrete construction especially for the hotel developments include:

Sustainability: The HCC offers the chance to exploit the thermal mass of concrete that is inherent through exposing the soffit of the precast concrete slabs of the floor. This fabric storage of energy of the hotel structure will assist in controlling temperature of the hotel through the naturally ventilated structure of low energy like the hotel developments. In the current traditional framed forms, the operational energy of consumption is greater than that used during the construction process, however, concrete structures that use thermal mass can minimize this effect on the surroundings by reducing the necessity for air-conditioning (Baiche, 2011).

Buildability: Since cast in-situ and precast concrete is utilized where most applicable, construction becomes comparatively logical and simple. The use of HCC promotes construction and decisions of design to be solved at the stage of design.

Cost: The choice of the frame materials has dramatic concerns for the succeeding processes despite the structural frame of a structure representing the only percent of the total cost of construction. HCC has the ability to provide greater overall economy, quality, and speed on a project. The utilization of concrete has extra benefits in assessing whole-life cost which is an important factor to the PFI operators and owner-occupiers (Mert, 2010).

There are six different options for the hybrid concrete construction that can be used in the hotel development. The figure below shows the typical hybrid options that can be implemented in any structure:

Options for Hybrid Concrete Construction

The hybrid option above is composed of two skins of precast concrete joined by steel lattices which are filled on the site by in-situ. The exterior skins of the system of skin wall are prepared in the factory making it have a high-quality finish. The reason why the hybrid option type 1 has been selected out of the other 6 hybrid options  is because it has excellent ease of service distribution, minimizes store height, sustainability for holes, deflection control, minimizes materials, temporary works minimized, soffit can be exposed, and maximizes off-site construction (Mert, 2010).

The quality of the surface of the panel is appropriate to receive a wallpaper or finish making it very perfect for hotel development. The surface of the panel is not usually suitable for visual concrete. This category of HCC provides benefits to the contractor regarding reduced number of skilled site workers needed to build the wall and also the higher speed of construction. The system of twin wall is normally joined using the slabs of lattice girder precast soffit which ensures that the shuttering of the situ slab is permanently making it easy to join it with the wall system (Deplazes, 2011).

The hotel is situated on the south bank overlooking the river Thames. It contains 25 bedrooms and it is 13-storeys high. The lower three storeys have a 500-seat conference center and public spaces.

The solution of twin wall with lattice slabs was recommended as a substitute to completely cost slabs with in-situ walls. This recommendation enables the contractor to minimize the program of frame construction permitting the hotel to be opened earlier. The hybrid concrete usage ensured a faster construction work since each floor was finished in five days as well as placing the pods of bathrooms. The precast walls provided an accurate and high-quality finish since it was used for all the soffits and dividing walls (Miyatake, 2013).

The utilization of precast lattice girder slabs provided a safer platform for the operation for pouting the topping concrete and mixing reinforcement. The lattice girder slabs also minimized the propping and falsework necessities enabling the pods for bathrooms to be lifted into place before the above floor is placed (Nawy, 2015).

The cross-laminated timber has been recommended to remain in harmony with the Glulam roof especially for administrative sections where there is general circulation space such as catering facilities, meeting rooms and stairways of the ICEC. Some of the benefits of using the Cross Laminated Timber include:

Recommended Hybrid Option for Hotel Development

Versatility: Versatility of the cross-laminated timber comes from the fact that the boards may be used for every assembly through the variation of the thickness. The CLT can be combined perfectly with other materials of construction and its properties of load distribution give a provision of the higher possible freedom in the implementation of the architecture (Gagnon, 2015).

Thermal insulation: The cross-laminated timber walls absorb a huge quantity of energy before releasing the absorbed energy into the atmosphere on the other section of the wall hence providing better insulation than the traditional framing methods like steel or concrete (Searles, 2011).

Acoustical performance: The solid wood boards provide exceptional acoustical insulation than the traditional framing methods. The acoustic performance of the cross-laminated timber is highly rated as sound class A. The construction of CTL provides the structure with an airtight enclosure of elements of solid mass and with correct design may satisfy the strictest ratings of acoustic even in residential buildings which are multi-storeys.

Seismic performance: The panels of cross-laminated timber have relatively high of the plane (wind) and in the plane or seismic stiffness and strength properties. This is due to the massive wood being lighter than concrete hence the weight of the building does not amplify the shaking of the structure (Searles, 2011).

The CLT is applied in the frames of catering and restaurant facilities due to its fire performance and thermal insulation. The heat energy produced by sources of energy while cooking the restaurants and catering will be absorbed by the CLT and then released into the atmosphere. The massive wood used in CLT ensures that it is fire resistant (Gagnon, 2015). The figure below shows the specifications of the CLT floor slab to external structural CLT wall used for the purposes of thermal insulation and fire performance:

The CLT is used in meeting rooms where there is need of complete silence without any disturbance from the surrounding of the structure. The acoustical performance of the CLT makes it the best framing method to use in the meeting rooms. The plan section of a typical CLT showing the effect on flanking noise is as shown below:

The seismic performance of the CLT makes it a suitable framing method for floors and stairways where huge loads can be subjected to them (Toshiyuk, 2015).

Architectural Exposed Structural Steel (AESS) is steel that is defined to be both sufficient structurally to sustain the basic requirements of the pedestrian scale bridges, ancillary structures, canopies, and structure of the building, while at the same time be visible to outlook and hence is an important section of the language of architecture of the structure or building.

Benefits of Cross-Laminated Timber for Administrative Sections

Since there is need of fully covering the entrance of the structure so as lattice roof can create a column of free space, the classification of AESS that can be used for this structure is AESS Category 3 (Feature elements).

The feature elements comprise erections that will be observed at a distance less or equal to 18 ft. The nearer distance portrays that the observer may observe and touch the steel potentially. This classification of AESS would be appropriate for feature elements where the designer is contented enabling the observers to observe at metalworking art. Tolerances are tighter than the ordinary standards. This type of structure is anticipated to sustain a reasonable premium cost that may range from 60% to 150% over Standard Structural Steel as a complexity function and range of ultimate finish required (Meyer, 2012).

The recommended AESS components that will is for this design of AESS category 3 include mill marks, butt and plug welds, and weld seam. The structure will be observed at a distance of six meters or less as shown in the figure below:

The welds are normally smooth but visible despite grind marks being accepted and could be observed in numerous welds. The tolerances are generally tighter than the ordinary standards. Since the structure is expected to be frequently observed closer than 6m, it will be subjected to touch by the public on a frequent basis hence there is need of making it smoother and more uniform appearance and finish. The mill marks are removed through grinding and the plug and butt welds are ground smooth and filled. There is the orientation of the weld seam on members of hollow structural steel (HSS) for reduced visibility. There is an alignment of the cross-sectional abutting and minimized tolerance of the joint gap (Meyer, 2012).

The connection between the members and glazing should be performed to be invisible. The welding of the connections requires impeccable workmanship. It is always not important to hide the connections. Some of the connection that is used in the members and glazing elements below include welded connections and bolted connections.

In welded connections, the plates are used between the joining elements and the glazing elements of the truss to accentuate the detail. This is easy to attain compared to a weld that is fully blended. Welded connections can either shop weld where the elements already manufactured or filed weld where the elements are manufactured during construction (Boake, 2015). 

Properties and Benefits of Cross-Laminated Timber

A bolted connection may be used for a splice as shown in the figure below. In this connection, a simple sleeve is fitted over the elements in the connection to provide appearance continuity.

The ultimate finish of the AESS components should be identified from the onset of the project. The type of finish should help is determining the treatments and types of connections. The nature of final finish selected depend on whether it is intended for fire protection of corrosion. The type of finish that should use the AESS components will be alkyds (oil-based) and is an acceptable finish coat for both exterior and interior applications. This will protect the elements from waterproofing and fire resistance. Acrylics can also be used to provide good colour and gloss retention under UV exposure (Deplazes, 2011).

The maintenance and cleaning of the AESS components can be done through touchup painting and cleaning of field welds, abraded regions, bolted connections, and field welds so as to blend with the adjacent surfaces of ACCESS. The touch-up work of painting and cleaning of the surfaces to facilitate cleaning and maintenance should be performed in accordance with the instructions of the manufactures of the components making up the AESS (Miyatake, 2013).

Conclusion

This report paper evaluates the likely and available requirement for numerous techniques for the appropriate qualification and description of the current advanced forms of construction. The advanced forms of construction that have been discussed to assess the Gateshead Quays site include preliminary investigation of the site, AESS/lattice gridshell, cross-laminated timber (CLT), and hybrid concrete construction. The Gateshead Quays masterplan site is situated directly adjacent to the Millennium Bridge and located in the region between BALTIC Centre and Sage and adjacent to the Millennium Bridge.

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