EngineersHRW Project Structural Engineer SENSE Touchbase

Project: This project comprises of a 75m long x 37.5m wide in-situ RC frame with exposed concrete columns and soffits, and with precast concrete façade cladding panels. The building is to be used as a centralised community hub and is being funded by SENSE, a national voluntary organisation that provides charitable support across the U.K. for deafblind people. Location: Selly Oak, Birmingham Estimated cost: £9.6M Architect: Glenn Howells Architects Building Type: Community Centre Date: October 2014 – Ongoing Roles & Responsibilities: My involvement in this project was during the tender and construction stages. My role was to prepare and manage construction documents and see through the construction of the new centre. The project was ~£1.5M over budget and during the tender stage it was decided to go for a Design and Build contract rather than a traditional JCT contract. A value engineering exercise was carried out with the contractor looking at different frame options to optimise the reinforcement and foundation design. Exposed concrete columns and soffits required careful detailing and specification for these elements. Bamtec reinforcement technology is being used to allow quicker installation of reinforcement, hence avoiding potential staining of shuttering boards used for the flat slabs. Overall lateral stability is achieved by using two RC shear cores, either side of a movement joint line. Proprietary ANCON shear dowels are used to allow movement along the joint while effectively transferring vertical and lateral shear forces.

EngineersHRW Project Structural Engineer Soho Estates

Project: Refurbishment and redevelopment of 15 separate yet adjacent buildings built around the perimeter of a centralised rear yard space and located on Old Compton Street, Greek Street and Romilly Street respectively. The rear centralised space, currently a sprawling mass of infills, extensions, plant spaces and unsightly ductwork is to be utilised for a new 6 storey steel framed building with composite concrete decking (including 2 levels of basement). Location: Soho, London Estimated cost: £12.0M Architect: SODA Building Type: Hotel, Restaurants, Bars and Private members club Date: October 2014 – Ongoing Roles & Responsibilities: This project was handed to me during the planning stage. I was involved in the initial scheme design and preparation of the Construction Method Statement report in aid of the planning application. Further works included detailed design for the substructure and the superstructure. The roof terraces in this project play an important part in defining the character of the building and were designed using steel trusses spanning ~7.5m. The connections were carefully detailed to fit in with the architectural requirements and to add character to the trusses. Another challenging aspect of this project was the substructure design, which in places required double storey RC retaining walls extending beyond the water table and cast using carefully sequenced RC underpins. Ground stabilization and resin injection techniques are proposed to avoid any loss of fines in the excavations. Open plan spaces are provided at basement -2 level for a cinema room with transfer RC beams above supporting the 5 storeys above.

Hardman Structural Engineers Project Structural Engineer Harleyford Road

Project: The redevelopment project by Vision Homes Limited is a residential scheme consisting of three two storey houses and one three storey maisonette with basements. The site was previously occupied by isolated single and two storey light industrial buildings. Location: Vauxhall, London Architect: OSM Architects Building Type: Residential Date: Aug 2012 – August 2014 Roles & Responsibilities: My role in this project as a project engineer was to propose a simple yet elegant structure that incorporates Architects brief and client’s requirements. The site, previously occupied by light industrial buildings was contaminated and remedial measures were adopted for the soft landscaping areas. A demolition survey of the existing properties was carried out and sequencing drawings were prepared to highlight temporary restraint requirements and the key structural issues. The basement was formed using a reinforced concrete box designed as a raft foundation. The above ground construction is of traditional masonry load bearing walls and timber floors. Below ground drainage design was carried out in accordance with the SUDS requirements incorporating Soakaways, green roofs and areas of soft landscaping. I was in regular contact with the project manager ensuring his understanding of the temporary and the permanent structures, and have attended various design team and site meetings to ensure works on site could progress efficiently.

Hardman Structural Engineers Project Structural Engineer Friern Road

Project: A high quality new build house has been constructed on the grounds of a disused landlocked site that once formed an orchard. The new building is formed in two parts, to allow an old tree to be retained as a courtyard focal point, and linked by a lightweight exposed timber glulam bridge structure. The buildings have exposed concrete cavity walls and stair core with timber upper floors and roofs. Glulam timber columns have also been utilised to provide support to the upper floors. Slender cantilevered steel treads form the staircases supported of the exposed concrete walls. Location: Dulwich, London Estimated cost: £1.0M Architect: Edgley Design Building Type: Residential Date: Feb 2012 – April 2013 Roles & Responsibilities: My involvement in this project was during the tender and construction stages. My role was to manage and see through the construction of the new house. As the site was surrounded by trees the foundations were designed to account for heave potential. The ground floor slab was designed as a suspended flat slab supported on RC load bearing piles. The perimeter cavity walls were formed from an outer brickwork leaf and an inner exposed concrete leaf. Timber planks were used as formwork for the inner RC leaf to get a decorative grain texture. Overall stability was achieved by using RC shear walls, central RC staircore and engineered timber diaphragm floors. Complex coldbridging junctions were detailed using schock thermal break elements and basalt fibre Rockbars.

Hardman Structural Engineers Project Structural Engineer Peat House

Project: Construction of a large detached house, located on the private Wentworth Estate. The Georgian styled house is designed specifically to a private client’s brief. Location: Wentworth, Surrey Estimated cost: £3.5M Architect: Ascot Design Building Type: Residential Date: Jan 2013 – Ongoing Roles & Responsibilities: My role in this project as a project engineer was to ensure every aspect of the clients brief was met and an efficient structure was prepared. One of the key stages during construction was the formation of the new basement. Site investigation works indicated that the ground water levels in the area were at ~1.5m below ground level. This posed problems for both the temporary and the permanent case. The design incorporated use of bentonite slurry walls along with secant piles for the temporary case to facilitate construction of the new basement, and tension piles to overcome the effect of buoyancy in the permanent case. Another challenging part of the project was the design of temporary buttress piles, installed to provide lateral support to the boundary piled retaining wall. These buttress piles omitted the need of any additional whalers or diagonal props meaning the contractor had more room on site. This was supported by suggested sequencing drawings. Since the project budget and the completion date were the key factors, I had to attend various design team meetings to ensure works on site could progress efficiently. My role was also to carry out routine structural checks during site visits.

Hardman Structural Engineers Project Structural Engineer Culford Mews

Project: A new two storey architect’s house has been formed with a large open plan ground floor and a partial hanging first floor. The house is formed from traditional masonry cavity walls with steel and timber upper floor and roof. The property has been designed to a high specification. Featured in Architect’s Journal and Dezeen Magazine. Location: London, N1 Architect: Form Art Architects Building Type: Residential Date: August 2011 – March 2013 Roles & Responsibilities: Although only two storeys high, the long span floors and over-sailing first floor has meant that intricate steelwork detailing has been required to avoid unsightly structural junctions. A similar attention to detail has been required to ensure the relatively large wall panels are adequately braced. The hanging first floor structure was a challenging part of the project. The solution employed hanging a skinny SHS column from the roof beams which could easily be hidden within the perimeter stud walls. Lateral stability was provided by lining the stud walls with staggered plywood sheeting.

Hardman Structural Engineers Graduate Structural Engineer Eashing House

Project: This scheme involves the upcycling of an existing 1960s house which was in a poor state of repair. The project comprised re-modelling the internal layout, forming a single storey rear extension, replacing existing roof and forming new perimeter roof overhangs. Location: Godalming, Surrey Architect: Edgley Design Building Type: Residential Date: March 2012 – March 2013 Roles & Responsibilities: It was proposed to add continuous 1m wide roof overhangs to the existing roof around the building perimeter. A site visit was carried out to identify and record details of the existing roof structure so that the structural stability and tying back details for the overhangs could be developed. Pre-fabricated timber frames (18mm plywood fin panels sandwiched between timber box frames) were tied to the existing roof structure @ 600mm cts to form the overhangs. These were then lined with two sheets of 12mm plywood (with staggered joints) to provide overall stability. The single storey extension was to be formed close to the large Pine tree and careful consideration was given to the design of foundations. A suspended concrete slab supported on isolated 2m deep mass concrete pads was proposed to avoid interference with the tree root structure. Internal alterations included removing structural walls and forming new openings in existing structural walls. New steel supporting elements along with localised foundation strengthening works to avoid any increase in bearing pressures were specified.

Hardman Structural Engineers Graduate Structural Engineer Pembridge Crescent

Project: Refurbishment and redevelopment of three terraced mews houses, combined to form a single demise. New basements were formed over half of the site footprint. Location: Notting Hill, London Estimated cost: £2.5M Architect: Edgley Design Building Type: Residential Date: August 2011 – May 2013 Roles & Responsibilities: I was handled this project during the tender stage. The main challenge in this project was to form a basement under the existing property while considering the practicalities of construction and safeguarding neighbouring properties at close proximity. By initially visiting the property, I estimated the existing loadings and completed a full load takedown on the existing and new foundations. This was to ensure the soil bearing pressures on the existing footing line did not exceed due to the proposed structural alterations. In order to gain maximum space the proposed solution included a combination of RC underpinning and contiguous piled retaining wall. The RC underpinning works were carried out in two stages (underpinning the underpin) in order to safely form a retaining wall. A detailed set of sequencing drawings was produced to assist contractor in the preliminary works. A temporary scaffold access scheme was also prepared in order to allow the contractor to work on the roof & first floor structure while carrying out the basement works. To meet party wall requirements, my role was to monitor any movements due to the basement excavation to the surrounding properties. Every fortnight, I was responsible to set up a Total Station to take surveying readings from a single set up point.

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