Building on shared strengths

摘要

Traditionally, timber has been used mainly for residential buildings. But in the past four years, structural engineer Ramboll Whitby-bird has been researching and developing a timber and concrete composite scheme that enables large open-plan buildings to be constructed with a timber frame. The system locks concrete floors to timber beams using shear studs. The idea was conceived in 2004, when Whitbybird collaborated with Richard Rogers Partnership on the Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, east London. The academy is one of the largest timber-frame buildings in the UK: its primary structure comprises more than 1,000cu m of European whitewood formed into paired columns and beams. The frame supports an in-situ concrete slab cast off a structural profiled metal deck.