Sector:
Commercial
SERVICES:
Structural Engineering
Project Overview
The architectural vision was for a timber stair, traversing 270 degrees, with 3 half-landings, and no visual supports. The engineering challenge was achieving these desired aesthetics while ensuring excellent structural performance under all loading conditions.
Unfortunately, a timber staircase could simply not achieve this without being extremely bulky.
Our solution was to design a steel stair with thin stringers and balustrading that could be timber-clad on both sides and still look no wider than a CLT engineered timber panel. To avoid transferring to much force into the edge of the first floor, two discrete stainless steel drop rods support the outer edge of the first-floor landing section of the stair.
Subteno’s design included a full finite element ‘footfall’ assessment to ensure vibration performance, as well as complex 3D analysis and design.
The design result ensured that vibration and excitation were suitable for its use as the main staircase in a high-end office building. We also detailed the joints in the staircase structure to ensure a logical and relatively straightforward site installation sequence.
