Project 06 / 07
Structural strengthening of an existing building
Shoring and strengthening of slabs in an occupied building, using steel sections and a phased construction sequence.
Working on an existing building starts with finding out what has actually been built. Opening-up works and a survey of the existing condition were carried out before deciding on any solution.
The strengthening was done with steel sections, first shoring the area to unload the affected elements and then returning the load to them in a controlled way once the work was complete.
The trickiest part was not calculating the strengthening but the sequence: deciding what to shore, in what order to intervene and when the props could come out without compromising the stability of the whole.
In refurbishment, the design is not only what gets strengthened: it is in what order.