Studio 10

Studio 10

Site visit: Oval Pavilion

The main construction type of Oval Pavilion is frame construction. Steel frame accounts for the major supporting structure of the building while timber frame is a sub-­‐structure that is used for wall, doors and windows.

The footing system of this building is pile foundation, and then reinforced concrete slabs lay on the top as a part of the floor. According to the site manager, all the construction items such as steel beams and timbers are being formed at exact conditions in factories and transported to the site. This can allow the process go quicker (prefabrication).

The current stage they are doing is the formwork of concrete at the front.

Here we can see the raw materials of formwork which are timber plates and timber beams. And the formwork is presented as the photo on the right. Next step will be installation of reinforcement and cast with in situ concrete. The left hand picture shows what after the concrete is formed. It will take 2 weeks to completely form the concrete.

For this stage of construction, they curved the reinforced steel bars 90 degrees at the edge as it is shown in the following picture which is efficient way to reinforce the concrete stage. The space between every steel bar is 400mm. è

The roof of Oval Pavilion is almost flat. According to Ching (2008: 6.17), “flat roofs are framed in a manner similar to floor joist framing” ê

There is one thing that need to be noticed about the roof which the site manager explained. The roof is 35mm higher than it should be due to the reason of insulation. Such an increase of height doesn’t influence any other constructing members.

Apart from roof system, it is quite obvious to see that the roof is framed by steel joists which are connected with timber conlumns. The reason why they use timber as conlums to support the roof instead of universal columns(steel) is every simple: timber looks nicer than steel and this timber has the equal strength to steel columns. Additionally, the white wires are lighters. è

ç This is laminated veneer lumber (LVL) wall. LVL is a high quality laminated timber and it obtains a very stiff structure. As Ching (2008: 4.35) describs, LVL is made by “bonding layers of wood veneers together under heat and pressure using a water proof adhesive”.

This LVL wall is assembled by using molded joints to form a structural connection (Ching 2008: 4.40).

The drainage system (the white pipe) travels cross the whole site underground. The concrete retaining walls are covered with waterproofing membrances(grey color). The function of black membrances is to stick to the retaining wall tightly when the sand press on the wall. The retaining wall has the structure of L-­‐shape which a reinforced concrete wall is connected with a reinforced concrete slab. Such structure could stabilze the wall as the weight of sand on the concrete slab would resist the movement of wall. êè

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi a/commons/5/52/Terminology.jpg

Reference: Ching, F.D.K 2008, building construction illustrated 4th ed., John Wiley&Sons Inc., New Jersey