WEEK 7 - STUDIO JOURNAL The site visit this week took place on a construction site on the corner of Lygon St and Edward St. The construction site was a set of residential apartments under development, managed under Little Projects. Many of the primary structural elements were already built in place and the project was in the phase of starting on the secondary structure and decorative elements. In one of the buildings, the floor joists were made from hollow box beams made from steel. These joists were held up with steel I-beams placed perpendicular to the floor joists. The floor system shown here is very different from the floor systems in the other buildings under construction, which typically used a concrete slab for flooring.
Bontek metal beams are used in the construction as they are lightweight and interlocks securely for roofing and flooring. Formwork is used to hold it up while the other strucural members are put in place. On the roof, the bondek is covered with metal sheet before concrete is poured to make the flat roof.
In this building, it can be seen that level one is lightweight timber floor. Concrete wall panels have been used for the interior and exterior of the ground floor. The ground floor has a very high ceiling, which is to allow for ventilation. The wall panels are all precast in the factory and assembled on site.
This is one of the more developed buildings on site. It can be seen that all the primary structure has already been built and the secondary structure, such as window framing, has started to be built. Here, the flooring system uses a concrete slab as a floor. Each slab would be precast in pieces and assembled on site. The slab acts as the horizontal component of the primary structure as no beams can be seen. Concrete columns are also used as the primary structure.
constructing environments