Appointed as structural engineers on the Burlington House project, a uniquely twisting three-tiered building, Civic Engineers knew that working in traditional 2D was simply not possible. Therefore, they once again turned to BIM and Tekla Structural Designer.
Located within the heart of Manchester’s Piccadilly Basin, Burlington House is an 11-storey residential development, offering 91 luxury canal-side apartments. Designed by architects Simpson Haugh, the building offers a truly unique and eye-catching appearance, comprising three main blocks that twist on plan as the building increases with height. These rotations result in the upper two tiers cantilevering out over one another – architecturally striking in appearance, while structurally challenging in form.
Civic Engineers was appointed as structural engineers on the development and has employed Tekla Structural Designer within its business for many years. Speaking about the project, James Bruce, Director at Civic Engineers, said: Burlington House was a really exciting opportunity for us as engineers, with its spectacular cantilevered form also presenting our team with a fair share of challenges and certainly a lot to think about. As structural engineers on the project, our role to was to create a solution that would achieve the building’s unique structural form with a cast-in-situ concrete frame and minimal transfer structures at the lower levels.
Meeting requirements with intelligent tools
As with any project of this nature, Civic Engineers was tasked with striking an efficient balance between the architect’s aesthetic vision and the building’s structural design. For example, as well as minimising the number of transfer structures, which could have potentially conflicted with the initial design, the proposed building plan also featured a large number of windows. While bringing more natural light into the properties, this did result in a limited amount of uninterrupted wall space available to Civic Engineers.
