SSDA 2018: Four Pancras Square, London
13th November 2018
Featuring a weathering steel exoskeleton, Four Pancras Square is the last of six new commercial buildings within King’s Cross Development Zone B.
As the SSDA awards celebrate their 50th year of recognising the best of what the UK steel construction industry can achieve, we celebrate that 77% of the projects feature STRUMIS customers. In this post we will be celebrating Severfield’s involvement in the Four Pancras Square project.
Photo: © Dirk Lindner/Eric Parry Architects
Four Pancras Square, London
Architect: Eric Parry Architects
Structural Engineers: AKT II and BAM Design
Steelwork Contractor: Severfield
Main Contractor: BAM Construction
Client: King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership
Situated on a prominent site, Four Pancras Square demanded a strong identity that resonated with the site’s industrial heritage. This was encapsulated in Eric Parry Architects’ competition-winning design, which features an expressive, exposed weathering steel exoskeleton frame.
The building was designed as a speculative office, aspiring to exceed the British Council for Office specification and it was the first office to achieve a BREEAM 2014 rating of ‘Outstanding’.
Similar to the adjacent buildings, Four Pancras Square is an 11-storey commercial block offering Grade A office space with ground floor retail zones.
The steel exoskeleton forms the exterior of the entire building, supporting all of the internal floor slabs along each of the four elevations. The external steelwork and the floors are connected at key strategic locations that allow differential movements between the two to occur.
The main feature of this steelwork is a storey-high Vierendeel truss that encircles the building at first floor level.
"The main function of the steel truss is to create a 27m-long column-free façade along the building’s main entrance elevation, that not only overlooks the public realm but forms an important architectural ‘open letterbox’ between the building and the outdoor area,” explains BAM Design Associate Mike Hayes.
The truss was fabricated by Severfield and then brought to site in 18 sections, including four corner pieces. The truss elements measured up to 17m long with the heaviest weighing 72t.
The judges recognised the strong technical collaboration of the entire team to deliver the architect’s vision of an expressed weathering steel exoskeleton without compromise. This was achieved through creative development of key technical details to address thermal bridging, differential thermal movements, fire performance and weathering. The building’s elevations are a celebration of steel.
To read the full article visit the NSC website https://bit.ly/2pPc2Qf