Civil Engineering March 2022 | Vol 30 No 2

12 March 2022 Civil Engineering continents with assistance from Novum Structures. Materials were sourced both locally and globally. The gridshell structure is made up of 252 unique galvanised rectangular hollow steel beams with custom cast end adapters welded to each side. These beams are site bolted to custom machined steel nodes with two grade 10.9 tensioned M24 bolts. To reduce reaction forces due to changes in temperature of the steel roof structure and to simplify the installation, the gridshell structure was divided into three sections. Each section was designed to behave independently, without comprising the continuity of the overall gridshell structural system. Reaction forces from the gridshell are passed into the concrete building structure via a series of pinned and laterally sliding connections. The final form of the gridshell was tweaked in the detailed design phase to ensure adequate slope for drainage and to distribute the forces more evenly throughout all the gridshell members. During the initial design collaboration with KHM Architects, the decision was made to use a large ~4.5 m structural grid. This meant that the Outdoor/indoor space created at the main entrance to the d-school (Credit: KHM Architects) Initial rendering of the d-School illustrating the gridshell structure (Credit: LEAF/Novum) A typical gridshell junction, consisting of one freeform node and multiple steel beams MEMBER 135 MEMBER 195 MEMBER 172 MEMBER 145 NODE 181