Downland Gridshell
Downland Gridshell
Downland Gridshell
RICHARD HARRIS
BURO HAPPOLD
The Do w nl a nd gridsh
Innovative
design in
timber
ell
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The building
The workshop is housed beneath a
double-layer gridshell of oak laths
supporting an insulated cladding
system largely of lapped western red
cedar boards and polycarbonate
cellular glazing. The double-layer timber
gridshell technique, despite being able
to achieve large spans with lightweight
but stiff construction, has only rarely
been used. So this building contains a
number of features that are innovative
and could be adopted for
future similar use. Here the
workshop roof is a doubly
curved, four-layer, oak
gridshell, 48 m long, 16 m
across at its widest and 11 m
at the waist. Internal height
varies between 7 m and 10 m.
It uses oak laths of only 50
35 mm at 1000 mm or
500 mm spacing, depending
upon stress concentrations.
This space sits over a floor of
50 mm boards for the
craftsman to work on that in
turn encloses a conservation
store nestled into the north-sloping
chalk terraces of the Sussex Downs.
The deciduous wood on the slope
to the south provides shading in
summer, which, coupled to the thermal
mass of the enclosing masonry walls
Selection of timber
A number of timber species were
considered for use in the gridshell.
These included larch, douglas fir,
chestnut and oak. They were selected
for the following reasons:
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cross-sectional dimensions. In a
sufficiently large timber the twisted grain
can be contained within the section. In
small sections, the problem is
considerably increased. To overcome
the problem, the latest jointing
technology was utilised to cut out the
defects and finger joints used to fasten
the lengths together, forming laths of
the required length and of a
consistently high quality, produced from
normal grade timber. The technical term
for this process is optimisation.
Timber grade
Short grain
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Site jointing
The next stage in the process was to
join the 6 m lengths of improved
timber to produce continuous laths up
to 37 m long for the lattice laths and
50 m long for the longitudinal rib laths.
This work was carried out on site under
the protection of a polytunnel. The 6 m
lengths were joined using scarf joints
with a slope of 1 in 7. This slope gives
the scarf joints a glue-line area the
same as that for the finger joints.
Figure 8 shows the construction of a
typical scarf joint. There is an interesting
contrast in the two jointing methods
used: the finger joints are the latest
timber joining technology whereas the
scarf joint has been used for centuries.
Of the 10 000 joints in the structure
there were only about 145 breakages
during forming. Almost all of these
were failures of the finger joints,
pinching of the lattice on the scaffold
support, tight curvature, tension buildup because the relative sliding between
the two layers was being restricted and
dry joints. The simple repair technique
consisted of introducing solid blocking
at the point of failure.
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Nodal connection
The double-layer gridshell is a lattice
system with, after finishing, two 50 mm
wide by 35 mm deep laths placed one
above the other, with the space
between them being formed by the lath
system running in the opposite
direction. Upon completion of the
forming process, shear blocks were
inserted to join the two layers; this
formed a composite section that has
significantly greater strength than the
individual laths. To form the shape from
a flat mat, the nodes must allow
rotation. Also, with a double-layer
system, because of the difference in
their curvature and thus relative lengths,
the upper and lower layers must be
able to slide relative to one another.
The Downland Gridshell team
developed a patented nodal
connection. The central plate has a pin
that inserts into the central layers. This
fixes the central layers in position so
that the nodes are a constant 1 m
apart, and also enables rotation. The
outermost layers are effectively
passengers that are free to slide relative
to the central layers but will rotate in
tandem with its associated central layer
as it is forced to do so due to the bolt
arrangement of the nodal connection.
Furthermore, two opposing bolts may
be lengthened enabling the attachment
of the rib laths that stiffen the gridshell.
Final comments
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The Team
This has been a team project and many
individuals, from the various
organisations involved in the design and
construction, have made significant
contributions in realising this unique
project. They are as follows:
Client: Weald and Downland Open Air
Museum
Funding: The Heritage Lottery Fund
Architect: Edward Cullinan Architects
Engineers: Buro Happold
Project Manager, Quantity Surveyor
and Planning Supervisor: Boxall Sayer
Carpenter Green Oak Carpentry
Company Ltd.
Main Contractor: E. A. Chiverton
Specialist Scaffolding Contractor: PERI
The monitoring and recording of the
process were made possible through a
research grant from the Department of
Trade & Industry (DTI) through the Fast
Track Research Fund.
References
1 New Civil Engineer, 23 April 1998.
Letter from C.L. Wallis.
2 O.J. Kelly, R.J.L. Harris, M.G.T.
Dickson, J.A. Rowe (2001)
Construction of the Downland
Gridshell, The Structural Engineer,
79 (17), 4 September.