SASFA supplement May 2017

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NTT AUDI NEW SHOWROOM

Audi’s new showroom in East London, part of a roll-out of new Audi showrooms worldwide, won the Light Steel Frame Building (LSFB) category at Steel Awards 2013. This was a top-endmotor showroom, which was certainly a departure from the norm and certainly required closer inspection. It came through with flying colours demonstrating the unique attributes of LSFB. In this case – instead of straight and square lines, we were treated to dramatic curves that illustrated the versatility of the product,” he said. As expected, the interior of an upmarket car showroom must be unique and classy to, after all, show off one of the most respected German-made car brands. The client wanted curved walls and bulkheads to get the right effect and usually this would have been done in concrete. But, as with most retail and commercial projects, time is money and the LSFB method was the perfect solution given this scenario. The LSFB contractor responsible for the interior curved walls, bulkheads, skimmed ceilings and metal pan ceilings said that this project – entailing three curved walls at a 60 degree incline – was one of its most technical and challenging projects in 20 years pushing its design and fitting teams to new heights. Light steel frame wall beams formed the sub structure for the curved walls which were then double cladded with full skim finish. Very technical detailingwas involvedwith junctions to different areas and curves needing some custom-made solutions. Due to the very tight project programme as well as the size and height of the curved walls, the LSFBmethodwas the perfect system to use in place of standard dry-walling. Furthermore the use of pre-assembled structural beams and joists allowed for very quick on-site erection of curved walls with the added advantage of consistent sizes and accuracy. Themajority of steel wall joists were erected in the first two weeks on site. The contractor also used the speed of LSFB to avoid high accommodation and transport costs since the site was 600 km away from their offices and workshop, which are in Pietermaritzburg.

EXCELLENCE

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SASFA SUPPLEMENT 2017