Refurbishment & Remodelling
- In many cases it is more economic and faster to re-model an existing building to suit a new or different purpose than to construct a new one from scratch. However, the refurbishment and changing of purpose or use of an existing building poses its own structural challenges.
- Refurbishment often involves removing existing load bearing walls or other structural elements to provide a more open interior layout. New structure then needs to be designed to fit into the building without compromising its new purpose.
- New structure must be designed such that it can be safely erected within the building as is required to comply with the CDM (2015) statutory regulations.
- The project illustrated involved removing all of the internal load bearing walls in what was previously nurses residential accommodation over three stories, to provide open plan spaces suitable for office use. New steel frames were, successfully designed and introduced into the building to replace the load bearing walls thus creating the necessary open plan layout
