Engineering and Construction

The building use will dictate the planning module of the building, which will in turn determine the span and column grids. Typical grids may be based  on a planning module of 600/1200mm or 500/1500mm. However, the use has much wider impact, particularly on floor loadings and building services. The structural arrangement, and depth selected, must satisfy and accommodate these requirements.

For example, financial-dealing floors require clear open spaces located on the lower floors, which would dictate a different structural solution to the rest of the building.This may necessitate the use of a transfer structure to carry the upper floors on an economical column grid (Fig. 2.3).

Fig. 2.3 Typical load transfer systems