De Beauvoir House

Tags: private homes, steel, timber, refurbishment, stairs, low carbon

Related projects: The Old Barn Worton Farm, Montagu Stair

De Beauvoir House - Webb Yates Engineers
De Beauvoir House - Webb Yates Engineers
De Beauvoir House - Webb Yates Engineers
De Beauvoir House - Webb Yates Engineers
De Beauvoir House - Webb Yates Engineers
De Beauvoir House - Webb Yates Engineers
De Beauvoir House - Webb Yates Engineers

Webb Yates Engineers completed the structural design for the extensive refurbishment and extension of De Beauvoir House, a large Georgian semi-detached house in London. The main works involved opening up the lower ground floor and constructing a new glulam frame extension to the rear.

The original building was relatively neglected so in addition to the new extension extensive repairs and strengthening works were carried out to the existing structure. In order to retain as much as possible of the original structure the work was completed in the least intrusive way possible. The ground floor area was completely opened-up with a new complex steel portal frame installed to support the rear façade and provide stability to the structure. By working closely with the architect we developed a structural solution that was cost-effective and enabled as much of the space to be opened up as possible.

The rear extension is formed of a series of cubed frames of 240mm square larch glulam beams with steel plate connections. To create a large opening at the rear, the glulam beams form a Vierendeel truss with moment-connections to enable them to span over a double-width glazed window. This frame is exposed and was carefully detailed to work seamlessly with the surrounding finishes.

 

 

Awards

  1. AJ Retrofit Awards 2017, shortlisted, 7 2017