16 May 03
Work to start imminently on largest ever Audi Centre
Work is due to start next week (19th May) on the largest ever Audi Centre located in Braehead, near Glasgow. Designed by SDA Architects Ltd, one of Europe’s leading automotive architects, the striking new Audi Centre will combine a new build car showroom with fully-equipped conference and display areas, a visitor centre and state-of-the-art training facilities for Audi’s personnel development arm - the Audi Academy. Consulting engineer Buro Happold has provided the building services engineering, structural engineering, fire safety engineering and Computational Simulation and Analysis (CoSA) on this innovative building.
The most challenging aspect of the building was the 1000sqm south-west facing glass facade. The brief for SDA, based in Leeds, West Yorkshire and with offices across the country and the USA, was to create a ‘statement site for the brand’. The design for the 56,000 sq ft development is “one of the most innovative and technically challenging schemes the practice has undertaken to date” said SDA Associate director Mike Hudson. Buro Happold was heavily involved in the thermal acoustics and solar performance of the glass chosen for the facade. Without the input of Buro Happold’s computational analysis and fire safety engineers
the building would not have been possible in its current form. Analysis liberated the architects’ aspirations and enabled the extensive glass front.
Buro Happold modelled different façade options using TAS (Thermal Analysis Software) from Environmental Design Solutions (EDSL) to investigate comfort, visual aspects, energy consumption and condensation free glass.
The virtual model not only took heat gains and losses into account but also internal air movement. Since the building contains office spaces on the first and second floor balcony adjacent to the showroom, loads are expected to be transferred by the buoyancy driven internal airflow.
The building services engineers chose to install a displacement ventilation system .The selected system is more environmentally sound than a standard system as it only cools occupied spaces. In order that the building does not exceed the recommended carbon performance index various systems/procedures were put in place: These included prevention of simultaneous heating and cooling and using efficient plant and an efficient control system
The main showroom and Audi Academy presented a particular lighting challenge as the ceiling height was approaching 10m. Encroaching into the volume by dropping large suspended high bay lighting was not appropriate, as this would have seen to be providing the ‘standard’ solution to lighting car show rooms.
The solution was arrived at in conjunction with SDA and Artemide lighting. The luminaires are twin lamp T5 luminaries, which form a continuos row of uplighting, they will be suspended from the ceiling by a relatively small amount, when compared to the ceiling height, and will therefore will be unobtrusive. Drama has been added to the space by fixing metal halide floodlights to the balconies, which can be directed onto the cars to suit any particular display arrangement.
The structure is built using a steel frame on piles. The main façade curtain walling is supported by cast aluminium arms projecting out from the main elevation elliptical columns. The castings are in turn supported at their ends by stainless steel rods which are hung from the roof steelwork. Intricate and stylish detailing of the casting and fixings along with interior design helps to create an aesthetically pleasing building.
With regards to the fire safety strategy and the means of escape design, the innovative design of the building presented a number of challenges for the fire safety engineers. To ensure that the architectural aspirations of the building were met whilst ensuring high safety levels were achieved, the fire engineers adopted a multi-disciplinary approach. The fire authority and building control were consulted throughout the design process and gave approval for the open plan design to go ahead after fire safety engineering principals demonstrated that the design does not present a risk and complies with the functional requirements of the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations.
Buro Happold press office and practice information
Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, health and safety management, infrastructure and traffic engineering, ground engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, disability design consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.
