Bond Bryan designs largest cantilevered building

Bond Bryan Architects has designed a new building at Phoenix High School in Shepherds Bush, and is thought to be Europe's largest cantilevered building.

The new GBP8.7m sixth form centre at the London school has been granted planning permission by London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and will feature a 24m cantilever that will extend over an existing car park.

The upper levels project out into a 24m cantilever from the ground floor building.

The overall building length is 51m, over-turning the general rule for having only 33 per cent of a building extending as a cantilever.

This has almost 50 per cent of the building as a cantilever.

Nick Rogers, project leader at Bond Bryan, explains how this will be achieved: "Having such a huge cantilever compared to the ground floor structure places a tremendous loading on the building connected to ground but this is resolved by cross-bracing the floors and transferring the force back and down into cantilever and into the building pinned to the floor".

"We believe it is the largest cantilever in Europe.

The columns securing the ground floor building are driven 35 metres into the ground which serve to resist the uplift force generated by the cantilever.

"The cantilever also creates a potential for flexibility within the structure, this is counteracted by ensuring the 400mm-thick external walls and precast floor system combine to form a very stiff box structure".

The building turns the regimented horizontal timber and glass aesthetic of the existing 1950s buildings on its head, to create an elevation comprising of vertical timber panels of varying sizes, repeated at random intervals and framed with subtle colours.

The resulting elevations have been likened to a string of liquorice allsorts.

The design creates an uplifting learning environment by introducing a vibrant concept that all the students can relate to.

This concept has been extended in to the facade design to create a visual beacon for the school and wider community.

Focus was also to use the structural dynamics of the huge 23 meter cantilever a to inform the applied learning of the students within this specialist science college.

The building will have a low environmental impact, having been designed to achieve a BREEAM rating of 'very good'.

Subject to funding, construction of the new Sixth Form Centre is due to start in August this year and it will open to pupils in September 2010.

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