Steelwork In Façades 2023

This was a collaborative effort between THREE members of the Irish Association of Steel Fabricators!

Working for principal contractors Coolsivna, Thompson Architects and RPS Engineers we were contracted to deliver an architecturally-unique decorative fin facade and canopy structure as part of a varied metalworks package at Ennis Community College.

Success required collaboration with Graepel's, who worked with the design team at pre-contract stage on the arrangement and specification of the 215no. perforated and CNC folded Magnelis cladding panels. It also required collaboration with Armatherm Europe who helped us with thermal modelling and provided the FRR fire-rated thermal breaks which isolated the fin structure from the building.

The design itself was incredibly complex. The 12 ton galvanised latticework structure was designed in SolidWorks and comprised laser-cut and holed Rectangular Hollow Section, Angles and T-Section steels which were arranged in a configuration to allow secret-fixing of the overlapping cladding panels. Thermal Breaks and Steel Baseplates were cut and countersunk in-house on our 5-axis waterjet. The structure featured fourteen vertical prisms, of which there were three different types, tapering variously in-to-out and out-to-in up along the vertical plane.

The majority of heavy fixings are hidden behind insulation, glazing frames and Rodeca panels. The rainwater downpipes are hidden within the prism structure of the fins to provide a clean look to the facade.

With so much collaborative design having occurred in SolidWorks prior to fabrication, and extensive use of CNC, the structure was erected, joined and fixed with outstanding speed by a small crew on site. Any packing shims that were required on site were waterjet cut using Armatherm FRR material, further reducing thermal bridging. What impressed us most was how literally hundreds of components which were modeled in Solidworks, pre-cut and pre-holed on CNC equipment at various different sites but ultimately assembled, welded and cold-formed by humans, could all marry so well together on a building site.