Stage 50 Wycombe Film Studios Village
Project Description:
Beta Design Consultant has completed an important, high value contract on behalf of its major client, Stage 50. Beta was involved in the second stage design of the foundation, superstructure and road design. With almost 295,000 sq. ft of high-quality production space, Wycombe Film studio offers purpose-built professional facilities. The structure design supports the studio and stages design to create unique space that support sustainable structure to use for the film production. The civil engineering design supports the client vision by delivering roadway design in the green-belt site that results in minimum impact regenerating the ex-landfill site to make it suitable for the 10-year life span of the temporary license. Overall, the design helps to create one of the UK’s film industries that facilitates the art as a hub for creativity.
Approach:
- Structural Design for Foundations and Stages:
Software Used: SCia and Tekla Tedds
A. Designs Checks:
The primary scope involves design checks for the foundation for the Phase 1 stage of the Wycombe Film Studio. This includes;
-Design check of Foundations: BETA perform the structure checks for the foundation as per provided loads and design criteria. The design checks for the foundation shows that the column bases were generously sized.
-Base plate and post installed anchor bolts: The design of the base plates and the anchor bolts were based on the design forces obtained from the reference projects. Based on available data, a 600mm long by 400mm wide by 25mm thick plate have been designed with 6 M20 Hilti HIT-HY 200-A + HAS-U HCR M20 post Installed anchor.
- checks on Ground beams: Beta perform 600 x 600 Ground Beams Design Checks. Ground beams have been provided to acts as ties for the foundation, as confinements for the earth fill for the stage area and partly supports the square hollow sections (SHS) supporting the timber floor.
Recommendation:
-Due to the thickness of the foundation (1500mm), anti-shrinkage reinforcement should have been provided at the top to prevent shrinkage cracking at the top of the foundation. In lieu of this, the contractor has agreed to use fibre-reinforced concrete which is expected to limit the shrinkage of the concrete.
B. Sub-Structural Design:
After completion of first stage design check, Beta was reappointed to carry out sub-structural design for stage 2 floor of 50x60 m Wycombe Air Park Film Studios. Beta designed for;
- The structural foundation supporting the stage frames (2250mm wide reinforced concrete strip footing to support the side and corner columns; and 1700mm wide strip footing to support the gable columns). Reinforced concrete slab - 250mm thick slab with A393 mesh fabric top and bottom.
Infrastructure Planning and Road Design:
Design of Phase 2 road:
Beta design was appointed as Civil Engineering consultant to carry out road construction design of Stage 50 studio project phase 2 at the Wycombe Air Park. The project covers;
- Traffic assessment of internal roads of Stage 50 studio project - phase 2
- Civil and structural design of part of roads in Stage 50 studio project - phase 2
- Roadside rain drains design
Results
- Design of foundations of the stages with the roads design to reduce construction work, cut and fill and utilized sustainable practices to provide significant carbon footprint reductions. Examples included using trench foundations that removed need for shuttering and edge protection and formwork/falsework, as well as using Eco Pact RC mixes from Aggregate Industries with nearly 40% carbon savings for less than 10% increase in concrete cost.
- We integrated cutting-edge technology in ground improvement and soil stabilisation, maximizing use of laboratory trial soil-mixes, field tests and pilot trials on site to ensure the ex-landfill site is developed to support new loads. We adopted a cost-effective method for soil stabilisation and ground improvement using evidence based soil-mix design to reduce cost and impact of civil works.
