Kellyville – Megahome

A single dwelling of grand proportions, this vast home was architecturally designed with grandeur in mind. Construction costs were to be minimised by using a conventional timber framed-brick veneer construction. However due to the sheer size of the home, and the large spans present, an iterative process of analysis and design for the first floor steel framing was conducted to ensure that sections remained minimised and hidden in the floor space where possible. This is to ensure an acceptable architectural finish, with no compromise on ceiling heights in ‘boxing-out’ of structural steel members.

Further considerations included the maximum conventionally available lengths of steel sections, and ensuring that all steel columns could be effectively hidden in timber-stud walls, whilst performing in strength and serviceability criteria in supporting the loads of large steel beams.

The sloped nature of the site, required the detailing of large internal step-down beams in the waffle-pod foundation, as per architectural requirements. Such areas may be prone to increased localised stresses, and should be provided with adequate ‘Z’ bars and longitudinal reinforcement.