Woodlands Development, Newquay

Type: Residential Development Location: Pentire Crescent, Newquay, Cornwall Value: £8M

We were commissioned to carry out full civil and structural engineering design and inspection services for an impressive 7-storey block of 16 luxury flats and town houses. The development incorporated underground car parking, swimming pool and leisure facilities on a steeply sloping site overlooking the Gannel River. Our Client requested a steel frame for the upper levels for speed of construction and reinforced concrete, together with reinforced blockwork were adopted for the below ground storeys. The building was very complex, as can be seen from the images, necessitating specialist design using reinforced concrete transfer slabs to cope with differing layouts for each storey. Specialist computer software based on a finite element analysis was adopted for the design. The steel frame to upper storeys was modelled with a 3-dimensional frame analysis programme and the frame had to be carefully integrated with architectural details, with particular regard to sound insulation.

The design was complete and out to tender for this project, but unfortunately not constructed due to the economic climate at the time.