STEEL CONSTRUCTION Commercial Buildings
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STEEL CONSTRUCTION: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS STEEL CONSTRUCTION Commercial Buildings 1 STEEL CONSTRUCTION: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS Steel for Life and the British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) are working closely together to promote the effective use of structural steelwork. This collaborative effort ensures that advances in the knowledge of the constructional use of steel are shared with construction professionals. Steel is, by a considerable margin, the most popular framing material for multi-storey buildings in the UK and has a long track record of delivering high quality and cost- effective structures with proven sustainability benefits. Steel can be naturally recycled and re-used continuously, and offers a wide range of additional advantages such as health and safety benefits, speed of construction, quality, efficiency, innovation, offsite manufacture and service and support. The steel sector is renowned for keeping specifiers abreast of the latest advances in areas such as fire protection of structural steelwork and achieving buildings with the highest sustainability ratings. Recent publications have provided detailed guidance on Fire Protection and CE Marking and what it means for the construction sector. Guidance is provided on all relevant technical developments as quickly as is possible. The sector’s go to resource website – www.steelconstruction.info – is a free online encyclopedia for UK construction that shares a wealth of up-to-date, reliable information with the construction industry in one easily accessible place. This publication has been funded by Steel for Life and would not be possible without the support of our sponsors. Headline sponsors: BARRETT STEEL LIMITED Gold sponsors: AJN Steelstock Ltd | Ficep UK Ltd | Kingspan Limited | National Tube Stockholders and Cleveland Steel & Tubes | ParkerSteel | Peddinghaus Corporation | voestalpine Metsec plc | Wedge Group Galvanizing Ltd Silver sponsors: Hadley Group, Building Products Division | Jack Tighe Ltd Bronze sponsors: BAPP Group of Companies | Barnshaw Section Benders Limited | Hempel | Joseph Ash Galvanizing | Kaltenbach Limited | Kloeckner Metals UK | Sherwin-Williams | Tension Control Bolts Ltd | Voortman Steel Machinery 2 STEEL CONSTRUCTION: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS Introduction by Sarah McCann-Bartlett, Director General, British Constructional Steelwork Association Steel a certainty he commercial buildings market has the aesthetically pleasing, long span, column been well served by steel construction free, future-proofed, flexible spaces that the for decades. It is hard to envisage what users of modern buildings expect is to use our cities’ skylines would look like if it constructional steelwork. When some 70% of Tweren’t for steel’s ability to allow architects and multi-storey buildings are constructed using engineers to fully exercise their vision and skills. steel frames year after year the clear message is It is also impossible to imagine our most iconic that we are getting many things absolutely right. commercial buildings of the past 30 years or so That much is obvious, and the real challenge without steel construction. is not only to continue giving developers and One of the certainties for those who would designers compelling reasons to build in steel, invest in buildings is that the UK will continue to but to maintain continuous improvement, be served by a world leading steel construction and invest to ensure quality and productivity sector that has the capacity to respond to any improvements that will make designing and likely increase in demand. building in steel even easier than before. In this publication, readers will find many The structural steelwork sector looks forward reasons why steel enjoys such a commanding to seeing, and to constructing, the iconic position in the UK construction industry. For commercial buildings of the future. commercial buildings the obvious way to obtain October 2016 Contents SECTOR OVERVIEW Steel construction’s specialist contractors are gearing up to 4 respond to the demands of the commercial buildings market. COST EFFECTIVENESS Structural steelwork provides the most cost-effective 6 framing solution for commercial buildings. LONG SPANS Steel’s ability to create long span column-free spaces is an attractive 8 attribute for the commercial sector. SUSTAINABILITY Of all framing materials, steel buildings easily produce the 10 strongest sustainability case. REGENERATION ON TRACK A prestigious commercial development is rising up 12 within the façade of Salford’s former Embankment railway station. GROWING LEEDS’ COMMERCIAL LANDSCAPE Wellington Place is one of 14 many new steel-framed commercial schemes in Leeds city centre. MIDLANDS REJUVENATION The Friargate development forms the initial part of 16 Coventry city centre’s make-over. CANTILEVERING WALL Large cantilevering façades are the main architectural 18 feature of the London Wall Place scheme. A TOWER OF PRINCIPAL A prestigious commercial development is being 20 constructed just north of the City of London in Shoreditch. STEELWORK ENSURES A SAFE DESIGN A blast-resistant steel-framed 22 headquarters has been completed at Grangemouth’s petrochemical works. 3 STEEL CONSTRUCTION: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS The commercial buildings market stands ready for the future Nick Barrett sees the steel construction sector’s commercial building specialists ready to respond to the demands of the commercial buildings market. fter several years of strong market, as it is called in government commercial developers. growth in London, the statistics, is now approaching £27,000 While some forecasters are taking commercial buildings market million per year in current prices. a slightly more cautious view of the is strengthening in regional Surveys from independent researchers London market in the short term, there citiesA and towns. This is despite the (see right) consistently show that this is a planning pipeline of well over 100 short-term uncertainty that the Brexit is a market that particularly values steel multi storey buildings in London. vote created in the minds of some as a framing solution, with developers The underlying strength of the developers. and designers of about two out of every market for commercial buildings is With 2016 expected to deliver three multi-storey buildings of all types underlined by a London Cranes Survey the highest level of structural steel opting for steel. from Deloitte earlier this year, that is consumption in commercial buildings The reasons why can be seen in some regarded as a useful market barometer since 2009, the sector is maintaining detail throughout this publication for the multi-storey buildings market. its position as a key market well served – Steel Construction: Commercial This survey gave solid grounds for by a steel construction industry that is Buildings. Cost, speed and ease of optimism, with 51 new schemes under at peak performance. construction, offsite manufacture, way since the survey of a year previously. After some years of growth the size sustainability, adaptability and This was the highest number of project of the private commercial construction flexibility are all highly valued by starts since the survey started 20 years 4 STEEL CONSTRUCTION: COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% % Based on Floor Area % Based on Floor 20% 10% 0% 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Steel Insitu Concrete Precast Concrete Load Bearing Masonry Timber Construction Markets Structural steelwork was confirmed as the The total market for structural frames in 2015 preferred market choice as a framing solution was estimated to be 40.6 million square metres for commercial buildings in the 2015 Market of floor area, up 7.2% from the previous year. Share survey, which confirms the upward trend of Steel dominated the market for multi-storey office demand for steel in several key markets. developments where it enjoyed a market share of The survey, the latest in a series carried out by 68%, up 1% from 2014. independent researchers Construction Markets The survey shows steel is the preferred choice annually since 1980, is based on interviews with of the construction market across all the building 750 architects, builders and designers, which types analysed, with outstanding strength in the makes it the biggest of its kind in the UK. commercial sector. ago, with the total volume of office may remain on the sidelines until there are good reasons to expect space under construction up 28% in six the dust settles on the UK’s post EU demand to remain solid over the next months, the highest level since 2008. environment. For other developers year or so before further growth kicks in. Commercial building has always been and potential occupiers of commercial Developers showed themselves a cyclical market. buildings Brexit is not an important capable of taking a long-term view a few The initial subdued responses consideration. years ago in the wake of the financial to Brexit have given way to a more The development market in the crisis when they decided to press on balanced outlook. Market sentiment regions remains strong and less likely to with major London schemes, especially moved from reports of a ‘significant be affected by the sentiment of foreign in the City, in the hope that by the time drop in sentiment’ in the market investors. There are still many projects construction was completed demand immediately after the vote, to reports going ahead across the UK, and Grade would have returned and offices in that the market was ‘back to normal’ A office space remains in short supply short supply; and so it came to pass. We by late September, while in between in regional centres creating grounds for have had a raft of iconic City buildings there were reports of foreign investors optimism. as a result, including the UK’s tallest, ‘swarming’ into the London commercial Overall, there seem to be enough The Shard. The post Brexit future will property market attracted by the weaker optimistic investors around to maintain also belong to those with this kind of currency.