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Engineering Art - Brendan Neiland Waterloo Station International Terminal roof
In 1989, within this uncertain phase of Hunt’s career, during which he formed a partnership with architects YRM, came the commission for the International Terminal at Waterloo Station in London, the first home of the new Eurostar service using the Channel Tunnel. Working with architects Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, the skills that had so endeared Tony Hunt to architects in the past were once again in demand. His industrial design abilities were needed as well as his structural engineering skills. Far from being an off the peg de- sign solution, this was an individual design of sufficient size to warrant the setting of manufacturing processes just for the one building.
Artist Brendan Neiland also produced a super-realist painting of the Waterloo International Terminal which was presented to Bob Reid the then Head of British Rail to celebrate the completion of the project. The work is 12 ft wide x 5 ft high.
In 1993 the Waterloo Station International Terminal opened, heralding a new phase of rail travel in the UK. Designed as the Central London hub of the Eurostar service (a high speed rail service to Paris and Brussels using the newly completed Channel Tunnel), the extension at Waterloo Station was thus a symbol of today’s engineering, required to be- come one of London’s landmarks.
Designs underwent considerable changes from the early proposals, there are five platform viaducts supported by a grid of cylindrical concrete columns emerging from a car park at basement level, and up through public circulation areas at intermediate levels. supporting the uppermost platform levels and the train shed itself. There is a structural glass screen separating the old station complex from the new.
The spectacular train shed enclosure is some 400m long and is supported by thirty six trusses of spans varying from 32.7m to a maximum of 48.5m. The structure curves in two directions and narrows towards the outgoing end. Logically, this allows wider platforms closer to the station entrance and exit where the passenger density is greatest. Curvature of the roof, which is in essence a flattened arch climbs more steeply on the western side where the trains pass closely by the glass wall.
The three pin arched structure comprises two dissimilar trusses, triangular in section and having compression booms of tubular steel (CHS) and tension booms of solid steel rods. The asymmetrical nature of the structure dictates that the heavier and longer span of the three pin arch (the eastern part with a solid roof) has two compression booms located uppermost on the outer side of the truss, and a single tension boom below. This configuration results in horizontal thrust through the pin joint onto the shorter trusses on the western side. The bending moment patterns are reversed in the shorter trusses where only a single compression boom is required inside, with two tension booms on the outside. The diameter of the compression booms vary in accordance with the bending moment from greater diameter and wall thickness where the bending moment is at a maximum scaling down to smaller sections closer to the pin joints. This is achieved ideally by telescoping one tube into another of larger size, but due to incompatibility of tube sizes, a similar effect was achieved by plating the end of the larger tube and butt jointing the reduced diameter tube. Also the effect was achieved by slitting tubes and re-welding them to form tapers during the fabrication process. As the sizing of the compression booms responds to the bending moment, so does the configuration of the truss, increasing in dimensions; the trusses be- come wider and deeper at the centre of their span, with both compression and tension members curving back to adjoin at the pin joints. Tony Hunt describes these as “banana shaped” trusses. This technique of curving and tapering the prismatic trusses was later used to great visual effect at the Galpharm Stadium, formerly the McAlpine or Kirklees Stadium, at Huddersfield.
A secondary tubular structure of CHS steel provides line bracing between trusses and offers support to the cladding and glazing. This secondary structure is in turn cross braced by steel tension rods with forked connectors derived from yacht rigging components, a style Tony Hunt used in earlier projects.
On the western shorter span of the three pin arch, glazing with traditional overlapped transverse joints, is held by aluminium sash bars slotted to reduce their weight. These are fixed to the secondary tubular line bracing on the line of the inside of the main trusses. The long eastern span has solid stainless steel panelling between the trusses this time on the outside, on the compression booms, with glazing following the the tapering shape of the twin compression booms of the trusses to provide visual relief to the solid part of the roof. There is a transverse pitch with its apex at the midpoint between trusses on the glazed western side, designed to throw rainwater towards collection points running between the bases of the trusses. On the eastern long span, the transverse pitch of the solid roof al- lows rainwater to flow to points centrally placed between the trusses providing a herring-bone pattern to the cladding. This is an echo of the rhomboid shapes ( a technique used to allow flat panels to be formed into a curved plane) in the Great Conservatory at Chatsworth House designed by Decimus Burton and Sir Joseph Paxton.
Adjustable fixing brackets and flexible glazing gaskets allow variation sufficient for the curving tapering plan shape at Waterloo to be accommodated within a strict rectilinear structural system. This flexibility was required for a second purpose. It provided a cushion- ing effect to prevent shock waves generated by incoming trains being transmitted to, and thus damaging the glass elements of the shed roof.
The result is a train shed to surpass any precedents, but which pays homage to the engineering of the railway age. By locating all other functions such as ticketing, security, pass- port control, waiting and concourse areas, arrivals and departures at lower levels, the light bright train shed becomes a track side oasis simply for intermittent passenger use, and provides a tranquil unhurried celebration of the engineering excellence associated with the Channel Tunnel project. The structure of the train shed is testament to Tony Hunt’s unique expertise in combining batch produced industrially designed structural components with an architectural vision. Only a handful of differing varieties of components were used, yet the result was in the tradition of Sir Joseph Paxton; unitised without being uniform, uncomplicated without being crude or uninspiring, and a logically resolved rectilinear structural grid able to accommodate the complex snaking tapering plan form demanded by the railway. Source Connexions: The unseen hand of Tony Hunt
Engineering Art - Brendan Neiland Waterloo Station International Terminal roof
In 1989, within this uncertain phase of Hunt’s career, during which he formed a partnership with architects YRM, came the commission for the International Terminal at Waterloo Station in London, the first home of the new Eurostar service using the Channel Tunnel. Working with architects Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, the skills that had so endeared Tony Hunt to architects in the past were once again in demand. His industrial design abilities were needed as well as his structural engineering skills. Far from being an off the peg de- sign solution, this was an individual design of sufficient size to warrant the setting of manufacturing processes just for the one building.
Artist Brendan Neiland also produced a super-realist painting of the Waterloo International Terminal which was presented to Bob Reid the then Head of British Rail to celebrate the completion of the project. The work is 12 ft wide x 5 ft high.
In 1993 the Waterloo Station International Terminal opened, heralding a new phase of rail travel in the UK. Designed as the Central London hub of the Eurostar service (a high speed rail service to Paris and Brussels using the newly completed Channel Tunnel), the extension at Waterloo Station was thus a symbol of today’s engineering, required to be- come one of London’s landmarks.
Designs underwent considerable changes from the early proposals, there are five platform viaducts supported by a grid of cylindrical concrete columns emerging from a car park at basement level, and up through public circulation areas at intermediate levels. supporting the uppermost platform levels and the train shed itself. There is a structural glass screen separating the old station complex from the new.
The spectacular train shed enclosure is some 400m long and is supported by thirty six trusses of spans varying from 32.7m to a maximum of 48.5m. The structure curves in two directions and narrows towards the outgoing end. Logically, this allows wider platforms closer to the station entrance and exit where the passenger density is greatest. Curvature of the roof, which is in essence a flattened arch climbs more steeply on the western side where the trains pass closely by the glass wall.
The three pin arched structure comprises two dissimilar trusses, triangular in section and having compression booms of tubular steel (CHS) and tension booms of solid steel rods. The asymmetrical nature of the structure dictates that the heavier and longer span of the three pin arch (the eastern part with a solid roof) has two compression booms located uppermost on the outer side of the truss, and a single tension boom below. This configuration results in horizontal thrust through the pin joint onto the shorter trusses on the western side. The bending moment patterns are reversed in the shorter trusses where only a single compression boom is required inside, with two tension booms on the outside. The diameter of the compression booms vary in accordance with the bending moment from greater diameter and wall thickness where the bending moment is at a maximum scaling down to smaller sections closer to the pin joints. This is achieved ideally by telescoping one tube into another of larger size, but due to incompatibility of tube sizes, a similar effect was achieved by plating the end of the larger tube and butt jointing the reduced diameter tube. Also the effect was achieved by slitting tubes and re-welding them to form tapers during the fabrication process. As the sizing of the compression booms responds to the bending moment, so does the configuration of the truss, increasing in dimensions; the trusses be- come wider and deeper at the centre of their span, with both compression and tension members curving back to adjoin at the pin joints. Tony Hunt describes these as “banana shaped” trusses. This technique of curving and tapering the prismatic trusses was later used to great visual effect at the Galpharm Stadium, formerly the McAlpine or Kirklees Stadium, at Huddersfield.
A secondary tubular structure of CHS steel provides line bracing between trusses and offers support to the cladding and glazing. This secondary structure is in turn cross braced by steel tension rods with forked connectors derived from yacht rigging components, a style Tony Hunt used in earlier projects.
On the western shorter span of the three pin arch, glazing with traditional overlapped transverse joints, is held by aluminium sash bars slotted to reduce their weight. These are fixed to the secondary tubular line bracing on the line of the inside of the main trusses. The long eastern span has solid stainless steel panelling between the trusses this time on the outside, on the compression booms, with glazing following the the tapering shape of the twin compression booms of the trusses to provide visual relief to the solid part of the roof. There is a transverse pitch with its apex at the midpoint between trusses on the glazed western side, designed to throw rainwater towards collection points running between the bases of the trusses. On the eastern long span, the transverse pitch of the solid roof al- lows rainwater to flow to points centrally placed between the trusses providing a herring-bone pattern to the cladding. This is an echo of the rhomboid shapes ( a technique used to allow flat panels to be formed into a curved plane) in the Great Conservatory at Chatsworth House designed by Decimus Burton and Sir Joseph Paxton.
Adjustable fixing brackets and flexible glazing gaskets allow variation sufficient for the curving tapering plan shape at Waterloo to be accommodated within a strict rectilinear structural system. This flexibility was required for a second purpose. It provided a cushion- ing effect to prevent shock waves generated by incoming trains being transmitted to, and thus damaging the glass elements of the shed roof.
The result is a train shed to surpass any precedents, but which pays homage to the engineering of the railway age. By locating all other functions such as ticketing, security, pass- port control, waiting and concourse areas, arrivals and departures at lower levels, the light bright train shed becomes a track side oasis simply for intermittent passenger use, and provides a tranquil unhurried celebration of the engineering excellence associated with the Channel Tunnel project. The structure of the train shed is testament to Tony Hunt’s unique expertise in combining batch produced industrially designed structural components with an architectural vision. Only a handful of differing varieties of components were used, yet the result was in the tradition of Sir Joseph Paxton; unitised without being uniform, uncomplicated without being crude or uninspiring, and a logically resolved rectilinear structural grid able to accommodate the complex snaking tapering plan form demanded by the railway. Source Connexions: The unseen hand of Tony Hunt