Avoiding Nuisance Through a Steel Plate Shear Wall System and Steel Truss System

At Marble Arch Place, Multiplex is building an 18 storey tower, a seven storey building and a five storey basement. As top-down construction is being used, temporary reinforcement is required to support the core and slabs above the basement before permanent support structures can be constructed.

Initially, Multiplex was going to install 250mm and 400mm thick, heavily reinforced temporary, double height reinforced concrete outrigger walls. The problem was that this would have to be broken out at some point, causing nuisance to neighbours. Multiplex therefore chose to adopt a bespoke solution to the engineering problem by creating an innovative hybrid solution of a Steel Plate Shear Wall System and a Steel Truss System between basement level one and the lower ground floor. The steel plate is mainly 15mm thick with increased thickness of 30mm and 40mm in areas that are prone to buckling.

This eliminated the need for reinforced concrete and consequently the removal of these sections will involve cutting steel which is a lot quieter and cleaner than breaking concrete. This in turn reduces nuisance to neighbours from dust and noise. Moreover, the steel components can be easily recycled, ready for reuse, reducing embedded carbon dioxide compared to temporary concrete.