Orbital 25, Watford

This is one of eight blocks on the site with each block having up to 10 units. 7 of the blocks are complete and the last one is due for completion in the spring of 2008. George Voyias was Project Engineer responsible for the design of all the structural work as well as the roads and drainage.

The units have a steel framing with reinforced concrete ground bearing slabs and a composite concrete first floor slab cast on profiled metal decking. The first floor levels have either a complete floor for office use or a mezzanine floor for both office and storage space. The storage space at first floor has been designed to support an imposed loading of 5.0kN/square metre.

Portland Avenue Flats,
Stamford Hill, London

This is a three storey block of 9 prestigious flats procured as a design and build scheme. The challenge was achieving a cost-effective structural solution with the constraints of projecting balconies, low roofs, contaminated ground and areas of 4.5m deep made ground.

The building has timber roof trusses, load-bearing masonry, with precast concrete floors and isolated steelwork. The foundations are a combination of trench-fill footings generally with an area of reinforced concrete ground beams on mass concrete pad bases. The construction cost was just over £1 million.