Structural design

A structural design does not end with the drawing that gets through the planning authority. It ends when the fabricator receives shop documentation from which a member can be cut and welded without a phone call asking what the author had in mind.

We design steel and reinforced concrete structures for industrial and engineering facilities, public buildings and residential buildings. We take a commission from the concept design, through the building permit and tender stages, to detailed and shop documentation. Depending on what the investment requires, we prepare documentation and provide consultancy in Polish, English or German, taking into account the standards in force in the country concerned.

From concept to shop documentation

Every stage of a design answers a different question. The concept decides whether the architect’s idea can actually be built. The building permit design has to pass an administrative procedure. Tender documentation has to let every contractor price the same thing. Detailed and shop drawings decide how many hours the erection will take.

We can run an investment through all of these stages, or come in at any point – including where documentation has to be taken over from someone else. Detailed designs of steel and reinforced concrete structures are produced here on the same model the analysis was run on, so drawings and calculations do not drift apart between stages.

One model, consistent documentation

Steel members and the reinforcement of concrete elements are defined directly in the three-dimensional structural model. Working drawings are generated from that same model, which keeps the documentation we issue strictly consistent with the model at every stage of the design.

We work in Revit and Advance Steel, and for steel structures also in Tekla. The model is shared by the whole team, so a change made in one place carries through to material schedules and drawings instead of waiting for someone to retype it by hand.

Industrial projects: the scale we work at

For the Mercedes-Benz electric battery plant in Jawor we designed a hall structure covering 44,000 m² with a steel tonnage of 2,600 t. The project was delivered entirely in BIM, with documentation in a bilingual Polish and English version – as required by the investor and by the contractors working on the facility.

At the Export Pack production and storage hall the scope covered a facility of 6,500 m². Among public buildings we have worked on the extension and refurbishment of the District Authority building in Wrocław – 4,000 m² – and on a listed four-storey former bank building on Stwosza Street, where the final commercial floor area reaches 7,000 m².

Who we work for

Our services are addressed to architectural practices, general contractors and steel fabrication plants. Each of these groups needs something different: the architect a solution that does not destroy the design intent; the contractor documentation precise enough to price an offer from; the fabricator a drawing that goes straight into production.

We deliver documentation with comprehensive technical descriptions. We design in accordance with the applicable standards, reducing construction costs wherever that can be done without going below the required level of operational safety. On request we provide designer’s supervision on site.

We design across five stages:

• Concept designs
• Building permit designs
• Tender designs
• Detailed designs
• Shop documentation