SAISC – Southern African Institute of Steel Construction

News

11/01/2019 / Community Building, Education,

What’s up next? Important dates for Q1

The new year brings with it lots of opportunities to connect, develop and partner with us for the good of the industry as a whole. We want to mak...

Basic Connection Design Course

This new "Hands On" basic connections course will include all the general information from the previous courses but will concentrate on the candi...

Meet our members: Macsteel

Consisting of nine dynamic Business Units and operating from a network of 79 service centres, branches and warehouses, Macsteel supplies the enti...

STEEL AWARDS 2018 SPONSORS

Steel Awards 2018

We’ve received an impressive 74 entries for this year’s SAISC Steel Awards! For more on the winning projects, click here. As always, we are delighted to have support in the form of sponsorship from companies in the industry, and look forward to celebrating the tenacity, ingenuity and excellent work produced by the steel construction industry of Southern Africa!

A big thank you to our sponsors: Pro Roof – Main Sponsor Gauteng Aveng Trident Steel – Main Sponsor Cape Town, Beverage Sponsor (National) ArcelorMittal South Africa – Digital Trailblazer Cadex Systems SA – Photo Competition ASPTM – Tubular Category Safintra SA – Factory and Warehouse Category Global Roofing Systems – Metal Cladding Category Safal Steel – Innovation Category NJR Steel – Partner Sponsor Macsteel – Partner Sponsor Stewarts and Lloyds – Partner Sponsor KRU Detailing – Gauteng photobooth sponsor

FEATURED STEEL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Structural Steel Roof Over Blue Downs Swimming Pool

The Blue Downs swimming pool was developed in response to the City of Cape Town’s wish to provide a high-quality indoor public swimming pool to serve the Blue Downs community. It is intended that the pool should serve as both a general community facility as well a sporting facility for use during swimming competitions. The design of the structural steel roof comprises a main roof over the swimming pool area, as well as adjacent subsidiary roofs over two separate public seating areas, an administration block and a lifeguard tower. The requirements of the architectural design were furthermore that the main roof should be supported only at the four corners, standing 35 metres apart on circular concrete water storage ‘silos’ (the silos are for storing rainwater run-off from the roof for use in the pool). Due to the architectural requirements and the large spans involved, it was considered that no other structural medium other than structural steel would be feasible. The original architectural design called for a rounded double barrel-vault roof over the main swimming pool area, in accordance with which a thin shell-type roof structure was designed. Due to financial constraints and difficulty in engaging suit-able local steel fabricators prepared to carry out the work, which required extensive use of curved members, the design was subsequently revised during construction to the current pyramid shape. In carrying out the re-design, the new design was constrained to an extent by the configuration of the supporting reinforced concrete structure already constructed. Because of the highly corrosive swimming pool environment, a duplex system of corrosion protection consisting of both hot-dip galvanising and painting was adopted. As the components of the toblerone trusses were too large for the galvanising bed, zinc metal spraying was used for these elements in lieu of hot dip galvanising. Inspection and testing of the zinc spray application was carried out by the Hot Dip Galvanizers Association in order to ensure compliance with the speci-fications. The main roof as per the revised design and as constructed comprises the follow-ing main structural elements: Pitched ‘toblerone’-type trusses forming the four corners of the pyramid shape, edge girders, and sloping secondary trusses. The toblerone trusses are the primary structural elements, spanning diagonally across the pool between the supporting silos, and intersecting at the roof apex. The trusses work in combined bending and axial loading and rely on the lateral resist-ance provided by the four support points. The trusses support the ends of the purlins, the ends of the secondary trusses, and the translucent sheeting forming the facetted corners of the roof. Because of the potential for buckling in the slender axially-loaded trusses, diagonal bracing was provided in the plane of the roof to provide lateral stability. The edge girders are placed along the perimeter of the main roof. Besides support-ing the side cladding and the outer sections of the roof, the edge girders assist in resisting the lateral support reactions from the sloping toblerone trusses. The edge girders on two sides of the structure also support the top edges of the subsidiary roofs over the seating areas. The secondary trusses support the roof purlins, and are in turn supported at their top ends by the toblerone trusses and at their lower ends by the edge girders. In addition to supporting the roof loads, the secondary trusses are also used to provide lateral support to the chords of the edge girders. The architectural requirements were for the structural steelwork to be exposed and to make use as far as possible of circular tubular members in order to be aestheti-cally pleasing. All main structural elements with the exception of purlins and sheeting rails, and including all knee braces and diagonal bracing, have therefore been fabricated using circular hollow sections. With the numerous intersecting members, welded connections between intersecting tubular members were in some cases rather complex, requiring careful fabrication. A number of technical challenges had to be overcome in both the design and the erection of the roof structure. Due to the large span of the main roof, vertical midspan deflections of almost 60mm could be expected in the four edge girders. The interface between the main roof and the side roofs therefore had to be designed to accommodate this relative movement. In the case of the roofs over the administration building and lifeguard tower, this was accomplished by separating the side roofs from the main roof, and accommodating the movement by provision of sliding flashing joints in the cladding. The erection sequence was established in consultations between the engineer and the steel fabricator, taking cognisance of the requirements of the design. The edge girders and toblerone trusses intersect at common corner elements, and these elements had to be installed at the beginning of the erection process. The corner elements had to be accurately placed in order to ensure proper fitting of the various trusses and girders. Because the toblerone trusses rely on the edge girders to withstand the lateral support reactions, the four edge girders had to be erected beforehand. This meant that the toblerone trusses had to be installed while working over the edge girders. One of the toblerone trusses was installed, remaining temporarily propped until the intersecting truss could be installed to provide stability. Once these main members were in place, the secondary trusses and other structural elements such as bracing members and purlins could be installed. Because the design allows little tolerance for dimensional discrepancies, a high level of input was required by the steel fabricator in order to achieve the required accuracies. Project Team Developer/ Owner: City of Cape Town Architect: ARG Design Structural Engineer: Bergstan South Africa Quantity Surveyor: LWA Quantity Surveyors (R/A Waterson & Hoosai cc) Project Manager: ARG Design Main Contractor: Tempani Construction (Pty) Ltd Steelwork Contractor: Mazor Steel (Pty) Ltd
MacEdwards House Extension

The Deep Flute Floor System is a floor system characterized by its steel permanent formwork. The steel acts alone to carry the construction loads - without any support within its span.The steel formwork also serves as the mould giving the concrete the shape required of it to act as part of the Engineered floor system.
Time Square Maslow Hotel

Structural profiles used: Structural Hot Rolled, Tubular Steelwork up to 1000mm diameter, etc.
Future Africa Campus

Client/ Developer: University of Pretoria
Victor Daitz Mathematics Centre

The King Edward VII Mathematics Centre is located at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. The project is a classroom facility with a hockey pavilion comprising both an upper viewing deck with kitchenette facility and lower area of team ablution/change facilities, as well as a larger ablution facility for scholar use.
V&A Grain Silo Complex façade

The V&A Grain Silo was built in the 1920s to store grain for export out of South Africa. This industrial heritage complex was rejuvenated as the central feature of the world class green Silo District development. Heatherwick Studio was engaged to conceptualise the redevelopment that is now occupied by The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA) and The Silo Hotel.
Stortemelk Hydropower

Architect’s Motivation Situated in the rolling foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains, along the banks of the Ash River, the Stortemelk Hydroelectric Plant attempts to celebrate the importance the plant holds in producing clean, responsible electricity in South Africa.
Soweto Sports Centre

What was the brief to the architect? A multi-purpose sports arena for the Soweto community, to be able to practice various disciplines of sports in a world-class arena
Silo 3 and 4

No. 3 Silo consists of three independent apartment towers containing 79 high end apartments over 11 floors. The three towers are connected by two steel framed lift and stair cores enclosed in expanded aluminium mesh, providing spectacular views of the harbour and V+A precinct.
Rosebank Link

At 15 stories above the ground, the building consists of two basement parking levels, a ground floor or public/retail level, five parkade levels, and nine stories of offices from a podium level. It will allow everyday pedestrians to traverse without barriers from the Gautrain through to the adjacent malls.
Rissik Street Post Office

What is the purpose of the structure/ project? The structural steel is intended to act as a supporting frame of the existing building as it was previously damaged by fire in 2009.
RCL Foods Head Office, Westville

This project was undertaken in the framework of an extraordinary collaboration of the developer/landlord/contractor, tenant, architect, interior designer, branding alchemist and technical team. Somewhat of a 'rescue operation', we engaged by the developer to redesign a new corporate head office for RCL Foods after construction had commenced on the site in Westway Office Park.
Radisson Hotel at Silo 6

The Radisson Red hotel located in Silo 6 has art, music and fashion at its core. It is an upmarket hotel that caters to business travellers, international travellers and families. This 252-room Hotel, recently completed, is the first in South Africa of a new offering by the Radisson Group. The vibrant 4-star brand, Radisson Red, caters for a younger, trendier segment of the tourist market. Situated immediately adjacent to the precinct’s Centrepiece, MOCAA (museum of Contemporary African Art), this project occupies a critical position. With MOCAA as the focus, and the existing BOE building on the opposite side, Silo 6 was designed to complement this composition of three buildings. Conceptually, the building is a ‘wall’ building that defines the outer edge of the precinct and in mirroring the scale of the BOE building, showcases MOCAA as the focal point. Architecturally, the wall concept is expressed literally through the creative use of rendered brick construction on the East and West facades while the North and South facades reflect the Dockland’s industrial heritage using Steel and Glass. The punctured fenestration on the East and West facades reflects the rational floor layout of rooms and is expressed using a custom designed protruding Aluminium frame. Juxtaposed against the rough brickwork, this device is a key contemporary insertion in the architectural expression of the building. The building has been awarded a 5-star Green Building status. The project site had an existing super basement that was designed to accommodate a generic building on top of it. During the time when the basement was constructed, the client (V&A Waterfront) wasn’t 100% sure whether the building would be a hotel. The Rezidor Hotel Group/ Raddison Red later become the operator of the Radisson Red Hotel at Silo 6. The Radisson Group has their own design requirements for creating a hotel and the brief to the architects was to adhere to their standards and to create a hotel that would maximise the number of rooms as well as fit into the Silo District, which has become a landmark in South Africa’s Mother City. To create a commercially viable hotel, stay within the brand standards and requirements, and maximise keys of the third Radisson Red hotel in the world, the design team had to think out of the box. Not only did they have to respond to an existing structural grid that didn’t relate to a hotel configuration, but they also had to carefully consider how the north façade of the hotel would complement the Silo 6 district. The structural gymnastics that the team employed included introducing V-columns to create a layout that would accommodate a hotel, and the north façade of the hotel included interesting steel solutions and careful placement of cladding pannels to create a playful ‘random’ rhythm within the framework. There is a concrete frame structure with steel elements clipped onto the façade. The north façade is articulated with balustrading and channels that are fixed to the concrete structure with steel. The façade articulation speaks to the notion of an industrial area, which is appropriate for the context of the Silo 6 precinct which includes a working shipyard, a museum and other landmark buildings. The design team fixed vertical flat plates to the concrete frame structure in a series of angles to frame the balustrade modules. The beta fence panels (fencing panels) were then fixed to tubular sections. The concrete slab was then finished a C-channel that is fixed to the concrete edges, which created a unique and beautiful façade articulation. Red cladded panels create privacy for guests on their balcony. Bright red was an aesthetically pleasing way to introduce colour into the north façade while speaking to the operator’s brand, and created a seemingly random pattern on the façade. One of the challenges that the design team encountered was a manufacturing error that led to an incorrectly sized balustrade height. The calculation error led to the design team having to adjust the design to avoid remanufacturing of the balustrade modular panels. The architects inherited a restrictive structural grid which informed a very constrained north suite façade configuration and the design team was tasked with articulating the north façade to create a playful ‘random’ rhythm in the framework. The balcony spaces vary in size due to the staggering of the red panels, which creates a beautiful façade. The challenge of the manufacture height was successfully overcome by the design team and the contractor working hand in hand to deliver the project on time and within budget. The team were able to collaborate to look at ways to achieve the desired results by modifying the fixing detail. Cladding profile/ type used Klip-Tite & IBR Cladding area/ coverage 270m2 Cladding tonnage 1,4 tons Project Team Project Team Role Company Nominator Global Roofing Solutions Client/ Developer Not provided by nominator Architect Peerutin + Design Space Africa Structural Engineer Arup South Africa Engineer Not provided by nominator Quantity Surveyor MLC Cape Town Project Manager Not provided by nominator Main Contractor Not provided by nominator Steelwork Contractor Not provided by nominator Steel Erector Not provided by nominator Cladding Manufacturer Global Roofing Solutions Cladding Supplier Global Roofing Solutions Cladding Contractor Chartwell Roofing Corrosion Protection Galvanising Not provided by nominator Corrosion Protection Paintwork Contractor Not provided by nominator Photographer, Photo competition Not provided by nominator Photographer, Other submitted images Not provided by nominator If you were a part of this project, and your company details are incorrect or missing - please notify the SAISC so that the error can be corrected.
Ngezi Lounge

When brothers Moses and Selby Mdaka approached Aura Entle to install a floor for their restaurant the team saw the project as an opportunity to carry out its practice of giving opportunity to unemployed youths. The Ngezi Lounge Project is located in the township of Letlhabile, in the North West Province.
Kusile power station: absorber strakes: specialised fabrication and transportation

The largest components to be moved were 120o segments of a 20m diameter, 9m high, circular absorber tower section, fabricated from 14mm steel plate.
House Matthews

The brief to the architect was to ensure that steel remains the dominant element in the design, creating strong features yet also a light quality due to the slabs and walls sitting within the webs of the I beams.
City Logistics Ceiling

The steelwork was used to both strengthen the existing structure and provide a solution to the client/tenant’s need to successfully achieve the desired result and make this facility unique and superior to both parties.
Nike - Pulse

Several weeks of extremely detailed planning coupled with many hours of highly intricate detail drawing saw over 400 completed parts arriving at the fabrication shop.
Discovery Head Office

The Project entails the development of the new Head Office for Discovery Health in the Sandton Precinct and consists of three towers with glass façades and large skylight roofs on the two larger towers and required extensive steelwork support for the facades at roof level and between the three towers.
Club 2

One challenge that the design team encountered was cladding the curved radius of the large section I-beams.
33 Baker Street

Baker Street at its core was an upgrade of a current concrete building that was to be equipped with new structural steel to accommodate impressive looking glass and facades with paneling on the exterior. Essentially the overall appearance of the building was to be modified. The problem was getting accurate and existing concrete dimensions from site to work with the new Engineering/Architectural changes.
Steyn City Gatehouse
Pineslopes Play at Height Bunjee Tower
Dorp Street Facade
TRT Line 1A Tswane Rapid Transport - A Re Yeng
Sandton City Atrium on 5th - Facade Support Structure
Anglo American Cel
Roeland Park Office Block Development
House Molenaar
New Gym and Entertainment Area for Existing Residence
Breakwater Apartments
House Zinkwazi
House De Clercq
Create Cafe
Zimbi Lodge
St Johann
The Afriski Backpackers Lodge
Midax House Zinkwazi Beach
The Constantia Tree House
House Blue Crane
Sol Plaaitje University: Wind Driven Dynamic Solar Shading Structure
Gordon Road Girls' School Learner Support System
Eastgate Refurbishment Project
The Rivers Church Auditorium Glazed Spiral Ramp
Waterfall City Bridge
The Barn House
One Forrest
Granger Bay Demountable Parking
Mjejane Bush Lodge
Whitefield House
House Pearce
Kloof Road House
Concrete House
Sun City Tubular Tree Structures
Stellenbosch University Tygerberg Campus Phase 3
NMMU Foundation Phase Building
Time Square Globe Bar and Casino Arch
BMW H-EMS Roof Lift

WHAT DO WE DO?

Technical Support

The SAISC provides technical support to its members

With over 60 years worth of local, Southern African project case studies and access to experienced and qualified individuals, the SAISC is well placed to assist with technical queries relating to Steel Construction and Structural Engineering. Assistance with technical queries is a service offered to our professional individual members and company members.

Find out how you can become a member of the SAISC here.

If you’re already a member, please log in and visit our members-only Technical Hub to submit your query, or to view queries submitted by other members, which our team has already resolved.

Marketing and Publicity Support

The SAISC provides marketing and publicity support services to its members

Since the association’s inception in 1959 as the “Structural Steel Publicity and Advancement Association”, our primary objective has been to sing the praises of all players in the industry, while extolling the virtues of structural steel.

Our members are the kind of people who put their heads down and get on with the job. Their focus is completing a project with excellence, not necessarily on promoting their achievements. Using our Steel Construction Journal, our website, our social media platforms and press releases to other respected industry publications, we tell those success stories. Foundational marketing and publicity services are available to members as part of their annual membership fee. More comprehensive marketing services including video, photographic and audio recording services are available to members at a special discounted rate.

Find out how you can become a member of the SAISC here.

If you’re already a member, please log in and visit Support Services page to find out more.

Education, Training and Networking

The SAISC runs training and events for members and non-members

The SAISC has a wide range of CPD credit-bearing training courses aimed at young engineers. These courses incorporate face to face workshop sessions, video modules, and practical assignments. Public training dates are arranged based on the number of delegates interested in a particular course. If you have 8 or more delegates interested in a particular training course, an onsite course can be held at your premises on a date suitable to you. Download our course catalog here.

In addition to our training courses, we host business breakfasts, networking cocktail events, golf days and of course our annual Steel Awards gala events.

While all events are open to the public, special discounted rates are enjoyed by our members.

Advocacy and Lobbying

The SAISC voices the concerns of all of its members when lobbying government, policymakers and industry stakeholders

As a neutral party with members in all functions and levels within the Southern African steel construction industry, the SAISC strives to achieve its goal of a sustainable, healthy and wealthy industry for all players. This is sometimes a challenge as well as a delicate balancing act, as members are likely to have opposing views and objectives. We endeavor to facilitate opportunities for members to engage in an open, respectful and robust discussion where the end goal is for the industry as a whole to survive and thrive.

We invest great time and effort in engaging all levels of government on behalf of the steel construction industry to ensure that our members’ concerns are escalated and that policymakers are made aware of practical implications.