Versatile space frames.

(From Gulf Construction)

With architects aiming to create buildings and public spaces that are inviting, interesting and novel, building designs are exhibiting far more curvature than has been seen in the past. This is where space frame systems come into their own, providing an unmatched means of achieving almost any structural and decorative form and allowing architects to affordably add an artistic or symbolic statement to the structures they design, says a spokesman for Yousif Al Mandil, a Saudi Arabia-based manufacturer of space frame systems

Yousif Al Mandil has developed jointly with Saudi Steel Pipe (SSP) the ME-SSP space frame system, which offers a structurally efficient joint system that could be designed to offer any degree of moment and axial capacity

"The members of the space frame, which are directly connected to each other at their ends through a series of flanges and bolts, form an integral joint system that entirely eliminates the use of secondary nodes at the centre," the spokesman explains

A typical ME-SSP space frame member consists of four flanges fillet-welded to a solid steel rod at a precise location defined by the circumferential angle, and the offset distance from the rod end. The strut is stiffened at the ends by a novel "swaging" technique, which enables the rod to fit accurately at the reduced member end, thus ensuring concentric load distribution at the centre of the geometric nodal point." Space frames provide an affordable means of achieving visually impressive structural arrangements that provide appeal in many different ways to all buildings, says the spokesman

"There is virtually no limit to the geometrical arrangements that are possible as they can be used to create a wide range of shapes ranging from domes, spheres, cones, prisms, ovaloids, toroids, arches, cylinders, ellipses, pyramids, cantilevered, suspended, inclined structures, multiple curvatures and free-form shapes." "Often a limited project budget restricts the thinking of the designer to less interesting materials and buildings layouts, It is very easy to create an aesthetic enhancement to a building with a limited budget through the addition of a decorative and functional entrance canopy that becomes the visual feature and focal point. "In addition to architectural appeal, space frames can cost effectively make the structural members the feature in a building. Space frames not only provide structural support to the cladding system and service lines but can be left exposed internally. The savings afforded by eliminating the need for ceiling materials, installation, painting and maintenance are substantial," he says. The spokesman continues: "In addition, by allowing air-conditioning, heating and other ...