Bracknell

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Contract	Stack Car Park, Bracknell Business Park
Value
Client	Arlington Properties
Employer	Parkman

The stack car park was included as a design and build element in the main project. The Contractor however elected to employ the client's design team to take the design to Construction stage. There had been no structural input up to tender stage other than for the foundations. The remainder was extrapolated by the Architect from similar plots elsewhere on the development.

Unfortunately it soon transpired that the arrangement they had drawn had some severe shotcomings. Several spaces were rendered unusable by columns intruding in on both sides, the ramps were excessively steep and lacked headroom, and the cycle storage - cramped in under the basement ramp with less than 1.2m headroom - was completely impractical. The drainage falls also channeled water straight into the structure's contraction joint.

We therefore undertook to re-design the layout, using a "warped slab" arrangement to take advantage of the drainage falls and use them as access ramps between levels. This approach, coupled with a rationalisation of the column arrangement gained five additional car parking spaces together with high quality, ground level cycle parking accessed from a path without having to mix with motor vehicles.

The structure consists of RC flat slabs, with a watertight basement box. All foundations are piled to take into account the variable subsoil conditions.