Project overview
The SKMC hospital renovation is a healthcare project in Abu Dhabi. Wrenze Steel carried out the steel structural design for the renovation, working for QA Construct as client.
The render shows the outpatient specialty clinic, with a wide drop-off canopy at the entrance, a cream facade with arched windows and decorative screening along the roofline.
Our scope
Our scope was steel structural design. Renovation work is different from a new build: the steel has to fit into a building that already exists and, in a hospital, often stays in use while the work goes on.
Steel design for a renovation usually involves:
- understanding the existing structure from drawings and site information;
- designing new steel members to suit the new layout or features;
- checking how new loads pass into the existing structure, and whether it can carry them;
- detailing connections to existing concrete or steel that can be installed with limited disruption.
That third point links renovation design closely to structural assessment, where an existing structure is checked before new loads are added to it.
The structure
In a building renovation, structural steel is often chosen for new elements because it is light, can be prefabricated off site and is installed quickly with bolted connections. Those qualities matter in a hospital, where noise, dust and time on site all need to be kept low.
Entrance canopies, roof screens, new openings, platforms for plant and supports for new facade features are all typical renovation elements built in steel. A drop-off canopy like the one in the render must span over vehicles with few columns, carry its own roof and finishes, and resist wind uplift. Roofline screens collect wind across their full height and pass it into brackets fixed back to the building.
Where steel meets an existing structure, connections usually use post-installed anchors into concrete. Their capacity depends on the condition of the concrete, edge distances and embedment, so those details need care in design.
Read about our structural steel design service and our work in Abu Dhabi, or request a quote for your renovation project.
