Project overview
Villa V-75 is a villa at Dubai Hills in Dubai. Wrenze Steel carried out the structural design for the steel frames that support the villa’s GRC elements, working for DAMAC Crescent Properties as client.
The renders show a white, two-storey modern villa. Its facade has angled white fins, deep frames around windows and a projecting frame over the entrance. Another view shows the villa opening onto a pool and terraces.
Our scope
Our scope was the structural design for the GRC steel frames. GRC stands for glassfibre reinforced concrete. It is a thin, strong concrete reinforced with glass fibres and is widely used for architectural shapes such as fins, frames and decorative panels.
GRC panels are not self-supporting over large areas. They are fixed to a steel frame, which carries them back to the building structure. We designed that frame: the members behind each panel, the fixings that hold the panels and the connections into the villa’s main structure.
Supports for facade and cladding, including cold-formed steel frames, are one of the engineering services Wrenze offers.
The structure
A GRC support frame carries two main loads. The first is the self-weight of the panels, which is significant for concrete, even when thin. The second is wind, acting as pressure on some faces and suction on others. Fins and projecting frames catch wind on both sides and can be loaded in ways a flat wall is not.
Deflection limits are tight. GRC is relatively brittle, so the frame must not move enough to crack the panels or open the joints between them.
Fixings must allow for movement. GRC and steel expand differently with temperature, and the building itself moves slightly. The panel fixings usually combine fixed points with sliding points so that movement does not build up stress in the panels.
Durability is the last issue. The frame is hidden behind the cladding and cannot easily be maintained, so galvanising or a suitable coating is specified from the start.
See our work on facades and cladding frames, or request a quote for GRC support design.
