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48

CONSTRUCTION WORLD

MARCH

2016

LSFB

brings

PEACE

and

BEAUTY

STEEL CONSTRUCTION

Yet, in the recent past in South

Africa, not only has this exciting

building method become increas-

ingly accepted in the mainstream

architectural and construction industries, it

has also shown that an architect can design

almost any building or structure and have it

executed with LSFB.

The most recent and example is the

expansion at the well-known Boland farm

Vrede en Lust of their function and wedding

venue accommodation. This was built in

a typical Cape Dutch style so that it would

blend in with the existing buildings on the

farm – some dating back to the early 1700.

The owners decided that it should be a

five-star facility, an energy efficient building

with excellent acoustic insulation between

rooms, top class finishes and, most impor-

tantly, had to be built within six months as a

turnkey project.

The Silverline Group, one of the leading

LSFB contractors in the country, was

contracted for the structural engineering, the

detail shop drawings, and the total construc-

tion project including civil works and finishes.

The project began on 4 May 2015 and the

first wedding ceremony was successfully held

at the venue on 7 November 2015, an incred-

ible mere six months later.

John Barnard, SASFA director says that

the speed of construction possible with LSFB

allows the facility to be in use that much

quicker, thereby bringing in income long

before it would otherwise have been possible

with conventional building methods. “It

is not only the speed of construction that

saves money in the long term,” he says. “By

using LSFB material wastage can be reduced

significantly, transport costs slashed by up

to 80% and the carbon footprint significantly

reduced,” Barnard says.

He adds that LSFB is definitely much more

energy efficient than more traditional

construction methods, both with regard

to ‘embodied energy’ of the materials and

components, as well as ‘operational energy’

relating to heating and cooling of the building

over its design life.

At Vrede en Lust aluminium-zinc coated,

high strength steel sheet was used for the

light steel structure and was roll-formed on

a Framecad roll-forming machine. The roof

trusses were designed by Silverline Group

using MITEK UltraSpan software. All windows

were specified to be single-glazed aluminium

frames – due to the high R-values of the insu-

lated walls, double-glazing was not required.

It has taken some time

for the South African

architectural industry

to accept that light steel

frame building (LSFB) is

a construction method

suitable even for complex

and creative design.

In order to achieve the Cape Dutch design

a special cobbling plaster, designed by

Malherbe Rust Architects, was used. The

building was finished internally with full skim

plaster on 15 mm high impact Lafarge gypsum

boards with 102 mm Cavitybatt insulation

supplied by Isover.

Charl van Zyl, CEO of Silverline Group,

says that with fully skimmed ceilings in all

bedrooms, down lighters were the perfect fit

for the luxury room designs. Acoustic ceilings

were fitted in the kitchen, front entrance and

boardroom and restaurant. All bathroom

walls were clad with fibre cement board and

waterproofed, fully skimmed and painted.

Van Zyl says that this was one of the most

LSFB was used for the successful

expansion of the luxury

function and wedding venue

accommodation at Vrede and Lust.

>

“By using LSFB

material wastage

can be reduced

significantly,

transport costs

slashed by up to

80% and the carbon

footprint significantly

reduced”.