The angular aesthetics of the Sainsbury Laboratory may imply design simplicity but, according to AKT structural engineer Steve Toons, this conceals all manner of "structural gymnastics within." For both functional and aesthetic reasons, long spans (up to 13.5m) and ambitious cantilevers (up to 7.5m) were required on the garden elevations, laboratory and entrance areas. To achieve these, void formers were built into exposed or encased ribbed concrete slabs, with the flat soffits acting as compression flanges on the latter. A key aesthetic requirement for the twin continuous 600mm deep concrete nosings that run the full perimeter of entrance and side elevations was that no movement joints were visible - despite the nosings stretching for almost 80m. Hence, in-situ concrete was used, tied back into the floor-plate and with insulation applied to the floor and soffit, creating a "thermal gradient."
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