Architectural Design Only Succeeds Due to the Unusual Use of Cables
When Kathleen Pope, president of Wilmette-based Cable Design, Inc., an innovative cable and display design company, was contact by Perkins & Will serving as the executive architect to the Qatar Foundation for a new “Education City” project in the Qatari capital of Doha, she needed to solve a problem. The Bridge-Arts & Science College Building was to have GFRC (glass, fiber, reinforced cement) panels of all different shapes and sizes attached to the structure of the building.
The suspended panels were an architectural treatment, was Michael A. Weiner, NCARB, LEED AP an associate at Perkins & Will. In addition, the double-walled panel system was to be used as a sun screen to protect the building from the harsh sun.
The design concept focused on two or three foot spaces between each panel and the actual wall of the building. The problem was the architectural firm needed to know how this concept would be engineered so the panels didn't fall off the building.
Perkins & Will turned to Kathleen Pople to solve the problem for this 250,000-square-foot building. Design drawings were sent to Pope to see if she could determine what manufactured materials should be used. Pope needed to determine what cables were best for the unusual project by doing wind load testing and determining the cable weight that was required for the job. She also needed to determine what diameter cable was needed, how often it was needed, how to attach the panels together, and how the cable would be attached to the building. At first, these were not easy questions to answer.
A quality of Cable Rope Assembly was required to fix 10,990m2 of Precast Glass Reinforced Concrete Panels, says Pope. This would require 120 sets of stainless steel cable rope assemblies. Custom three-arm spider bracket, and strut assembly supported by cable, were designed to adjust cable clamps for 20mm dia cable and mounting hardware.
The cable and mounting hardware could be attached at the building wall with brackets for connecting the panels to each other. The ends of the cable required stainless steel end fittings and turnbuckles attached at the roof.
Today, the completed building houses a liberal arts college affiliated with Texas A&M, as well as the Academic Bridge Program, and a language program where students from all over the Arab world brush up on their English.
This is not the only education project this Cable Design firm has worked on with Perkins and Will. Pope is currently working on a UCLA project involving suspending custom glass panels inside one of their education buildings.
For more detailed information about the Bridge-Arts and Science project in Doha, Qatar, please contact Kathleen Pope (847) 256-9813