Sadler's Wells East

Schöck choreographs bespoke canopy at Sadler’s Wells East

The new Sadler’s Wells East dance theatre is to open at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2024. An imposing cantilevered canopy runs the 51m length of the frontage, carrying a precast green roof. This presented several design challenges, due to the very high support loadings carried by the end profile of the RC cantilever beams – each 500mm wide x 950mm deep, with a 4.6m cantilever. The load complexity and arrangement of the bespoke Schöck thermal breaks transferring such high forces into a relatively small concrete section of beam, required the support rods to be designed using Finite Element Software. The cantilever beams allow the Isokorb rods to penetrate far enough into the structure to distribute the loads and, in addition, bomb blast loading had to be considered, introducing uplift forces. So the design accommodates loads in both positive and negative directions for both moment and shear. Tight deflection requirements and natural frequency had to be calculated as well. The main canopy length and size of rods required to transfer the main forces, meant thermal stresses would be caused by the. expansion and contraction of the external concrete. Schöck therefore incorporated its new heavy-duty Stacon dowel type SLD, as an expansion joint at every third beam (approximately 8.4m centres). This new dowel is a uniquely compact product and as the anchoring bodies have been reduced in size, it enables higher loads to be installed in thinner slabs and walls, optimising on-site reinforcement.