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Case Study Of Weald And Downland Open Air Museum

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Weald and Downland open air museum is the place that provides ancient buildings and lifestyle of the British in countryside areas. The oldest building is more than 600 years in age(Wealddown.co.uk, 2014) Therefore, many places for visiting in this museum but the most attractive construction for the civil engineers is the grid shell. The Downland grid shell was built as a workshop for the museum and let the workmen to fix their houses or to study their own projects. Grid shell was made by timber to form in a triple sandglass shape without column and beam. The important fact about the Downland grid shell is it is noted to be the first twice-layered lumber grid shell in the UK.(Harris et al., 2003)This would mean that grid shell must be unique and difficult to form the shape. In this essay I will explain about material for building grid shell and construction steps with some engineer knowledges. Grid shell is the structure that has a property like a shell shape. This would mean that grid shell must obtain only compression force and the force is allowed to pass through the arch of the grid shell. The benefit of geometric shape of grid shell is it provides stability to the structure. Therefore grid shell can stand itself without any supports(Paoli, 2007). In order to accomplish the grid shell client(museum) had to consult with architecture and engineering company. After that oak lath were used to be the frame of this grid shell. According to Eurocode 5, Design of Timber

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