Alice Hoy Building

Load Carrying Elements

ENGR20003 Assignment 2

Mohamed Yaqzan Qasim (624535)

Abstract

The Alice Hoy Building built in the University of Melbourne in 1962, house the department of Optometry and Vision Sciences. The building is 4 stories high and is situated facing Swanston street. The building seems to be made mostly of concrete and glass with some masonry for both aesthetic appeal and function. This report examines the layout and the load paths (both gravitational and lateral) as well as 1 load supporting element - a concrete column - of the Alice Hoy building. Furthermore, the suitability and sustainability of using concrete in the future is also studied.

Introduction

The Alice Hoy building began construction around 1960 and

The building contains general learning and teaching spaces, optometry laboratories and offices. The first 2 floors contains the reception, computer labs and learning space with the specialized labs, more tutorial rooms and a recreational area on the 3rd floor. The staff offices and administration departments being located on the 4th floor.

The building is presumably made of 2 main materials; concrete and masonry. These materials have been used for both structural and appearance purposes. That is to say, they work to bear load and give the building a facade. Dry walls and wooden panelling have also been used inside. Steel beams are also easily identifiable supporting the stair cases made of concrete.

The building itself is constructed with a wide array of structural elements. These include beams, columns and slabs on each level as well as shear walls to take on horizontal loads. As there is very low risk of earthquake in Victoria, these horizontal loads are mostly due to wind. The building also contains bracing to support beams as well beams of varying sizes and cross-sectional shapes to transfer loads over

Building

(Construction-Chemicals.Basf.com,2013).

Concrete recycling is also becoming more and more popular with a shift in attitudes and awareness. Concrete recycling involves gathering concrete rubble after demolition and then processing the remainders into high-quality aggregates. This reduces the impact from aggregate collection. However, most countries as of now do not recycle a large percentage of the concrete; with the leaders being Netherlands and UK both countries which have a consumption of recycled aggregate above 20% (Jahren, 2013).

This is not all, according to Jahren, other materials such as used tires and glass can be used as aggregate in concrete for both functional and aesthetically pleasing results. Researchers have presented preliminary results of using different materials from wasted plastic as light weight aggregate in concrete to hemp and even slag from lead production. (Jahren, 2013).