MVHR made easy with Posi-Joist

McLaren Construction (MC) presented Howarth Timber Engineered Solutions (HTES) with a unique set of criteria for the development of 110 luxury apartments and houses at Cambium Gardens, Putney, in London.

Designed by Scott Brownrigg Associates, the brief was to construct very energy efficient buildings with large open rooms but keep the building mass to a minimum for their luxury development apartments and houses. Also to combine this with ventilation systems providing constant fresh air into the apartments and homes.

MC teamed up with HTES, via the carpentry installers J A Stott, in order to use their expertise and the MiTek PAMIR software to meet the required specification.

It was identified at an early stage that the pre-cast concrete slabs originally specified would not work and an alternative in the form of MiTek’s Posi-Joists was tabled. This lightweight solution allowed for the complex Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) ductwork and building services to be hidden within the floor joist zone, maximising the living space within the buildings.

HTES using the latest EC5 compliant MiTek software PAMIR to design not only the Posi-Joist floor joists but also using the 3D capabilities of PAMIR, ensured that the MVHR ductwork was able to traverse the floors of the luxury apartments and houses. HTES worked directly as an integral part of the project design team producing interactive 3-D models and BIM compatible design solutions so that the entire design team could check and sign off the proposals before any work was carried out on site.

The MiTek PAMIR software is able to produce not only .dwg drawings, but also .pdf files, CAD drawings as well as Industry Foundation Class (IFC) files – to be imported into Revit. This coordinated approach saved both time and money on the build for the Contractor, Architect, Engineers and M&E designers.

As changes were made to the ductwork layouts and runs, HTES were able to reconfigure the Posi-Joists accordingly.

The use of MiTek’s PAMIR software made this process possible and ensured that these components would not compromise the structural integrity of the floor.

A challenging project for all involved, but the skill and experience of the HTES Senior Designer combined with the flexibility of the design software made it possible to work through giving an efficient and cost-effective solution.