Porsche dealership, South Wales

We have completed many motor dealerships in our time with architects, such as Pier Architecture who we worked with on this project, and for different dealerships including BMW Motorrad, BMW, Mini, JLR and Aston Martin.

This Porsche showroom in Newport near Cardiff was both a showroom and a workshop. The workshop was a simple rectangular portal frame with first-floor mezzanine. The workshop was a relatively straightforward design. However, it was the curved showroom façade with an all-glass frontage that presented some structural challenges.

Our initial problem was designing foundations on what was essentially the landfill site for the rest of the industrial estate. We had up to 3m of uncompacted fill to deal with. Instead of simply resorting to a piled scheme for the foundations and ground floor slab, we devised a ground improvement scheme and worked with a ground improvement specialist to ensure that the proposals were achievable and economic. Vibro-compaction was used to make the ground suitable for traditional concrete pads and ground-bearing slab foundations. Vibro-compaction saved the client considerable time as the whole process is much quicker than piling, groundwork can start a lot sooner. There were further savings to be made with the thickness of the working platform owing to the lighter plant and machinery and savings in “muck away” through the elimination of arisings from the installation of piles.

Our second challenge was the continuous glass curved front of the showroom which had pillars supporting it at each facet point. Pier Architecture was concerned that the views through the windows were heavily obstructed and the look was more industrial than commercial.

The glass was self-supporting up to the underside of the cladding and only required lateral restraint at the head of the windows. Therefore, the challenge was to support the cladding panels above the windows. We devised a solution where the support for the cladding could be supported on four columns, as opposed to twelve, with intermediate support for the cladding hung from the roof.

Finally, the brand architect wanted a roof light installed at a 45-degree angle to the front of the curved fronted entrance which cut across all the support we had designed for the roof, and now we had no supporting columns to help support the load. This late change was unanticipated and was initially problematic as there was now a clear void where we once had supporting beams and a fixed column layout in the showroom and mezzanine offices below. Through the careful use of 3D modelling and analytical technology were able to retrofit a series of cantilevered trusses to support the roof around the proposed roof light.

None of the outcomes of this project would have been achievable without working closely with the Architect and coordinating the changes in design with BIM technology that enabled us to model solutions and present a viable design to ensure the architect and client achieved their vision.

If you have a workshop and car showroom or similar project that you need structural assistance on, a second opinion or a value engineering exercise please give us a call on 01993 225085 or mail@swjconsulting.co.uk. We have offices in Oxfordshire and in Southampton so are well placed to work with clients throughout the South of England.

Project Team

Client: Dick Lovett

Architect: Pier Architecture

Contractor: Beard Construction