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Albert Loh Consultants SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL ROOF

INTRODUCTION

The Singapore Sports School has a series of curved roofs covering the auditorium, the 2 swimming pools and the badminton hall. These roofs have a unique structural system that is integrated into the curved shape of the roof in order to maximize the floor to ceiling / roof clearance for the given roof height. The structural system utilizes a series of arches hidden within the curves of the roof to transfer the structural loads to the columns.

The Swimming Pools of the Singapore Sports School are covered with a roof system that spans two full-sized 50-metre swimming pools and extends over the column free indoor badminton hall. The roof comprises 3 curved span elements of 36m wide and is separated from each other by a distance of 9.0m. Two of the curved span elements cover each of the two pools and the third covers the indoor badminton hall. Each curved span element is supported on 4 columns. The columns are located at the 4 corners of the each curved span element and are approximately 36m x 40.5m apart from each other. The curved span elements are linked by a series of horizontal members. These links also form a wide curved gutter that drains rain run-off water in the longitudinal direction.

The intention of the structural design is to keep all the structural elements within the plane of the curved roof. This results in a clean and elegant appearance and permits maximum headroom in the enclosed space, ideal for indoor sporting activities.
Albert Loh Consultants SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL ROOF Albert Loh Consultants SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL ROOF
Albert Loh Consultants STEEL DESIGN AWARD
STEEL DESIGN AWARD

SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL ROOF

The Singapore Sports School has a series of curved roofs covering the two 50m swimming pools and the badminton hall. These roofs have an unusual structure that is integrated into the curved shape of the roof and utilizes the curves of the roof to transfer the structural loads.

Albert Loh Consultants SINGAPORE SPORTS SCHOOL ROOF

DESIGN CONCEPT

The structural system of the roof is unique and yet simple. The system comprises arches hidden within the curve of the roof.

Tubular arch rafters at 9.0m centers span 36 m across the width of the roof. A longitudinal arch "beam" spanning 40.5 m between columns supports these arch rafters. The arch beam is inclined and integrated within the plane of the roof slope in order to both hide the structure within the roof space as well as to support the arch rafters in the plane of the arch rafters. This enables the loads from the arch rafters to be transferred directly into the arch beam without any eccentricities.

The loads from the rafters impose compressive stresses into the arch beam that in turn results in tension forces at the supports. As the arch beam is inclined, there are also tension forces acting in the direction of inclination of the arch beam. These tension forces at the supports are resolved by placing ties at the support locations hence canceling each other out.

The result of this structural concept is a roof that does not require any trusses even though the columns are set at 36m x 40.5m apart. The structure is entirely contained within the curved surface of the roof. This system also gives efficiency to the use of steel. The total tonnage for structural steel is 433.5 tons (about 0.07tons/sq.m)