IQ 5, Birmingham
The IQ 5 building was a landmark project in the UK for light gauge steel technology, winning two prestigious awards for offsite construction in the best residential and special award for innovation categories.
The design of the component system build project for a 12 storey building, compromising 450 studio flats was undertaken in an 18 month period.
The component system build compromised prefabricated floor cassettes spanning between cold formed steel studs pre-assembled into wall panels. The Prefabricated floor cassettes utilised reinforced concrete, hot and cold rolled steel for a robust fire-resistant structure. The light gauge steel frame wall panels were designed to carry the load from the floor cassettes. Building lateral stability was achieved via diagional flat strap tension bracing provided at each internal cross wall between the studio apartments, the bracing components were connected to hot rolled posts integrated within the wall panels.
Modular technology was utilised within the design to form special lift and stair pre-fabricated modules.
