This is how the award-winning unique steel structure and building envelope of Jedlik Ányos Secondary School was made

Not even fully completed, the new building of the Jedlik Ányos Secondary School already won the regional second place and two public vote awards at the Construsoft TEKLA BIM Awards 2023. Magyar Építők interviewed two colleagues of bim.GROUP about the special building, who presented the design tasks and the special features of the project from their own perspective.

Our latest highlight has also attracted the attention of the professional press: Magyar Építők interviewed bim.GROUP experts Ádám Szabó, lead architect and designer, general project manager, and Arnold Gyuricza, project manager and structural engineer, about the construction of the new, modern wing of the Jedlik Ányos Secondary School. The advantages of flexible, parameterised, algorithm-driven design processes were discussed, and examples were given of why this was particularly useful in the design and build type development of the Jedlik Ányos project.

The steel structure and the building envelope were designed by bim.GROUP Kft., the steel structure and the facade cladding were awarded to KÉSZ Metaltech Kft, and the steel was manufactured by KÉSZ Ipari Gyártó Kft. Other cooperating partners included dvb Kft. producing the prefabricated reinforced concrete and Baumetall Design Kft. manufacturing the roof panels.

By the way, bim.GROUP, as general designer, was also responsible for the general execution design, so based both on prior familiarity with the project and professional experience it was a natural choice to commission the company with the roof's production design as well. Bim.GROUP relied for the design of the complex structure on a decade of experience. The engineers of bim.GROUP Kft. have designed the new building of the Jedlik Ányos Secondary School using innovative (at least in Hungary for the time being) parametric-algorithmic design methods.

Plans are based on a concept by Csepel residents

In response to the question from Magyar Építők, Ádám Szabó pointed out that the design task itself was a multi-stage process. "A concept plan was first drawn up. This was not done by us, we did not even participate in that particular call for applications, Zoltán Reznicsek and his team of young architects prepared the preliminary designs. The municipality then announced a call for the specific design task. BIM Design Kft., the predecessor of bim.GROUP, won the tender: we first prepared the documentation for the permission and then the tender plan. At this point, there was a short pause in the process until the construction tender itself was concluded, and then design and build method was used to achieve the current state."

In-depth details were provided by our colleagues regarding the most interesting part of the building design, the one that is most spectacular for experts and laymen alike. This is aula in the newly constructed part of the building, and the "freeform" steel structure that covers it:

"The design was prepared with the help of persons who play a key role in the life of Csepel and the school. From the very beginning, a body was set up to discuss and formulate expectations. This was a sympathetic approach from our point of view, it helped the design itself, and the fact that the client had formulated all aspects in advance also significantly reduced the design time," Ádám Szabó pointed out a positive factor on which the bim.GROUP experts could build with their own solutions.

About the special design of the aula Arnold Gyuricza said:

"We have designed a massive support structure – 84 metres long and 25 metres wide – covering an elongated aula. A Zambelli RIB-ROOF metal roof with Rainscreen covering was placed on the steel frame, which is visible from below, and a glass dome is also located in the middle. The steel structure is supported by two monolithic reinforced concrete perimeter beams, curved in terms of both floor plan and height. The steel frame was also aligned with the lines of the perimeter beams."

Support structure design optimised for production and assembly

Several departments of bim.GROUP worked on the layered steel structure."Over the past years it has become standard practice, or even necessity, for KÉSZ Group's biggest projects to carry out trial production and trial assembly in order to design a supporting structure optimised for production and assembly."

To achieve the optimum, design, manufacturing and assembly need to work together in coordinated fashion, so that everyone brings their own technical insights and capabilities to the process. This is already routine at KÉSZ Group, which means that the agreed design solutions can be further fine-tuned and optimised along certain metrics in a trial production and assembly run.

With just a few type solutions, chosen appropriately for the support system, the complete design model can be built relatively easily and in a controlled way, using parametric-algorithmic design, to fit any geometry. Such processes can relatively easily integrate the results of test production and test assembly, ultimately reducing both lead times and costs.

With algorithmic design, it is possible to avoid adding further design errors to the structure, since all operations are mathematically perfectly accurate. Consequently, there were no major problems or difficulties on site.

The interview also covered the advantages of parametric-algorithmic design, our colleagues talked about the concept of the glass-ceilinged aula, and how such a special commission can become a routine task over the years. The full interview is available on the Magyar Építők website.