Glaxo Wellcome Medicines Research Centre, Stevenage: Anatomy of the Design Process

Educating engineers Melvin Hurst, writing from Abu Dhabi, wonders whether the balance between research and teaching in universities is really in the best interest of a profession and writes: In your editorial comment following Professor Jenkins’s contribution (5 December 1995) you invited opinions on the problems faced by academics when having to choose between research and teaching practical engineering themes. Verulam

The subject of mezzanine floor design/detailing (raised in the Verulam column for 21 November 1995) has exercised my brain for some years, and some elementary rules emerged by agreement with fabricators and the local authority I worked for at the time. It was apparent that two of the fabricators were not structural engineers and used safe-load tables/computer programs for their sizing of members. In most cases the floor comprised 38mm chipboard deck on cold-rolled purlins sitting on main beams or, more usually, cleated to main beam webs. The main beams were supported on cap plates to RHS columns on base plates bolted to an existing groundslab. I. Anderson

Mr P. J. Ayres (M) I have three questions about the steelwork, first of all the connections. Who was responsible for all connection design and how did you control particularly the appearance of the connections? How much architectural involvement was there, including the pin connection?