Steel lintels keep building design contemporary

Margaret Hodge’s comments about the Thames Gateway housing led to the Creative Industries green paper, which seeks to promote architecture in Britain.

This followed a rising fear that new housing is running the risk of repeating the mistakes of the ‘70s.

There is an almost tangible pressure on housebuilders and developers to create new homes that not only meet the demand for increased housing supply in this country, but which also make a positive contribution that will be valued by future generations.

This can be qualified as homes that are both sustainable in their construction and day-to-day operation, and in the contribution they make to their immediate surroundings and the local environment.

This premise is manifested in the Sustainable Communities Plan.

The initiative seeks to create places and spaces in which people, families and whole communities are proud to call home – where they can prosper and live without fear of crime or vandalism.

Housing design refers to many elements of the overall look and feel of a development, taking into account the functionality for modern lifestyles, and the appearance of individual units.

Building components are of course vital to both elements. Steel lintels are just one structural component which, when specified in the right way, can be used to elevate a simple house design to one that is interesting, individual and inspiring.

From standard shapes, featuring bow lintels, parabolic and gothic arches’ and lintels for bay windows, to special bespoke lintels, there is a prefabricated, reinforced steel lintel for any challenging building design. Traditionally a structural member spanning an opening between two walls, lintels have replaced other supporting elements that would otherwise be created on-site by specialist contractors. By removing this cost (in both labour and materials), developers can use steel lintels as an off-site alternative.

This is exactly what regional housebuilder Linden Homes found at two of its latest sites. The AQUA development in Poole is a luxury apartment complex comprised of 96 one and two bedroom flats on Dorset’s south coast. Steel Lintels were specified to provide structural support over many of the windows, allowing the architect to fully realise the challenging nautical theme of the development. The nine storey concrete framed building was built to a nautical theme, emulating the design of an ocean liner. The balconies and porthole windows, constructed with steel lintels, complement the views of nearby Poole Harbour.

“The demanding standard of these apartments, coupled with the challenging design, made modern methods of construction a necessary part of this project,” explains technical manager for Linden Homes Mike Barnard. “Alongside the rainscreen cladding and the terracotta tiles, the design called for steel lintels to span the openings in the brickwork. We took the decision to specify IG Lintels based on their reliability and quality.”

As testimony to the adventurous architectural design, combined with the location of the development, over half of the apartments were sold off-plan.

At the company’s site in Southampton, Linden Homes used bespoke notched lintels to create an appealing building design for a regeneration project in the city centre. The mixed-use scheme of 175 new mixed-tenure homes are combined with retail, leisure and commercial space. In creating a vibrant residential and commercial heart in Southampton, Linden Homes turned to steel lintels to help deliver the contemporary urban building design.

Lintels with a mixture of 110mm cavity, 102mm brickwork outer leaf, 118mm wide cavity and 100mm blockwork inner leaf were specified to create the eclectic style of the development. Using IG Lintels’ bespoke Special Lintels service, Linden Homes specified one-off notched lintels to be installed around columns and windposts within the French Quarter buildings, ensuring that the structural rigidity was as strong as possible.

Special lintels are designed and manufactured individually, according to the requirements of the project. Where bespoke products would normally risk delays to lead times and impact on site progress, special lintels can be available on-site in days, not weeks. Combining service excellence with the MMC capabilities of the steel lintel product, which do away with specialist brickwork trades, contractors can save both time and money on the project.

Creating individual buildings on one site is a challenge faced by many developers.

By using a selection of bespoke steel lintels, a developer can put the emphasis on creating inspirational buildings that differ from each other, without hampering the logistical element of construction. With a touch of creative licence, a developer can achieve a unique stamp on each house within a development through an efficient prefabricated and fast track method of construction. Used with both timber frame and traditional brick and block construction, the introduction of lintels on a site can significantly reduce the time taken to achieve an architecturally detailed result.

Partnering with a reliable supplier that places great emphasis on manufacturing, speed and delivery, can result in an extensive range of special lintels, which can be custom-made to the developer's own specification. From designing and manufacturing, custom-made lintels can be as diverse and inspiring as the style of the developer and local vernacular.

With the right manufacturer, ordering special lintels can be efficient and hassle free, eliminating the expensive delays between site measurement, design and manufacture that can often occur.

Special lintels can be designed and delivered simply and quickly to site helping to reduce overall time and cost.

As well as having many applications Steel lintels can help the developer to create numerous inspirational architectural design possibilities to suit any building or house. By incorporating a steel lintel into the construction process, a developer will be helping to support creativity in new housing design, redesigning historic details using modern methods as well as leaving a signature on individual buildings.

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