Commercial

MIR SHTOR Trade House in Atyrau

An insulated retail building 16.0 × 111.0 metres — the longest in our portfolio. Inside are two through shopping arcades with units on both sides: a customer walks the building end to end, and the frame above the aisle is left exposed, working as part of the interior.

Atyrau1,776 m²2014

Project at a glance

Dimensions on grid: 16.0 × 111.0 m
Height: 4.5 m
Roof spans: 6.5 + 3.0 + 6.5 m
Frame spacing: 4.0 m
Post section: 2×PS150 × 1.5 mm
Grid lines along length: 29

Working design: SP-0237-KM, ProfilStroyProekt LLC, Saint Petersburg, 2014

Structural solution

The frame is formed by columns, purlins, beams and bracing. Spatial rigidity comes from rigid connections between all members. Walls and roof are sandwich panels.

111 metres in a single building

Along its length the building is divided into 29 grid lines at 4 metres — 111 metres long and 16 wide. It is not a block of several separate structures but one continuous volume: the arcades run the full length, with no fire breaks and no changes in floor level. For a market that is a direct gain — every unit sits on the same walk-through route.

Four rows of posts instead of trusses

At 4.5 metres high and 16 wide, a truss is unnecessary. The posts stand on four grid lines — 6.5 + 3.0 + 6.5 metres — and the pitched roof bears on rafters of 2×C250 × 1.5 section, with the ridge over the central pair of rows. The solution is simpler and cheaper than a truss, and inside it produces the even rhythm that later became the interior of the arcade.

A wall one and a half millimetres thick

The ST-1 posts are built up from two 150 mm channel sections with a 1.5 mm wall. The longitudinal beams B-1 and B-3 are 2×C200 × 2.0 with a P154 × 1.5 cover plate, 8.075 and 11.5 metres long: each spans two or three post bays at once and evens the load out along the building. Sections are 100, 150, 200 and 250 mm deep, in S245 steel to GOST 27772-88.

Bracing in the central bay

In the three-metre strip between the middle grid lines there are horizontal ties and struts of C150 × 1.5 section. They gather the long building into a rigid diaphragm and take the wind load, which over 111 metres has nowhere else to go. In the photographs this lattice is visible directly above the aisle: the frame is not hidden behind a suspended ceiling.

Roof on battens

Formed battens 50 × 1.2 are laid over the rafters at 630 mm centres, with sandwich panels above. The design load on the roof frame is 1.45 kPa: 80 kg/m² of it is snow for snow region I, 24 the panel itself and 25 the self-weight of the steelwork. Characteristic wind pressure is 0.38 kPa, and the analysis was carried out in SCAD to SP 20.13330.2011.

Assembled with screws

Frame members are joined with Ø6.3 × 25 self-drilling screws at 300 mm centres; nine screws go into each of the four faces at a post base. Column bases are fixed to the foundations with 12 × 120 mm wedge anchors, and the critical joints use bolts to GOST 7798-70. The sections are galvanised at the mill, so the design does not permit welding or flame-cutting them on site.

A frame meant to be seen

Here the steel is not hidden: there is no suspended ceiling, and posts, beams and bracing stay in view along the whole arcade. That saves on finishes and adds height to the space, but it demands a frame that looks tidy and needs no upkeep. Galvanising is applied at the mill and is not repainted — the photographs in the gallery were taken six years after the drawings were issued.