What are the relative magnitudes of the total Dead, Live and Horizontal loads and what implications do these have for the structure of the building?
The dead load was by far the greatest load to be encountered in the building. It is approximately 20 times larger than that of the live load. This makes the most important design condition the dead load. This differs from traditional building design in that the live load is only encountered for possibly 60% of the year, as there can be weeks between uses.
Looking at the foundation load what do you think it means for the type of foundation to be used, and what additional information would you need?
The use of piles indicates that the local soil properties were most likely not suitable for supporting this load with shallow foundations. To determine whether or not different foundations could have been used, a geotechnical inspection would be required to determine the total bearing capacity of the surrounding soils.
Would this be an easy or a difficult building for which to develop the structural calculations? Why?
We feel this building would be a combination of both easy and difficult structural calculations. The initial design for the concourse and shop level would be relatively easy to complete. The design of the bowl would be a much more difficult process, as it would require both the design of the steel support structure as well as the reinforced concrete for all levels. However, the most difficult calculation would certainly be the roof structure. With the stipulation that there be no obstructed view throughout the bowl, posting down with columns was not an option. This required extra design processes to help disperse all loads to the outer rim of the bowl, then transfer all these loads through the bowl down to the piles and finally into the earth below.
Wembley Stadium 