The Quince Tree
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This building serves the function of a conference centre, café and shop just outside The Fairmile at Henley on Thames and was completed in 2010. Designed by BLDA this is, we believe, a successful building. Beard Oxford were the main contractors and are a good medium sized building firm. An aluminium glazing system was used with timber cover plates to create an attractive façade and mirrors the oak frame members behind.
Trusses are connected via embedded stainless steel plates bolted through the foot of the truss rafters to resist spread of the roof transferring onto the walls. The trusses have a single 16mm diameter tie rod with fork end connectors.
Bolt heads have been counter bored with square cut recesses for the heads, an attractive detail but fiddly to execute. Note the doubled up ridge beam which forms a pleasing detail at the apex of the roof.
Spanning 9 metres these large bow string trusses work very hard as they carry an "intensive green roof", surely among the heaviest of roof types as the growing medium must retain enough moisture to sustain plant growth.
Doubled up tendons act as compressions members for the bow strings. Note the longitudinal tie rod required to ensure verticality of the tendon arrangement is maintained.
We were also asked to fabricate a ‘brise soleil’ for the main shop area which would otherwise be prone to excessive solar gain. Note the column bases are set off the ground on stainless steel flitch plates to keep the column bases free from decay.
“"Thanks for the excellent job which has just been completed on the Oak Frame extension to the above property. Not only is the quality of the work faultless, it is a true work of art, which will bring endless enjoyment to me and my wife. The end result has surpassed our wildest expectations."
Ray Nicolaides
“"We wanted to write to you to express our profound gratitude for the excellent work you have done on our building scheme. It cannot have been easy to pick up the project from another architect when there were still a number of issues unresolved, but you have done so brilliantly and remained calm throughout, even at fraught times. We really do appreciate that you have gone the extra mile for us. We have all enjoyed working with you and have been so impressed with the quality of your work."
Alastair, The Early Years Project
“"I wanted to drop you a quick note to show my appreciation for your guys efforts today; they were a pleasure to have around the house and worked hard to get the frame up today."
Paul, Contracts Manager
“"Thank you for the frame that you have just finished at Rogate. It was a miserable wet day, yesterday and John and team carried on regardless. We are delighted with the overall look and also the mouldings to the members. As usual, the frame was millimetre accurate and will be easy to take forward to complete the building."
Bob, Trembath Associates
“"Just to say that it looks fabulous, and all who survey it are wonder-struck. Best wishes and many thanks to you all."
Simon, National Trust