A Milestone in Safety: Securing BSR Approval for Shoreham’s High-Rise Redevelopment

• Concrete-Framed High-Rise Design. We chose a reinforced concrete frame for robustness, fire safety and acoustics. Concrete’s non-combustibility and mass keep the structure intact under fire, protecting compartmentation. To optimise this frame, Brookbanks used advanced finite-element modelling from the outset. This enabled thinner elements and efficient material use while ensuring all loads were carried safely. (As our team often notes, delivering the “most commercially economic solution” requires rigorous analysis.) We also leveraged concrete’s inherent benefits: high thermal mass to reduce energy loads and simpler airtight detailing to meet fire-and-energy regs.

• Transfer Slab for Mixed-Use Podium. The redevelopment includes a change of use between ground-floor commercial spaces and upper residential floors, meaning column layouts shift between levels. We solved this with a transfer slab, that carries loads from the tower’s “planted” columns above to the wider “supporting” columns below. Transfer slabs are challenging: by design they require large slab depths to carry high shear forces over unsymmetrical column layouts. In fact, industry guidance on transfer slabs has been limited, a new IStructE guide was only published in late 2024 to address this gap. Our team combined Eurocode principles with bespoke analysis of the construction sequence. We carefully sized the slab to resist the intense shear between the offset columns and ensured a robust load path.

• Robustness Against Disproportionate Collapse. Modern regulations (Approved Document A, Requirement A3) demand that any building be designed so that “in the event of an accident the building will not suffer collapse to an extent disproportionate to the cause”. In practice, designs will include includes continuity ties and alternative load paths through floors and cores. That means if any single column or beam were suddenly removed (due to, say, an impact or local fire), neighbouring elements can redistribute loads and prevent progressive failure.

• Existing Foundations and Piles. The old civic centre site had existing piled foundations. By confirming their location, dimensions, and condition, we were able to bridge over the original piles for the new building. This strategy saved cost and minimised disruption.

Conclusion

Securing Gateway Two approval from the Building Safety Regulator on the Shoreham redevelopment validates Brookbanks’ ability to lead on safety-critical projects. Under the toughest post-Grenfell frameworks, our in-house structures team, now bolstered by the addition of Reuby & Stagg’s high-rise expertise, has again proven that it can turn complex challenges into practical designs. We look forward to bringing these homes to life, assured that they will stand on foundations of robust engineering and best-practice safety.