Bracing requirements for small Wikihouse

Using WikiHouse Designing with Skylark
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Hi team,

Designing a small wikihouse build (8.4m x 4.8m) - and had a question about bracing.

Per the Wikihouse design guide:

As a general rule, you should have a bracing wall every 4.8m, if possible.

We are looking at a 6.6m span and then a 1.8m span - would that be okay?

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Hi @lachlan , is the structure 1 storey? If so I don’t see particular concerns. The detailed numbers depend on the actual wind/earthquake load of the specific place, but the geometry seems achievable to me.

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@lachlan I’m having trouble finding the sentence “As a general rule, you should have a bracing wall every 4.8m, if possible.” in the guide.

The only thing I could find is this: “In the other direction, the building can be any length you like, however you will need bracing walls at regular intervals.”

@Gabriele can you please let me know what “regular intervals” means? 4.8m?

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Hi @Louring ,
short answer: 4 to 5 m is a good rule of thumb, but please have it checked by your structural engineering because it depends on many things and there is not one size fits all
long answer: it depends on a lot of factors, some of them affecting the load demand and some other affecting the capacity/stiffness of the building. Factors affecting the load demand (among others): wind speed, earthquakes, building height, surface exposed to wind. Factors affecting the capacity/stiffness: number and position of the walls, walls geometry, number of connectors used. What your structural engineer most likely will do is:

  1. Estimate the horizontal loads (wind and earthquakes) for a given location
  2. Apply the loads to your building and calculate how much force is going into each wall
  3. Check that every wall can take that force without deflecting too much and without breaking
  4. If 3) is not satisfied, play with the factors affecting the capacity/stiffness to accommodate the load demand (e.g recommending extra walls or changing their position/geometry)
    We found out that a structural wall made by say 3 cassettes every 4-5 m is a good place to start when developing the concept design if it makes sense.
    Hope that helps!