Millfield Green Retirement Village

Millfield Green is a new retirement village in Bedfordshire. The village has been carefully designed with wellbeing in mind - from the accessibility and ease of use in each home, to the social and physical benefits of the clubhouse facilities, wellness spa and gym.

DTE provided a full roof design service, prior to trussed rafters, ancillary timber and metalwork being supplied by our team in Oxford.

, which is a considerably large area. A total of 1176 trussed rafters were supplied to the project, and 1071 of those were for the village centre alone. The total timber cube for all three roof structures is approximately 250m

. A total of 1089 sheets of plywood are being utilised within the village centre roof structure for stability bracing purposes.

The village centre is the main focal point and consists of a steel frame structure with a steel sheet flat roof in the centre, and the external perimeter roof formed by the trussed rafters. The combination of the steel sheet flat roof and trussed rafters provides the necessary stability for the steel frame. The entire steel frame at roof level is hidden within the depth of the timber members.

The full roof structure was based on Revit models provided by the client’s architect and structural engineer. This meant all information, from ridge heights to eaves heights and overhang dimensions, had to be measured from the models rather than being provided in the traditional form of drawings. The roof structure was extremely complex to design given the variation in levels of wall supports, ridge heights, roof intersections and the profile of the roof. In addition to this, where the steel frame was hidden within the timber depth, alternative support methods of the timber had to be thought of, designed and detailed. The team here at DTE worked closely with the client and other members of this project team to ensure a smooth delivery of this full roof design.

"“DTE has proven to be a very reliable supplier throughout the design period of this project and continue to provide us with dedicated technical support now that the roof construction stage is in progress."