Engineer, Steelworker, Carpenter Builder Question for Decorative fins to be fitted externally....

[mattH]

Hello,

I have a tricky building conundrum and wanted to ask the advice of Structural engineer/ fellow builders/ Steelworkers/ carpenters..

On our current build the architect has designed some external decorative fins - 200m x 50m x 3m long vertically. Either side of the sliding doors they will be fixed to brickwork - which would avoid warping issues. However in front of the Sliding door - half of it, the fins will be placed vertically at 350mm centres. I'm reliably informed by the guys at Whitten timber that they will be subject to warping at this length - even if only 2200mm is in front of the glazing.

The client has specified American/European oak. At present I am thinking of some kind of sheet steel with re-enforced bars welded to the inside to make lightweight rectangular columns - then clad this in thinner sections of the oak all around (the outside section of the steel must be partly open to allow the possibility of fixing through to the brickwork using chemfix). Alternatively we could possibly use WBP ply and clad in Oak....

Could anyone recommend a system? Any Advice? I want it to look spanking in the end and I don't like having to return to things that have gone wrong.