The shortlist of the Structural Awards 2018 has been published

The Structural Awards are the world’s foremost celebration of structural engineers as innovative, creative design professionals and the guardians of public safety.

For over 50 years, the Structural Awards have showcased the world’s most cutting edge engineering achievements. Past winners include iconic structures such as the Sydney Opera House, the Pompidou Centre and the Severn Bridge.

Chair of the Structural Awards Judging Panel, Professor Tim Ibell, comments: “This year we’ve received an unusual and imaginative collection of entries, from sculptural monuments by renowned artists through to a cricket stadium dubbed the ‘Lord’s of East Africa’. The shortlist gives a fantastic overview of what’s going on in the structural engineering community on a global scale, highlighting the ambition, imagination and expertise of our profession. We’re delighted to have seen many more new firms entering their work for consideration in our unique celebration of structural engineering excellence.”

The shortlist for the Structural Awards 2018 includes 53 entries selected from 115 projects:

The award for Tall or Slender Structures: Awarded for structural engineering excellence in projects where height or slenderness presents a particular structural challenge in the design and construction.

• DUO: A mixed-use development comprising a 49-storey residential apartment block, a 40-storey commercial tower and a 5-star hotel. Special aspects included large blocks of cantilevered floors, large transfer structures and partial top-down construction of basements.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Beca
  • CLIENT NAME: M+S Pte Ltd
  • LOCATION: Singapore, Republic of Singapore

• Highpoint: Highpoint is a 47-storey residential tower with an accompanying 8-storey podium block. This development aimed to create a new structural typology for residential living in London and is currently one of the UK’s tallest Build to Rent developments. It provides 457 units within the octagonal precast concrete tower, and affordable and intermediate rent in the adjoining block of cross-laminated timber.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER:AKT II
  • CLIENT NAME: Realstar Group
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• Tencent Seafront Towers: The building contains two towers linked by three in-connections located between storeys 3 to 6, 21 to 26 and 34 to 38 respectively. The south tower has 50 storeys and is 246m tall, while the north tower has 39 storeys and is 195m tall.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd. Tongji Architect, AECOM
  • CLIENT NAME: Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited
  • LOCATION: Nanshan District, People’s Republic of China
• The Dubai Frame: The Dubai Frame is a 150m high, 93m wide structure built to resemble a huge picture frame. The structure consists of two rhomboidal towers, connected by a sky bridge at the top, offering visitors a 360-degree view of the city. The bridge weighs approximately 800 tonnes and was built on the roof of the bottom part of the Dubai Frame and then strand-jacked into position.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER:Arcadis Consulting Middle East Limited
  • CLIENT NAME: Dubai Municipality
  • LOCATION: Zabeel Park, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The award for Long Span Structures: Awarded for structural engineering excellence in buildings (not bridges) incorporating particularly long spans, relative to the proportions of the structure.

• Banc of California Stadium: A 22,000 seat venue for Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Football Club. The stadium features an exposed structure, long span cantilevers and a roof clad with 190,000ft² of single-layer ETFE film supported by cables. The project is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Thornton Tomasetti Inc.
  • CLIENT NAME: Los Angeles Football Club
  • LOCATION: Los Angeles, United States of America
• Cove Manila: Cove Manila is a 100m span and 30m high steel dome, supporting 8,570m² of glass panels. It is the main feature of the Okada Manila resort, an integrated entertainment resort offering breathtaking views of Manila Bay. 650 tonnes of steel was used in the construction of the dome, including connections.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Passage Projects
  • CLIENT NAME: Okada Manila
  • LOCATION: Manila, Philippines

• Reflector Supporting Structural System of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST): The world’s largest single-aperture telescope. The active reflector system of FAST is a 500m aperture and 300m radius spherical crown composed of its primary supporting structure, actuator, backing structure and reflector panels. FAST was assembled in a mountainous region with complicated terrain and is also the largest space structure ever to have been built.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design
  • CLIENT NAME: National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • LOCATION: Pingtang County, People’s Republic of China
• Louvre Abu Dhabi: The Louvre Abu Dhabi’s 180m span steel dome appears to float above a collection of gallery buildings. The intricate dome is composed of 11,000 elements and over 2,000 connections supported on only four bearings.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: BuroHappold Engineering
  • CLIENT NAME: Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC)
  • LOCATION: Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

• Optus Stadium: A new 60,000 capacity stadium and sports park, built with a ‘fans first’ focus. A total of 50,000m³ of concrete and 15,500 tonnes of structural steel were used to construct the five-tier stadium. A bronze facade is made of anodised aluminium to reflect Western Australia’s unique geology.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Arup
  • CLIENT NAME: Multiplex and State Government of Western Australia
  • LOCATION: Perth, Australia

The award for Vehicle Bridges: Awarded for excellence in the design of bridges carrying highways and/or railways.

• Mandurah Bridge: A 243m long, six span, incrementally launched, post-tensioned concrete structure, curved in plan and elevation, supporting four traffic lanes. An important landmark that fulfils a strong community desire for close association with the water, featuring a lowered shared path, viewing and fishing platforms.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: BG&E Pty Limited
  • CLIENT NAME: Georgiou Group
  • LOCATION: Mandurah, Australia
• Queensferry Crossing: The Queensferry Crossing is the centrepiece for the Forth Replacement Crossing Project, Scotland’s largest infrastructure project for a generation. The new bridge was delivered at a cost 65% below the original budget. It is delivering extensive benefits to users and communities, whilst safeguarding vital transport connections.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Jacobs Arup Joint Venture
  • CLIENT NAME: Transport Scotland
  • LOCATION: Edinburgh and Fife, United Kingdom

• River Irwell Crossing: The Ordsall Chord is a new railway line connecting Manchester’s Victoria and Piccadilly Stations, carried on new and altered elevated viaducts. The Chord’s centrepiece structure is the River Irwell Crossing, the first network arch bridge in the UK, and the first asymmetrical network arch bridge anywhere in the world. Weathering steel is used for the Crossing and all other steel structures, to reduce whole life costs.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: AECOM Mott MacDonald JV
  • CLIENT NAME: Network Rail
  • LOCATION: Manchester and Salford, United Kingdom
• Tamina Canyon Crossing: The bridge crosses the Tamina canyon 200m above the gorge. The arch and the superstructure create a continuous prestressed girder mainly forming the structural system. The 417m long superstructure is connected monolithically to the arch by inclined columns; the total length of the structure is 473m with abutments included.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Leonhardt, Andrä und Partner
  • CLIENT NAME: Tiefbauamt Kanton St. Gallen
  • LOCATION: Bad Ragaz, Canton St. Gallen, Switzerland

The award for Pedestrian Bridges: Awarded for excellence in the design of pedestrian and/or cycle bridges, or other lightweight bridge structures.

• Knostrop Footbridge: Knostrop Footbridge forms part of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme, connecting the Trans Pennine Trail over a new moveable weir on the River Aire in Leeds. The 70m bridge consists of a four span externally painted weathering steel box girder with a curved soffit. The bridge sits on slender piers, which cantilever forward from the tapered ends of the weir walls below. The bridge’s width varies throughout its length, using a graceful plan curvature to create viewing areas above the piers.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Mott MacDonald
  • CLIENT NAME: Leeds City Council
  • LOCATION: Leeds, United Kingdom
• Perry Bridge: The Perry Bridge is the final link in the chain of the 70km Te Awa River Ride Walk and Cycleway. A visually stunning, innovative network arch, the bridge is very long and slender, spanning 130m at just 3m in width. The bridge was installed using a unique cable launch method. The efficiency of this form of structure kept its costs within a practical budget, while also presenting the local district council and Te Awa the opportunity to create a visually compelling focal point to help attract people to the Cycleway.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Holmes Consulting
  • CLIENT NAME: Emmetts Civil Construction
  • LOCATION: Horotiu, New Zealand

• Somers Town Bridge: Somers Town Bridge is a new cycle/footbridge over the Regents Canal at King’s Cross. It is a complete design that integrates a sweeping ramp through the Camley Street Natural Park and then over the Regents Canal with a 38m span footbridge. The bridge has a structural depth of only 1100mm at mid span to maintain views from the bridge, and a structural depth above walkway level, that maintains sightlines by canal users of the locks.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Ove Arup & Partners Ltd.
  • CLIENT NAME: Argent Services LLP
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• Suzhou Dajia, Double Bridges: Two steel frame footbridges, each of 48 tonnes, span 28m over Suzhou City’s river. Each is composed of a thin aluminium arch deck and curved canopy, modelled on traditional Chinese timber boats. The innovative details on the vertical elements make the whole structure become a styled corridor, and a centrepiece of a large new residential project in the city.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Shanghai Co-base Structural Steel Co., Ltd
  • CLIENT NAME: China Vanke Co., Ltd
  • LOCATION: Suzhou, China

The award for Small Projects (of under £1 million): Awarded for excellence in the structural design of projects with a construction cost of less than one million pounds, including art structures and sculptures.

• Jacob’s Ladder at Gibbs Farm: A 34m high, 46 tonne sculpture made from 480 lengths of steel stacked one of top of each other. The graceful curve is achieved with straight lengths of steel in combination with precision cutting and assembly. The artist required no visible fixings: this was achieved with a single saddle-shaped looped weld at each of the connections between tubes – an elegant and extremely strong solution. The design used a single CAD model from which STL data for 3D printing of scale models, geometry for finite element analysis, and final cutting instructions were generated in a single-step process. This efficient workflow enabled an iterative process where over 40 different designs were produced and evaluated to finesse the final result.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Diales
  • CLIENT NAME: Gerry Judah FRBS
  • LOCATION: Makarau, New Zealand
• Rwanda Cricket Stadium: The stadium adapts ancient Mediterranean techniques of thin-tile vaulting using compressed soil-cement tiles and geogrid reinforcement for seismic stabilization. It is composed by three vaults, the largest spanning 16m with a rise of over 9m. The vaults follow the natural resolution of forces toward the ground, closely mimicking the parabolic geometry of a bouncing ball and evoking the cherished hilly topography of Rwanda. Employing air-dried, hand-pressed soil tiles, produced using local labour, this method of construction has proved to be innovative, cost effective and beautiful.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Light Earth Designs
  • CLIENT NAME: Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation
  • LOCATION: Kigali, Rwanda

• Solar Gate: A 10m tall artwork celebrating Hull’s status as 2017 UK City of Culture. Built as a stressed skin structure made entirely from stainless steel, digital tools were used to align exact sun angles from particular times and dates to pairs of large apertures on its front and back surfaces. When a beam of sunlight passes through an aligned pair of apertures, it lands on a corresponding disc on the ground, revealing a significant event for the time and date. This innovative approach to design and building learns from nature, using curvature, corrugation and distortion to add strength. No additional structure is required internally as the undulating skin links the two sides together, making the artwork completely self-supporting.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Arup
  • CLIENT NAME: Hull City Council
  • LOCATION: Kingston-upon-Hull, United Kingdom
• The Tea Hut: A 9m x 4m elevated polygonal occasional use leisure building, projecting over the sea. The Tea Hut was built at the landward end of steel rails and slid seaward when finished. The building is glazed all round and has a glazed floor panel, giving stunning views down and across Loch Fyne. The superstructure comprises a galvanised steel frame consisting of thin roof and floor plates separated by an offset steel shear/torsion core and slender perimeter columns; timber carcassing to form the roof pyramid, and full height double glazing all round.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Applied Engineering Design Limited
  • CLIENT NAME: N Bertioli
  • LOCATION: Loch Fyne, United Kingdom
• Tiffany Gallery Glass Staircase: A central feature for a new gallery housing the collection of Tiffany Lamps bequeathed to the New York Historical Society. The single flight is gently curved on plan with each tread supported on cantilever glass fins. The treads and fins are laminated from heat strengthened glass and the stainless-steel connectors have been designed to complement the minimal design aesthetic.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: GL&SS – Glass Light and Special Structures
  • CLIENT NAME: New York Historical Society
  • LOCATION: New York City, United States of America

The award for Small Projects (of between £1-3 million): Awarded for excellence in the structural design of projects with a construction cost of between one and three million pounds, including art structures and sculptures.

• 168 Upper Street: This mixed-use building occupies a former bomb site and forms the missing piece of a 19th century parade. The form is a full-height double-skin hollow shell, cast in-situ from a terracotta pigmented concrete mix. Up to half a metre thick, this simple but monolithic cast performs as load-bearing structure, external and internal finishes and thermal envelope.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Webb Yates Engineers
  • CLIENT NAME: Aria
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• Cadogan Song School: A two-storey concrete building for the choirs of St George’s Cathedral and the Anglican Diocese of Perth. The lower floor includes prefabricated concrete curved beams internally and a prefabricated concrete external wall with vertical slots to provide light. U-shaped prefabricated columns support prefabricated concrete vaulted arches at the first floor level, forming a colonnade. On top of the vaulted units, there are two curved and sloping prefabricated concrete spires.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Kamal Fozdar – Consulting Structural Engineer
  • CLIENT NAME: The Anglican Diocese of Perth
  • LOCATION: Perth, Australia

• Herne Hill Velodrome: An engineered timber pavilion built in 1891 for cycling events at the 1948 Olympics, Herne Hill Velodrome in south London had fallen into disrepair. The new timber structure, similar in scale to its predecessor, houses changing rooms, general amenities, coaches’ office, and a generously sized club room overlooking the entire site at first floor. Behind the pavilion a tensile fabric canopy between the bike storage units creates a versatile year-round covered space for outdoor activities.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Heyne Tillett Steel
  • CLIENT NAME: Herne Hill Velodrome Trust
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• Maggie’s Centre Oldham: An outwardly simple yet structurally sophisticated wooden box which ‘floats’ on six stilts some 4m above a garden framed by pine, birch and tulip poplar trees. The design uses sustainable hardwood cross laminated timber (CLT) for the first time in a permanent building. The walls are exposed tulipwood CLT and the roof comprises glulam joists spanning up to 10m. On entering, visitors are met with light and unexpected views down to the garden below, up to the sky and out to the Pennine horizon.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Booth King Partnership Ltd
  • CLIENT NAME: Maggie’s
  • LOCATION: Oldham, United Kingdom

• Renovation of St. Luke’s Church: A three-storey office development constructed within the confines of a derelict, roofless church. The ground floor could not be substantially loaded due to the presence of burial crypts below. The upper stories hang from steel roof trusses supported off the existing stone walls. The steel structure at each floor level cantilevers from hanging rods located at quarter points of the span.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: CORA Consulting Engineers
  • CLIENT NAME: St. Lukes Trust
  • LOCATION: Dublin, Republic of Ireland

The award for Structures in Extreme Conditions: Awarded for excellence in the design of structures subject to extreme actions, including marine and offshore structures and those in seismic zones, or involving unusually complex interactions with the ground and/or particularly challenging foundations.

• Air Traffic Control Tower, Wellington Airport: Set on a challenging site with poor founding soils and exposed to very high prevailing winds, high seismic loads and possible tsunami inundation, the tower is a critical post-disaster Importance Level 4 (IL4) facility – a vital piece of infrastructure in the event of a disaster, meeting Life Safety objectives in a 2500 year hazard event and Business Continuity objectives in a 500 year hazard event.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Holmes Consulting
  • CLIENT NAME: Airways
  • LOCATION: Wellington, New Zealand
• Another Time, by Anthony Gormley: A cast iron sculpture sited far out to sea on the chalk bed beyond Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate. The sculpture is positioned on the Fulsam Rock on remnants of the former jetty, where people promenaded above years ago, but has now been reclaimed by nature. At high tide the sculpture is completely submerged beneath the sea, becoming visible as low tide prevails.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Considine Limited
  • CLIENT NAME: Turner Contemporary, Margate
  • LOCATION: Margate, United Kingdom

• Haiti Chapel: Webb Yates Engineers worked with charity Hope Health Action and architect Guylee Simmonds to design a new chapel, required to provide a large new space for services, meetings, counselling and consulting. The design of the chapel responds to the challenges of both seismic activity and hurricanes, combined with a lack of good quality building materials and experienced labour.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Webb Yates Engineers
  • CLIENT NAME: Hope Health Action
  • LOCATION: Northern Haiti, Haiti
• The Stability Frame, Hywind Scotland: The installation of five Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs) by the Semi‐Submersible Crane Vessel Saipem 7000 on Statoil’s Hywind Scotland Project using the Saipem Stability Frame. Hywind Scotland is the world’s first floating wind farm. This was also the world’s first installation of a fully assembled WTG onto a floating substructure. The Stability Frame used 25% of the material of a traditional frame and was far more efficient in terms of execution schedule. This delivered a cost saving to the project of 1.7m euros. The assembly was carried out in Stord, Norway, then the fully assembled turbines were towed to Scotland.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Saipem Limited
  • CLIENT NAME: Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil ASA)
  • LOCATION: Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom

The award for Structural Heritage: Awarded for excellence in structural design where important heritage characteristics of the original structure are maintained through appropriate restoration, conservation, extension or refurbishment.

• The Brooklands Aircraft Factory and Racetrack Revival Project: The relocation of the Grade II listed, World War II aircraft hangar known as the “Bellman Hangar,” the construction of a new hangar known as the “Flight Shed” and the repair and reinstatement of the original finishing straight. The Bellman Hangar was disassembled, refurbished and re-erected in a different location, using almost all the original steelwork and featuring strengthening works to extend its life. The project aimed to bring back the essence of the original racetrack and to create a new state of the art exhibition celebrating the history of engineering and aircraft manufacturing.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Alan Baxter Ltd
  • CLIENT NAME: Brooklands Museum
  • LOCATION: Weybridge, United Kingdom
• Brougham Castle Bridge: The repair and rebuild of a flood damaged three span, 45m sandstone ashlar masonry arch bridge built in 1812. The project featured major temporary works with cross-pier bracing and hydraulic jacking. Repairs used geologically matched stone and compatibly designed lime mortar, while the design solution used the latest innovative techniques to strengthen and build-in resilience to future floods.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Curtins
  • CLIENT NAME: Cumbria County Council
  • LOCATION: Penrith, United Kingdom
• Burrard Bridge Renewal: The restoration of an Art Deco bridge to downtown Vancouver, addressing its deteriorating condition and capacity issues. Dedicated cycle paths and pedestrian walkways were added and iconic, heritage components restored. The elegant solution widened the bridge’s north end spans by 6m and strengthened bridge girders and pier caps using fiber reinforced polymer wrap.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Associated Engineering (B.C.) Ltd
  • CLIENT NAME: City of Vancouver
  • LOCATION: Vancouver, Canada

• Gasholders London: The re-purposing of the gasworks infrastructure at King’s Cross: the distinctive ‘Triplet’ of 138 year old gasholder guide frames were restored and formed the basis for a unique new residential offering, with three cylindrical concrete buildings positioned inside. An exhilarating blend of contemporary architecture with Victorian infrastructure.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Ove Arup & Partners
  • CLIENT NAME: Argent
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• Southbank Centre – Repair and Maintenance Project: Refurbishing and re-working the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank Centre involved close examination of the existing structural archive calculations and drawings, followed by a series of careful interventions to bring these famous Brutalist buildings up to 21st century standards. One of the biggest structural challenges was to check, calculate and justify over a thousand new openings in the existing reinforced concrete. The project breathed new life into the Centre, making it ready for the next 50 years.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Arup
  • CLIENT NAME: The Southbank Centre
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• The Hoover Building: A Grade II listed Art Deco building converted from an office to 66 homes. The project required careful and considered design, complementing the historic fabric and utilising the existing structure while converting the building by adding additional levels between the existing floor slabs. Existing and proposed loads were carefully balanced with a timber-framed solution, designed to shift the additional weight to locations that could support it.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Interrobang
  • CLIENT NAME: IDM Developments
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom

The award for Structural Transformation: Awarded for projects demonstrating structural engineering excellence in the transformation, extension, renovation or rehabilitation of an existing building or structure.

• London Bridge Station Redevelopment: This transformation of a busy London station created a new station concourse that is the largest in the UK – bigger than the pitch at Wembley Stadium. Since the 1840s, the through platforms evolved separately from the terminus station, but this project united the two parts through a complex construction sequence that was designed to minimise disruption. All 15 platforms are longer than the nearby Shard is tall, having been realigned and provided with full-length undulating steel canopies.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: IWSP and Arcadis
  • CLIENT NAME: Network Rail
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• Queen’s Theatre Refurbishment: Design and construction of complex structural alterations to a Grade II listed West End theatre. Involving the removal of load-bearing vault walls and construction of new steelwork to support vault arches beneath the adjacent highway, and the creation of new stage level space by partially removing a primary loadbearing curved masonry wall from basement to second floor level. Operations above and below stage level comprised underpinning, encased and composite structural steelwork, Pynford stooling, reinforced concrete cantilever ribbed slab and composite diaphragm shear walls. This was all achieved without interruption to rehearsals and daily performances.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Abbey Pynford
  • CLIENT NAME: Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Ltd
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom

• Rømerhus: The restoration of a seven-storey commercial building’s 1895 facade and the substantial rebuild of the main building. The buildings original inner courtyard has been converted to a five-story high atrium, and the static loads from the floors higher than the atrium are transferred through a suspension system to two mega columns. On the ground and first floors, the original floor slabs have been replaced by in-situ cast concrete floors, which has made it possible to establish open, pillar-free sales areas. The many constructive interventions increased the overall load of the building, which has made it necessary to strengthen the existing foundations with a number of additional 25m long GEWI piles. The building was in operation throughout the entire construction process.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Søren Jensen Rådgivende Ingeniørfirma A/S
  • CLIENT NAME: Bestseller
  • LOCATION: Aarhus, Denmark
• V&A Grain Silo Complex: A grain silo complex repurposed to create a 10,000m² museum of contemporary art and five star luxury hotel. Retaining much of the original structure, an atrium reveals the original workings of the building creating a juxtaposition with the new ‘white box’ gallery spaces. The transformation of the original working house into a hotel was made possible by altering the stability system from external shear walls to an internal concrete core, whilst maintaining as much of the original structure and character as possible.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Arup and Sutherland Engineers
  • CLIENT NAME: Victoria and Alfred Waterfront Holdings
  • LOCATION: Cape Town, South Africa

The award for Construction Innovation: Awarded for projects demonstrating structural engineering excellence in the innovative use of construction materials or processes.

• Reflector Supporting Structural System of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST): The world’s largest single-aperture telescope. The active reflector system of FAST is a 500m aperture and 300m radius spherical crown composed of its primary supporting structure, actuator, backing structure and reflector panels. FAST was assembled in a mountainous region with complicated terrain and is also the largest space structure ever to have been built.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design
  • CLIENT NAME: National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • LOCATION: Pingtang County, People’s Republic of China
• Innovative Touring Frame – U2 ‘The Joshua Tree’ Tour 2017: The supporting structures for touring productions’ LED screen panels remained unchanged until Atelier One developed this collapsible Spaceframe LED support system. The revolutionary use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics reduced weight by 35% and truck loading volume by 40% – much reducing the transportation carbon footprint.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Atelier One Ltd.
  • CLIENT NAME: PRG Projects
  • LOCATION: Worldwide
• Jump Factory: Two residential towers of 26 and 30 storeys were completed in Stratford using this pioneering construction technique. The Jump Factory is a 10-storey high demountable enclosure inside which a high rise building is constructed in factory conditions. Support for the Factory is integrated into the design of the main building, and bespoke jacking frames are incorporated into the Factory structure, allowing it to be raised up the building incrementally as each level is completed. It provides four internal working levels at which frame construction, load-out of internal fixtures and fittings, and facade installation is completed, allowing the completion of one floor per week.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Davies Maguire
  • CLIENT NAME: Mace
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom

• Perry Bridge: The Perry Bridge is the final link in the chain of the 70km Te Awa River Ride Walk and Cycleway. A visually stunning, innovative network arch installed using a unique cable launch method. The bridge is very long and slender, spanning 130m at just 3m in width. The bridge was launched across the river by sliding the leading end along tensioned cables.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Holmes Consulting
  • CLIENT NAME: Emmetts Civil Construction
  • LOCATION: Horotiu, New Zealand
• The Stability Frame, Hywind Scotland: The installation of five wind turbine generators (WTGs) by the semi‐submersible crane vessel Saipem 7000 on Statoil’s Hywind Scotland project using the Saipem Stability Frame. Hywind Scotland is the world’s first floating wind farm. This was also the world’s first installation of a fully assembled WTG onto a floating substructure. The stability frame used 25% of the material of a traditional frame and was far more efficient in terms of execution schedule. This delivered a cost saving to the project of 1.7m euros. The assembly was carried out in Stord, Norway, then the fully assembled turbines were towed to Scotland.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Saipem Limited
  • CLIENT NAME: Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil ASA)
  • LOCATION: Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom

The award for Construction Integration: Awarded for projects demonstrating excellence in the interaction between the structural design and the construction scheme where this represents a significant feature of the structural solution.

• Apple Michigan Avenue: A new retail store featuring an exceptionally thin carbon fibre roof (1m deep x 33.7m x 29.8m in plan) supported on four columns. A structural steel roof frame supports the carbon fibre roof which together cantilever 8.3m to the south, 9.3m to the east and west, and 6.3m to the north. The store is split over two levels level with an interior tapering mezzanine balcony flanked by grand stairs to either side, creating a stunning central volume. The design is truly integrated, combining structural engineering with the other core design disciplines and specialist fabricators to achieve a visionary client’s aspirations.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Foster + Partners and Simpson Gumpertz and Heger
  • CLIENT NAME: Apple, Inc.
  • LOCATION: Chicago, United States of America

• National Arts Centre Architectural Rejuvenation: Canada’s most prestigious performing arts institution was transformed via a 6,000m² glass-clad extension. A coffered hybrid wood-steel roof draws inspiration from the ubiquitous triangular geometry of the existing building. The roof structure uses several hundred triangular glue-laminated wood coffers, all of the same unique shape but rotated differently and exposed to create a flowing artistic effect. The extremely tight construction schedule drove a fully pre-assembled and panellised structure, able to be erected with temporary waterproofing and integrated services pre-installed off-site, while maintaining unaffected theatre operations in the existing venue.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Fast+Epp
  • CLIENT NAME: National Arts Centre
  • LOCATION: Ottawa, Canada
• New StructureCraft Plant: An all wood prefabricated industrial building erected in five days. Featuring stepped glulam belly beams and a timber diaphragm spanning 100m, this is a cost effective facility housing a more efficient manufacturing centre for the client’s new Dowel Laminated Timber mass timber product and reflecting the philosophy of the company in both the choice of materials and the construction techniques.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: StructureCraft Builders Inc.
  • CLIENT NAME: StructureCraft Builders Inc.
  • LOCATION: Abbotsford, Canada
• Selfridges Duke Street Project: The redevelopment and reinvention of the historic range of buildings that form Selfridges’ world-famous Oxford Street store saw a 50m HGV road bridge constructed within and over the live basement below and cutting and resupporting structures for the occupied building above, a two-storey deep basement tunnel linking two buildings across and under a private road. A new architectural feature entrance building unifying the eastern facade was built between and around the constraints of the existing structures and a number of interventions within the historic structures.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Expedition Engineering Ltd
  • CLIENT NAME: Selfridges
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom

• V&A Exhibition Road Quarter: A new 1100 m² column-free subterranean gallery for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s temporary exhibitions programme with a new entrance, courtyard, cafe and shop – all contained in a 15m deep basement. Constructed within a courtyard bounded on all sides by Grade I and Grade II* listed museum buildings. Sophisticated 3D analysis, digital design and optimisation methods together with early considerations of buildability and construction sequence were crucial to developing the most efficient and appropriate design and reducing the risks during construction.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Arup
  • CLIENT NAME: Victoria and Albert Museum
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom

The award for Structural Artistry: Awarded for projects in which what could otherwise have been an adequate and worthy solution has been transformed by the vision and skill of the structural engineer into something exceptional.

• Apple Michigan Avenue: A new retail store featuring an exceptionally thin carbon fibre roof (1m deep x 33.7m x 29.8m in plan) supported on four columns. A structural steel roof frame supports the carbon fibre roof which together cantilever 8.3m to the south, 9.3m to the east and west, and 6.3m to the north. The store is split over two levels level with an interior tapering mezzanine balcony flanked by grand stairs to either side, creating a stunning central volume. The design is truly integrated, combining structural engineering with the other core design disciplines and specialist fabricators to achieve a visionary client’s aspirations.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Foster + Partners and Simpson Gumpertz and Heger
  • CLIENT NAME: Apple, Inc.
  • LOCATION: Chicago, United States of America
• Louvre Abu Dhabi: The Louvre Abu Dhabi’s 180m span steel dome appears to float above a collection of gallery buildings. The intricate dome is composed of 11,000 elements and over 2,000 connections supported on only four bearings.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: BuroHappold Engineering
  • CLIENT NAME: Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC)
  • LOCATION: Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi
• Solar Gate: A 10m tall artwork celebrating Hull’s status as 2017 UK City of Culture. Built as a stressed skin structure made entirely from stainless steel, digital tools were used to align exact sun angles from particular times and dates to pairs of large apertures on its front and back surfaces. When a beam of sunlight passes through an aligned pair of apertures, it lands on a corresponding disc on the ground, revealing a significant event for the time and date. This innovative approach to design and building learns from nature, using curvature, corrugation and distortion to add strength. No additional structure is required internally as the undulating skin links the two sides together, making the artwork completely self-supporting.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Arup
  • CLIENT NAME: Hull City Council
  • LOCATION: Kingston-upon-Hull, United Kingdom

• Steve Jobs Theater Pavilion: This pavilion is the largest structure in the world solely supported by glass. It features a 47m carbon fibre roof, the largest of its kind, comprised of 44 radial panels, which were assembled on site before being raised into position in one lift. This 80 tonne roof is supported by a 7m high glass cylinder, made up of glass panels, each consisting of four layers of 12mm thick plies, which hold up the roof without any additional support.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Eckersley O’Callaghan & Arup
  • CLIENT NAME: Apple
  • LOCATION: Cupertino, California, United States of America
• Sunset Dream Catcher – Echelman Sculpture: This large-scale, floating net sculpture was developed for the Sunset La Cienega project in West Hollywood, California. The aerial sculpture was designed in collaboration with artist Janet Echelman and spans the two towers of the development. The artwork’s inspiration stems from dreams and the idea of dreaming hotel guests asleep in the two buildings that cradle and support the sculpture.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
  • CLIENT NAME: CIM Group
  • LOCATION: Los Angeles, United States of America

• Tiffany Gallery Glass Staircase: A central feature for a new gallery housing the collection of Tiffany Lamps bequeathed to the New York Historical Society. The single flight is gently curved on plan with each tread supported on cantilever glass fins. The treads and fins are laminated from heat strengthened glass and the stainless-steel connectors have been designed to complement the minimal design aesthetic.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: GL&SS – Glass Light and Special Structures
  • CLIENT NAME: New York Historical Society
  • LOCATION: New York City, United States of America

The award for Outstanding Value: For projects where the structural engineering solution has resulted in significant savings for the client, or has delivered best value in some other way, based on the evidence provided, as determined and selected by the judges from all the entries.

• Dulwich Pavilion: StructureMode and IF_DO architects won a national competition to design and build this pavilion, commissioned to celebrate the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s 200th anniversary year. The elegant and lightweight timber roof appears to float 5.5m in the air, suspended by only three mirrored panels that are 5cm thick. All other mirrored panels are removable to provide a flexible event space. A system of reusable ground screws for the foundations were used so they could be easily removed without damaging the grass. Prefabrication and preassembly of most elements before delivery to site allowed the pavilion to be built in only three weeks on site, achieving a very tight programme and keeping disruption to a minimum.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: StructureMode
  • CLIENT NAME: Dulwich Picture Gallery
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom
• New StructureCraft Plant: An all wood prefabricated industrial building erected in five days. Featuring stepped glulam belly beams and a timber diaphragm spanning 100m, this is a cost-effective facility housing a more efficient manufacturing centre for the client’s new Dowel Laminated Timber mass timber product.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: StructureCraft Builders Inc.
  • CLIENT NAME: StructureCraft Builders Inc.
  • LOCATION: Abbotsford, Canada

• Perry Bridge: The Perry Bridge is the final link in the chain of the 70km Te Awa River Ride Walk and Cycleway. A visually stunning, innovative network arch, the bridge is very long and slender, spanning 130m at just 3m in width. The bridge was installed using a unique cable launch method. The efficiency of this form of structure kept its costs within a practical budget, while also presenting the local district council and Te Awa the opportunity to create a visually compelling focal point to help attract people to the Cycleway.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Holmes Consulting
  • CLIENT NAME: Emmetts Civil Construction
  • LOCATION: Horotiu, New Zealand
• Queen’s Theatre Refurbishment: Design and construction of complex structural alterations to a Grade II listed West End theatre. Involving the removal of load-bearing vault walls and construction of new steelwork to support vault arches beneath the adjacent highway, and the creation of new stage level space by partially removing a primary loadbearing curved masonry wall from basement to second floor level. Operations above and below stage level comprised underpinning, encased and composite structural steelwork, Pynford stooling, reinforced concrete cantilever ribbed slab and composite diaphragm shear walls. This was all achieved without interruption to rehearsals and daily performances.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Abbey Pynford
  • CLIENT NAME: Delfont Mackintosh Theatres Ltd
  • LOCATION: London, United Kingdom

The award for Sustainability: For projects demonstrating outstanding commitment to sustainability and respect for the environment in the structural design, selected by the judges from all the entries.

• Haiti Chapel: This new chapel was required to provide a large new space for services, meetings, counselling and consulting. The design of the chapel responded to the challenges of both seismic activity and hurricanes, combined with a lack of good quality building materials and experienced labour.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Webb Yates Engineers
  • CLIENT NAME: Hope Health Action
  • LOCATION: Northern Haiti, Haiti
• Heron Hall, Living Building: Design and construction of Heron Hall followed the stringent, sustainable design and performance requirements of the Living Building Challenge Standard. The two-storey primary hall is supported on 610mm thick seismically detailed, reinforced rammed earth shear walls with rigid insulation sandwiched in between. Salvaged and reclaimed timber was also used extensively. The building’s key sustainability features include generating all its energy requirements, collecting all its water needs and composting all organic waste materials.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Associated Engineering (B.C.) Ltd.
  • CLIENT NAME: Jason Meclennan
  • LOCATION: Bainbridge Island, United States of America

• Iskandar Puteri Public Art Program: The creation of 15 bamboo art installations combined traditional techniques and modern analysis with the aim to promote bamboo as a sustainable and alternative construction and design material. Web Structures worked closely with the artists, providing detailed advice on the foundations, mounting details and the incorporation of an adequate structural system within an artistic framework.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Web Structures
  • CLIENT NAME: Kazanah Nasional
  • LOCATION: Iskandar Puteri, Malaysia
• Rwanda Cricket Stadium: The stadium adapts ancient Mediterranean techniques of thin-tile vaulting using compressed soil-cement tiles and geogrid reinforcement for seismic stabilization. It is composed of three vaults, the largest spanning 16m with a rise of over 9m. The vaults follow the natural resolution of forces toward the ground, closely mimicking the parabolic geometry of a bouncing ball and evoking the hilly topography of Rwanda. Employing air-dried, hand-pressed soil tiles, produced using local labour, this method of construction has proved to be innovative and cost effective.
  • STRUCTURAL DESIGNER: Light Earth Designs
  • CLIENT NAME: Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation
  • LOCATION: Kigali, Rwanda

More information about Structural Awards 2018 here.