The winners of The Structural Awards 2013, organised each year by The Institution of Structural Engineers, have been revealed and celebrate the world’s most talented structural designers and their indispensable contribution to the built environment.
President of The Institution of Structural Engineers, Y.K. Cheng said: “The Institution of Structural Engineers holds The Structural Awards each year to showcase the challenging environments in which engineers work and the complex structures they help to raise.
“The aim is to recognise the range of skills that characterise our global profession, raise awareness among the general public, and encourage young people into structural engineering careers.
“This year we have once again enjoyed a high standard of innovative entries and I congratulate all our winners on their achievements.”
Taizhou Bridge over the Yangtse River in Jiangsu Province, China, has been presented with The Supreme Award for Structural Engineering Excellence, as well as the Award for Highway or Railway Bridge Structures. The bridge, designed by Jiangsu Provincial Communications Planning and Design Institute alongside AECOM Asia Company Ltd, is the world’s first long-span, three-tower suspension bridge.
The Awards judges said: “This enormous project was an extraordinary achievement, which pushed the frontiers of suspension bridge technology to new heights. Bridge engineering has just moved forward by a very significant margin.”
Other Award winners included:
- Award for Arts or Entertainment Structures: Gardens by the Bay, Singapore. Structural Designer: Atelier One with Meinhardt Infrastructure. “The engineers clearly applied innovative thinking to achieve a series of structures that are original and visually striking. This is a project full of ideas and truly sustainable achievements.”
- Award for Commercial and Retail Structures: China Central Television New HQ, Beijing, China. Structural Designer: Arup; and the East China Architectural & Design Research Institute. “This is an excellent example of the structural engineer providing a solution to a very difficult problem with a basic concept that is clear and robust. Their skills in innovation, collaboration and attention to detail are apparent in the development of the final design.”
- Award for Community or Residential Structures: Bishop Edward King Chapel Oxfordshire, UK. Structural Designer: Price & Myers. “This chapel is clearly an inspirational building for its users, and this is down, in no small part, to extraordinary skills in designing and innovating with timber.”
- Award for Education or Healthcare Structures: University of Exeter Forum, Devon, UK. Structural Designers: Buro Happold. “The simplicity of the detailing belies the complexity in analysis and form-finding involved.”
- Award for Infrastructure or Transportation Structures: Emirates Air Line, London, UK. Structural Designers: Expedition Engineering; Buro Happold and URS. “The synergy between architecture and engineering has yielded a new landmark which is both beautiful and bold. Delivery within a very short timescale is testament to the whole project team and a fine example of what the UK construction industry can deliver.”
- Award for Pedestrian Bridges: Pembroke College Footbridge, Oxford, UK. Structural Designer: Price & Myers. Judges were impressed by: “the way the geometrical constraints on this project were solved to achieve an extremely elegant structure that complements its surroundings.”
- Award for Small Practices: The Feature Stairs for the New Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia. Structural Designer: Malishev Wilson Engineers. “This family of structures is well executed, displaying versatility and ingenuity. The designers conceived innovative structural systems and used materials in an appropriate way to deliver an imaginative and elegant solution.”
- Award for Small Projects: KREOD Pavilion, London, UK. Structural Designer: Ramboll. “Once in a while developing new techniques and processes, coupled with imaginative and perceptive engineering skills, allows the realisation of a design that previously would not have been feasible or financially viable. Though temporary by nature, the KREOD Pavilion is a seminal structure, demonstrating the possibilities of the exo-skeletal approach to permanent habitable buildings of the future.”
- Award for Sports and Leisure Structures: First Direct Arena, Leeds, UK (pictured). Structural Designer: Arup. The judges thought that “the design is tailored beautifully to its sloping site through its fan shape, and is visually stunning as a result. The roof solution in particular, with main trusses located in the air gap, is a highly-effective innovation that both reduces cost and increases acoustic insulation.”
- Structural Heritage Award: The Cutty Sark, London, UK. Structural Designer: Buro Happold. “The Cutty Sark needed some very complex structural repairs, verging on reconstruction, in order to raise and re-support her. This work required some exceptional engineering.”
- Award for Sustainability: Halley VI Antarctic Research Station, Antarctica. Structural Designer: AECOM. The judges found this to be a highly sustainable and remarkable project, commenting that the research base is “one of the most challenging and technically complex buildings ever delivered, and is an outstanding example of structural design, innovation and construction.”