THE ARUP JOURNAL \ 50TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE~lt~ I Vol. 31 No.2 Editor: David J . Brown Front cover: 2/1996 Art Editor: Johannesburg Stadium Published by Desmond Wyeth FCSD (Photo: James Burland) THEARUP Ove Arup Partnership Deputy Editor: Back cover: 13 Fitzroy Street Helene Murphy London W1P 680 Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Editorial: (Photo: Patrick Bingham Hall} Tel: +44 (0)1716361531 Tel: +44 (0)171 465 3828 JOURNAL Fax: +44 (0)171 580 3924 Fax: +44 (0)171 465 3716 0resund Link image: Nigel Whale Editorial This is the second of two special numbers of The Arup Journal to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the firm . Issue 1/1996 was de­ voted to recent projects in Brita,in and Ireland, in both of which countries Ove Arup started his consulting engineering practice simultaneously in 1946. Over the ensuing half-century, the work of the organisation he created has expanded 3 geographically and diversified into new fields of 31 activity to an extent beyond anything he could Brisbane have envisaged at the outset. This second cele­ Saving Convention and bratory Arup Journal includes recent projects in a landmark - Exhibition Centre five continents - North America, Europe, Asia, California style Ian Ainsworth Africa, and Australasia. The work described and Catherine Wells Tristram Carfrae illustrated here covers many different dis­ Bill Short ciplines, ranging from 'traditional' structural engineering in widely varied forms to civil engi­ neering works on the most massive scale; from the creation of energy-efficient internal building environments to the sophisticated analysis of a 11 single structural detail to help withstand earth­ 34 quakes; and from the architectural design and lnventure Place, engineering of a new stadium celebrating a City of Hope: Akron, Ohio reborn nation to planning a visionary bridge link Steel moment Raymond Crane between two Scandinavian countries. connection development Caroline Fitzgerald Sydney Opera House, conceived nearly 40 years ago, is still arguably Arups' most famous King-Le Chang project, and its success has stimulated com­ Hossein Mozaffarian petition between other Australian cities to pro­ Atila Zekioglu vide comparably spectacular public facilities. The latest of these landmark buildings is the 14 Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, with its vast and innovative roof designed by Arups' 37 Schwedlerstrasse, Australian practice. On the other side of the The fl)resund Link Frankfurt am Main, world, Ove Arup & Partners' New York office was J0rgen Nissen Germany responsible for a very different structural solution Brian Cody to an equally dissimilar public building, the David Lewis museum of invention known as 'lnventure Place' Constant van Aerschot in Akron. Ohio. On the West Coast, the Los Angeles office has undertaken a number of seismically-related commissions. Behind the historic fabric of UCLA's Powell Library, discreet structural 17 strengthening measures were carried out, of 42 The European which the 1995 Northridge earthquake provided New Chamber, Court of an unscheduled test. And at Duarte, also in National Human Rights, California. new buildings for the City of Hope Assembly, Strasbourg National Medical Center will incorporate a struc­ Gaborone, tural steel connection specifically designed to Botswana Colin Jackson resist major ground movements. Andrew McDowell Simon Nevill Mick White Arups have now carried out building projects in most of the countries of mainland Europe. Examples in France and Germany are included here: the civil and building engineering design of 22 new premises at Strasbourg to house one of the 44 Shajiao C most important of European institutions, and the Johannesburg fac;ade structure and environmental design for a Power Station, private office building in Frankfurt. Athletics Stadium China James Burland Rick Higson Increasingly, different parts of Arups worldwide Alan Jones collaborate on projects. This can range from pro­ Rob Lamb vision of a single, crucial piece of specialist advice, to the deployment of many disciplines from centres of excellence round the globe. Arup Botswana's design of a new shell roof tor the country's National Assembly, adjacent to the existing facility designed by the firm over 30 years ago, benefited from input by the Arup engineer involved in the original building . At the other end of the scale, the Shajiao C Power Station in mainland China. the new Johannes­ burg Athletics Stadium in South Africa, and the design of the 0resund bridge link between Denmark and Sweden each demonstrates how Arups can bring to bear a global resource of cre­ ative engineering and design appropriate to major projects that could hardly be more varied. 2 TliE ARUP JOURNAL 2/1996 Ian Ainsworth Tristram Carfrae Bill Short Introduction to 1OOOm 2; associated support facilities in­ reasonably obvious - the row of five 72m The new Convention and Exhibition Centre cluding a central kitchen that can cope with square spaces with 14m clear headroom, (BCEC) in Brisbane, Queensland, was meals for up to 8000; and basement parking interconnected by enormous doors allowing opened to public acclaim in June 1995. The for 1600 cars. All halls are directly accessible for independent or combined use. The halls building is vast - over 400m long, up to 150m to vehicular traffic via an elevated seNice have entry foyers for the public on one side wide, and 32m tall - but its most individual road. The total floor area exceeds 110 ooom2. and seNice access for heavy goods vehicles feature is the roofscape, which breaks down which makes the centre the largest building on the other. Essentially it was a big shed, the bulk and brings the edges of the building project ever undertaken in Queensland. which could to all functional intents and down within reach of its mainly pedestrian Tender purposes have been much the same as an visitors. This endows a human scale and The Queensland Government identified some aircraft hangar or high bay warehouse. gives the sense of craftsmanship and years ago that the State's share of Australia's All Asia Pacific exhibition centres compete personal input of which the late Peter Rice convention market was in decline due to the for the same market, so each strives for some spoke so eloquently in his 1992 RISA Gold capital's lack of international-standard facili­ positive visual identification or public appeal. Medal speech 1, and in his book2. ties. It was decided that a new exhibition and The main opportunity for differentiation is in The roof is also innovative in its structural convention centre should be built and in late roof design. The typical warehouse or action. Following the use of cable or rod­ 1992 tenders were called for its design and hangar-style deep truss is cheapest, but for a stayed roofs in the '80s, there has been a construction. Arups were invited to join the small increase in structural cost many other trend towards steel lattice grid shells, most of team led by Leighton Contractors with Philip systems become feasible. The choice is them using one-way curvature, usually as a Cox Richardson Rayner in association with largely aesthetic but must also consider the simple barrel vault. The Brisbane roofs break Peddle Thorp as architects. site and its ground conditions and boundary new ground by using two-way, anticlastic The required area of exhibition and con­ constraints; cable-stayed designs, for exam­ curvature, which results in a shell with little ference halls only just fitted within the ple, may not be appropriate if permanent propensity to buckle, which can therefore be surrounding roads, so the basic plan was tension anchorages cannot easily be con­ extremely delicate. structed, nor if there is insufficient room for BCEC is even more remarkable given that back stays. procurement was by competitive design-and­ The actual choice of roof system therefore construct tender with a very short pro­ comes from an intimate collaboration gramme. Great credit must be given to the between the architect and structural engi­ client and design team for their courage to neer, both responding to the particular site. embark upon such a project with such time For this project the design team decided on a and budget constraints. roof shape recalling some of the free-form Outline description characteristics of the fabric structures that There are five large halls, each 72m x 72m in Brisbane people fondly remember from plan with 14m clear ceiling heights. Four are World Expo '88, held on the same site. Inter­ dedicated exhibition halls; the other (the state rivalry made it essential that the BCEC's Great Hall) can be used in exhibition, conven­ roof could not be confused with the Darling tion, theatre or banquet modes. It incor­ Harbour Exhibition Centre in Sydney, also porates over 3000 seats, both fixed and designed by Cox and Arups in the mid-'80s. raiseable in tiers; the latter can be hoisted to Coupled with this desire for a striking design roof level out of the way for exhibition or for was an absolute value-for-money requirement, banquet modes. The halls are augmented 2 Above: Exhibitions halls concourse . and avoidance of any cost premium or risk by a 22oom2 ballroom; outdoor exhibition associated with innovation. These potentially space; a series of meeting rooms from 30m2 1 Top: BCEC in its city context at night. conflicting objectives were brought together ~ THE ARUP JOURNAL 2/1996 3 3. View towards north east with Brisbane River and city centre beyond. From right to left: prin­ cipal elements are the main foyer . the Great Hall , and exhibition halls 1-4. In front is the concourse, with the loading dock behind halls 2, 3, and 4. To the right of the loading dock is the railway plaza structure supporting the twin roofs of the ballroom behind hall 1 and the llat­ rooled main meeting room and pre-function terrace behind the Great Hall.