02 Building genius 21 Are you listening? 41 The best bet 61 Fire fighters Arup The new national reference Listen to your building as it’s A casino developer takes Arup teams across the world library in Singapore redefines being designed a gamble in Macau, China turn up the heat on fire safety Design Yearbook the concept of intelligent buildings 24 The long and 42 A city without limits 64 Living history 2006 winding road The rise of an entire city built Living in the past: the 04 The birth of a The making of a risky ride to sustainable specifications redevelopment of some boomtown into Britain’s greenest road of London’s most From fishing village to 44 Flash flood precious historic sites commercial hub, Shenzhen’s 26 Brand and deliver prevention transformation has been Setting the standard How plans for flood defences 66 Regenerating further supported by a new in vehicle design in Edinburgh, Scotland, were British Energy approved in record time The turnaround of the underground transport system 28 The world’s largest in 2012 UK’s largest nuclear timepiece 46 Virtual world, real power generator 06 A new retail A new installation is lighting benefits generation up shoppers’ lives in Zurich Arup’s Intelligent Visualisation 68 People power almost entirely removes The people that bring Will Wal-Mart’s new living 30 Ready, jet, go laboratories capture the the margin for error in Arup’s projects to life The latest revolution in airport hearts of US consumers? development projects design takes off in 2009 50 China’s newest super 08 A fast track for 32 Tall orders sports fans structure The fate of tall buildings Take off two thirds: how China’s TV tower in since 9/11 London’s Wembley Park Guangzhou, one of the tallest underground was built in just 36 The legal light house structures in the world, is set to compete on the world a fraction of the original How Singapore’s new broadcasting stage from 2009 timescale and budget Supreme Court lights up naturally at night 10 Working for a greener 52 A mining town government 37 The portable gallery in trouble The rescue of a small mining Wales’ radical windfarm The journey of a community’s economic future development travelling art house 12 Making a stand 38 Natural beauty: LNG 54 Learning on location The unveiling of an iconic made safe and easy Find out how buildings can be used as teaching tools in their stadium for the 2006 Asian How natural gas will own right Games soon be in the pipeline 14 Partnering on public 39 Inside out thinking 56 The making of a microclimate consultation The growth of a sustainable The launch of one of China’s Bridging the gap between research centre in Australia Hong Kong and Shenzhen biggest environmentally 40 Art attack friendly projects 17 Magnum opus Modifying a museum 57 Space invaders One man meets a mountain. for the sake of art Arup helps to realise his vision Creating inside space with no supporting columns 18 Ship to shore The resurrection of one 58 Clever concrete of Isambard Kingdom A new innovation in a staple Brunel’s finest ships building material 19 Six things you should 59 Environmentally know about the friendly engineering Chartist Bridge You wouldn’t know we were there: extracting oil and LNG 20 Patents pending without harming the precious A new shock absorbing surroundings of Australia’s system for tall buildings Barrow Island 60 Appraisal time A new audit process for optimum sustainability 02 Lee Kong Chian Reference Library 03 Singapore © Arup In the library today, which also incorporates a café, an auditorium and exhibition space, multi-use hand-held PDAs allow librarians to stay in contact with colleagues and provide relevant information Building to the public as they move around the facility. The library’s 1.5M books all have radio frequency ID tags to increase operating efficiency and improve security. In the future this may allow staff and visitors genius to track down the exact location of books with a hand-held device, wherever they might have been left. Other applications include online research facilities Libraries have always been places and roadmaps, virtual tours and souvenir kiosks for where people go to learn, but the personalised interaction – all have been designed with the philosophy of engaging its 32M users at National Library Board of Singapore has every step of their library experience. added a completely new dimension to During the 1990s, a downturn in the Asian economy meant the budget did not allow all the intended this traditional function, with a building technologies to be installed in Phase One, but the that rivals its contents in intelligence. infrastructure and space have been built in to allow Words: Will Hersey such additions as large interactive video information screens. The building is also fully equipped to support the installation of additional green technologies in the future. In fact, the technology now available to library visitors is so advanced that this seemingly traditional institution is now one of the most cutting-edge places In brief Above: design of the reference library spaces for anyone to spend their time. When the National Library Board of has focused on imaginative co-ordination © Arup Singapore announced its intention to with technology to provide an exciting redefine the library concept for the learning environment. A good example of Wireless LAN 21st century, the challenge was to this is the triple-height space featuring a Having decided on the projected design an intelligent building that could book wall that provides continuous visual importance of wireless working, Arup be leading-edge in the present, but impact over three floors to engage visitors’ had to be sure wireless devices would could also adapt to future change. attention and encourage use of the library. work in every public space and most back-of-house areas. “Radio propagation is something of a black art,” explains Jim Read, associate director, Arup. Traditionally the intelligent building has remained conducive learning environment possible; but as a “Wireless LAN is very high frequency more associated with sci-fi movies than city building they wanted a structure that would set a and very low power, which means the libraries. But if an intelligent building is one that benchmark for its use of technology and, simply signal can travel a maximum of 50m can respond in various ways to the demands of speaking, make the rest of the world sit up and inside a building. its users and environment, then the technology take note. © Arup It’s also very hard to determine how infrastructure within the new flagship building of For a project several years in development, the far signals will travel round corners and the National Library Board of Singapore is evidence most immediate problem was the absence of a through certain materials and fittings. that such thinking is now firmly rooted in reality. crystal ball to predict the future. Just how do you Predicting coverage was a challenge, To put the scale of the Singapore Government’s decide which technologies will be most relevant as it is impossible to conduct a survey vision for their national reference library into to library users in 2006 and beyond? And for a for a building that doesn’t exist – so perspective, large-scale libraries the world over building with a lifespan of at least 50 years, how some creative thinking was required.” had been analysed and observed – and nothing do you then install these leading-edge technologies A thorough knowledge of how radio could be found to match what they were trying to while also implementing a design that will respond waves react to all types of building achieve. As a business, they wanted a facility that to inevitable technological change – in other words, materials – partitions, blinds, glass would increase visitor numbers, expand the status that won’t need to have its insides ripped out and steel – was essential. Once the of learning, and provide the most effective and because of technical advances it cannot support? system had been installed and the It’s a challenge that fell to the Arup team, whose Above: this PDA is showing building completed, the software from traditional field of deciding how technology fits into an actual NLB information portal the wireless LAN system was used the building design process has now expanded designed to assist and guide the in conjunction with the building plans, to analysing how this can be aligned with library’s users. to optimise the final solution. “From the word ‘go’, Arup showed business objectives. great enthusiasm and commitment to An exhaustive review of how technology could this project. Although the project went integrate with the library’s practical, day-to-day through many challenges, including the functions as well as its wider ambitions led to change of the main contractor’s project several technology ‘wow’ factors being drawn manager, turnover of other specialty up, factors that would provide a strong and consultants and the difficulties faced immediate impact. For the longer term, a more Client in dealing with subcontractors for not holistic view was taken. All parties understood that National Library Board of Singapore Technology systems providers implementing our specifications, they there would be a huge turnover of technology, but © Ken Yeang Hewlett-Packard Singapore Pte Ltd stayed the course throughout.” what would be the backbone to these trends? SCS Networks Pte Ltd Lau Kai Cheong, Director, Infocomm Architect Wireless technology, which is how the intelligent Ken Yeang of Llewelyn Davies Yeang National Library Board environment took shape. 04 05 Shenzhen Line 4 Shenzhen, China © Arup Back in the 1970s, the residents of economic powerhouse Hong Kong could have been forgiven for being unaware of Shenzhen, a Chinese fishing village 35km north of Hong Kong. But in 1980 all that was set to change, as the late Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, designated Shenzhen one of four Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Shenzhen is one of two SEZs located in the Pearl River Delta. This location gave the city an advantage in developing private enterprise, manufacturing capabilities and foreign trade. Additionally, Shenzhen has been quick to make the most of its proximity to Hong Kong, becoming the manufacturing powerhouse of China. While Shenzhen offers a competitive market for To serve this boomtown, extensive infrastructure companies to source or manufacture goods, development is under way, including plans for Hong Kong, the source of approximately 70% of an underground metro system with six lines fully cumulative foreign direct investment in the region operational by 2012. When completed, the since 1979, provides logistic, financial, legal, design 21km-long project will have 14 stations and and marketing services that allow companies to run between the Huanggang border checkpoint export their products to rest of the world. and Longhua. Today, the city of Shenzhen has a population The scale of the task on the metro system alone of 10M and is home to mainland China’s second is massive and for Arup, the designated engineers, stock exchange (the other is in Shanghai). In 2005 the task has required considerable resources. it was the world’s fourth largest port (measured by The concessionaires, MTR Corporation, divided the container traffic). design into four contracts: underground stations and tunnels; design of the elevated section; depot design; and systems design. Arup is delivering the elevated section, depot and systems design The schedule so far… amongst the communications systems for the December 2004 Shenzhen Line 4 project, including the operational Line 1 (linking Lo Wu on networks, radio, CCTV and office automation. the Hong Kong border In large projects involving many different with the Window on the World contractors, effective control is an issue. It is theme park) and four Line 4 common for contractors to turn up on site stations open for business. without some piece of essential hardware, July 2005 thinking that another contractor was supposed Line 4 contracts What is DOORS? to bring it. To avoid this on Line 4, the team is awarded to Arup. DOORS (Dynamic Object Oriented using a management system called DOORS, Feb 2006 Requirements System) is widely used, a powerful tool which allows all concerned Completed specifications particularly in the avionics industry. not only to predict the future, but also change and design delivered to MTR. It’s a requirements tool that can be it if they need to. It gives client and contractor End 2009 adapted for individual projects. Think complete control. Line 4 extensions open of it like a database. It’s not the system for business. itself that’s exceptional, but how Arup uses it.

Line 4 links Shenzhen’s central So how does Arup use it? business district to the Hong Kong For this project, DOORS works like a Special Administrative Region via very clearly identified management tree. The birth of Huanggang, a border checkpoint In any given circumstance the system to the south. It will also link north will cross-reference inputted data to to an interchange with a new come up with a solution. This kind of high-speed train station, Lunghua. planning means that later, when it’s time a boomtown to work with contractors on the ground, the system identifies who’s doing what. From fishing village to commercial hub, Shenzhen has been the focus of massive infrastructure development for 20 years. What are the benefits? DOORS removes risk from the project. A six-line underground system is set to It smoothes delivery and the impact of complete the picture in 2012. changes ensures cross-requirement Words: Tim Edwards compatibility. Clients benefit from seeing a visible audit trail throughout the design phase and are able to determine the cost © Arup or time implications of changes immediately. 06 Wal-Mart Stores 07 USA © Arup/Costea Photography, Inc. A switch to lower energy LED lighting in all “Here we have a chance food cabinets, for example – producing less heat so refrigeration becomes significantly more to influence a huge number efficient – is already a likely candidate for the wider of buildings and also a huge market. A displacement ventilation system that moves air out at low velocity so only air in the number of people with all A new retail immediate surroundings is chilled, replaces the the education efforts that traditional high-level system that conditions the entire space, which is just over 6m high. are happening through the One proposal for sliding doors on mid-temperature refrigerated products such as bacon and cheese stores themselves.” generation has resulted in significant energy savings. Alisdair McGregor Anecdotal customer feedback that ‘it makes the project director, Arup The opening of two experimental Wal-Mart food feel fresher’ suggests that rare commodity, a happy union of customers, associates, stores in the US is set to make a major commercial and environmental concerns. impact on the environment, potentially “Our intent was to implement leading-edge technologies, not bleeding-edge ones,” says changing the way the whole retail industry Shaun Landman, project manager. “The integration does business for the better. of so many new and different systems and products Words: Will Hersey into one big-box store is unprecedented.” Ultimately, it’s the numbers that matter, but there are also more intangible objectives that will be harder to measure. Part of the mission Above: dimming statement for the Wal-Mart experimental stores lights during daytime is sharing the process as well as the results hours reduces of the experiments with others in the industry, energy consumption. the general public, and government agencies. For Wal-Mart, effectively educating and including its customers in the process will certainly have an impact on future developments. For Arup, the challenge was to take experience on sustainable energy projects into a new arena – moving away from the existing green building process, which tests technologies one building at a time – and assess the impact on a far larger Conserving water using Solar power: four different Native species of plant The trees selected scale instead. the xeriscape method, types of photovoltaic have been used in large for this project were Wal-Mart’s decision to appoint the engineers as which involves using arrays generate enough open spaces, reducing chosen for their prime consultants and leaders of the design effort low-maintenance plants electricity in one year to the need for irrigation, superior performance was deliberate. They wanted the mechanical and and trees to create a power 1726 homes for chemical fertiliser and in urban environments. electrical services to drive the design, as opposed sustainable yet attractive a day. maintenance crews. to the aesthetics and architectural elements. landscape, also requires “With all the education efforts that are present proper use of mulches. in the stores, we have a chance to influence After planting, a thick layer Since it first emerged on the scene in the a huge number of buildings as well as a huge of mulch is applied to 1960s, ‘big-box’ construction has traditionally number of people,” says Alisdair McGregor, protect the plant roots from sat its considerable bulk at the more rudimentary Arup’s project director. harsh weather conditions. end of the design scale. When considering the It was clear that effective collaboration was Several mulch types are cutting-edge of environmentally-conscious going to be crucial to the project’s success. being used on this site, construction, supermarkets aren’t necessarily the On one side, Arup’s San Francisco office had including rubber mulch first buildings that spring to mind. Yet Wal-Mart has a relatively fresh perspective on the supermarket from recycled tyres, developed two experimental stores in McKinney, merchandising experience, which allowed for free Inc. © LPA, which is being tested Texas, and Aurora, Colorado, to serve as test thinking. On the other, Wal-Mart’s long experience in selected areas. grounds for technologies and products that save in big-box retail construction provided some fairly energy, conserve natural resources, reduce immediate feedback on viability. pollution and enhance their customers’ shopping experience. They call them ‘living laboratories’. Specifically, the experiments had to result in a store design that improves the comfort of Wal-Mart associates and the ability to serve the store’s customers, and reduces Wal-Mart’s use of natural resources. Cynics might see a mere two-store venture as a token publicity project to tick corporate responsibility boxes. For Wal-Mart, a company that builds around 300 new stores every year in the US alone, it’s the starting block in a programme to reduce the company’s global energy footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. 08 Wembley Park Underground station 09 London, UK

Maximising passenger throughput Double size of station concourse; A fast track for widen entrance stairs. Remove obstructive columns in new event- day ticket hall by erecting a mast that could support the lightweight sports fans ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) roof from above. Redesigning Wembley Park Underground station Correcting sagging platforms in half the planned timeframe and half the budget Close three of the six platforms at called for Arup’s serious creative thinking skills. a time, allowing the station to remain Words: Tim Edwards open. Avoid time-consuming cable diversions and track closures by retaining platform edge walls and constructing a new platform behind.

Arup and architects Pascall & Watson (P&W) Renewing building services had developed a design for the total reconstruction without disruption of Wembley Park Station, to create a London Position a new plant room in

Underground (LU) station on a par with the best the car park, away from the existing © Pascal & Watson Architects of the existing Jubilee Line extension stations. plant rooms, under the new Wembley Park Station is the primary gateway concourse allowed new cabling to to Wembley Stadium and one of the busiest be routed from the opposite end of cross-platform interchanges on the network, with the station. Old cabling was peeled six LU platforms and adjacent network rail tracks. back as work progressed. This The complex project was planned to take four years meant cabling work could begin at a total cost of £90M, including major signalling before the new concourse was and track works, but was stopped by early finished and avoided a need for uncertainties about whether the stadium costly temporary station systems, redevelopment would proceed along with the saving approximately £2M. mooted plans for a Public Private Partnership for maintaining the underground system. Three years on, with the stadium construction on site and set to finish in September 2005, Arup proposed a neat solution to retain and Timesavers LU returned to Arup and the architects to continue extend the area of the existing station concourse Avoiding unnecessarily complicated with the station redevelopment. The budget had by moving the stairs down the platform away works, such as signal and drainage fallen to £42M and just two years remained before from the ticket hall, building a new overbridge in diversions. Keeping demolition to the stadium was due to reopen. their place. Lifts for mobility-impaired passengers a minimum. Retaining as much of The team knew this would be a stiff challenge would go into the old stairwells in a deliberately the existing buildings as possible, and immediately set about generating options for efficient and functional response to strict railway especially the area of the existing what could be done. “Our intimate knowledge of engineering constraints. ticket hall above a Network Rail all the site’s complexities allowed us to plan out Work on railways is often frustrated by restrictive track (permission for work here the most expensive and time-consuming elements engineering times dictated by the need to keep may have taken months to obtain). of the previous construction programme,” recalls trains running. The new overbridge was designed Creating three work fronts, minimise Tim Snelson, Arup’s project manager. “So we were to be built piecemeal using bolted steel and precast station closures by using precast able to achieve the required increase in predicted concrete components that could be hoisted into overbridge components over tracks. passenger levels despite the time pressure.” place by tower cranes at night and during weekend Replacing existing canopies by possessions (closures). It’s a logic that would apply producing a 3-D computer model to any work over operational train tracks. Indeed, in the same package used by the Arup is currently using the philosophy for a bridge manufacturer, using the same design over the tracks at Harrow-on-the-Hill. specifications, to reduce lead times. Work was also accelerated by introducing three work fronts. These were separate building areas within the station where work could continue simultaneously and independently. This meant that when Tube Line Ltd (TLL) asked Arup to modernise the sagging platforms halfway through construction, the contractors were able to continue Client Tube Lines Ltd work on the concourse and event-day ticket hall Project Sponsor while a solution was designed. London Underground The result of all that intricate planning? A station Architect

Pascall & Watson Architects Ltd Bill Prentice designed to meet the most exacting standards Management contractor and the strictest limitations, delivered on time and Taylor Woodrow Construction Cost consultant within budget. Franklin & Andrews 10 Wind farms 11 Wales

“We spent a lot of time working with the Assembly to define what their energy policy was,” says Simon Working for Power, environmental scientist. “When our final results were published in June 2004, the public’s reaction was considerable, and was fully explored by a long debate in the national press.” a greener The response shocked the Assembly, which In partnership with promptly re-employed Arup to deal with the White Consultants, consultation responses. Power accompanied environmental planners and landscape architects; government officials to visit local planning authorities University of Northumbria’s government in the seven key areas, acting as an advocate on Centre for Environmental behalf of his clients. and Spatial Analysis. In a highly contentious debate, the Welsh A key solution to managing public perception “Arup assisted throughout the Assembly is gaining ground in its plans for lay in involving local authorities more closely in the development of this project and made planning process. Arup produced a methodology, a number of high-level presentations, renewable energy at a staggering rate. including detailed mapping exercises to determine both internally and externally, to and Words: Lisa Clifford the most appropriate sites for the turbines, enabling for the Welsh Assembly Government. the local authorities to conduct small studies within These were essential to convey an Existing windfarms their own areas in consultation with Arup. understanding of the complexity of Proposed windfarms “Going through a study helps everybody to agree strategic spatial planning for wind farms with planning permission on what they want to achieve,” adds Power. “Now and the challenges which needed to 7km buffer around existing be addressed in a Welsh context. windfarms and windfarms we have a good understanding of the difficulties with planning permission they face and they feel Arup will deliver and is a By gaining the confidence of parties strong name they can rely on.” for and against wind energy National Parks There’s policy, and then there’s the necessary Additionally, Arup’s privately owned status allows developments, Arup was able to 7km around National Parks politics required to implement that policy – the firm to take a longer view on such cutting-edge elicit the key issues and effectively that’s how one of the most sensitive projects policy work as this, recognising that initial projects work towards pragmatic solutions. Strategic search areas of this decade in Wales began for Arup and can often grow in size and complexity. Arup’s work proved to be crucial the Welsh Assembly Government. Four years and much debate later, Arup remains as an evidence base for the policy It all started with a seemingly modest brief. a key partner in the implementation of the energy outcomes. It is fair to say that the UK Government policy dictates that renewable policy it helped to develop, and has become a innovative approach adopted continues resources must produce 10% of the country’s leading expert in the planning of onshore wind to provoke much debate in Wales!” electricity by 2010. Meeting these steep targets energy generation. Chris Morgan requires a massive amount of planning and until The firm’s work in renewable energy, and wind Welsh Assembly Government 2002, Wales had yet to decide how it would meet farms in particular, has been significant and other its obligations. After an initial consultation, Arup commissions are now under discussion. Impressed submitted the first radical proposals to introduce by Arup’s results in Wales, planners from the North up to 500 wind turbines in seven sites across the East Assembly have retained Arup to conduct a country. Their impending construction will bring strategic study of an area adjacent to Northumbria The consultation work called about the biggest change to the landscape in National Park, marked as a possible regional area for a regional approach to living memory. for wind energy developments. landscape and visibility analysis At around 130m high, the wind turbines soon for wind farms. Using geographic to be dotting the Welsh countryside will be anything information system technology, but inconspicuous. Though Wales already has 300 the team developed its own turbines, most are in relatively unpopulated areas techniques to ascertain the and are a more modest 50–70m in height. Under relative visual performance the new plan, the turbines will be concentrated in of different parts of the seven seven strategic areas, and these will be broadly strategic search areas (typically distributed across the country, with the majority in 100-200km2). These needed to the more densely developed parts of South Wales. model what the team thought At the heart of this vast onshore wind scheme were the most important visual lie the proposals from a team of Arup planners and landscape facets of wind and researchers. Using research produced by the farm development in Wales. Arup team, the Assembly produced a planning document that was to act as the vehicle for the

implementation of the new policy. © Crown copyright Licence no. 100017916 12 13 Khalifa Stadium Doha, Qatar © Arup OVERVIEW A successful 2006 Asian Games for Doha, the Working alongside Arup’s team were suppliers August 2003 – February 2005 capital of the Gulf state of Qatar and winning and contractors in the US, Canada, Europe, All services and finishes upgraded. bidder for this year’s event, could help to Asia and Qatar. Aware of the margin for error Making August 2003 – February 2005 significantly improve Qatar’s appeal as a tourist that such a disparate team might present, Arup All precast seating platforms replaced. destination. The economic gains that accompany contributed to the development and control of October 2003 – July 2004 staging a successful sports tournament are clear – the entire installation processes for the roof and New steel and precast concrete seating sponsorship and broad-casting brought in an lighting arch. Every stage was modelled using a stand structure and VIP area installed. estimated US$100M for the last Asian Games Arup’s own software. The approach worked January 2004 – February 2005 and that figure is projected to rise for this year. so well that despite the project’s complexity, The recently redeveloped Khalifa New 15 000m2 Polytetrafluoroethylene Add to that the cachet that comes with being everything fitted perfectly when it arrived on site. (PTFE) coated glass membrane fabric the first Arab city to stage the event, and the “By drafting the entire roof and lighting

© GHD roof, supported by elegant steel arches pressure to provide first-class sporting facilities arch in 3-D we were able to reduce design and Stadium is poised to become The lighting arch uses and stressed cables. could not be greater. drafting time, making the process much quicker one of the star players at the gravity to create tension June 2004 – February 2005 Khalifa Stadium, the venue where the opening and cheaper for the client,” comments Peter in stay cables that hold Over-cladding of the and closing ceremonies will take place, is the MacDonald, Arup’s project leader. “It was also 2006 Asian Games, helping host the arch up and control old concrete structure complete. centrepiece for Doha’s $720M Khalifa Sports City much quicker to communicate with the client in country Qatar to make its mark lateral buckling. July 2004 – February 2005 development project. Its crowning glories, a floating 3-D models, given the various time zones that as a tourist destination. New 265m free-spanning cable-stiffened roof over the western side and a lighting arch over we needed to work across.” Words: Mary Penny arch to support competition lights and the eastern side, were structurally designed by First-class facilities are essential for this speakers installed. a team of Arup’s engineers based at the firm’s project, as the venue is also part of a larger plan January 2005 – February 2005 offices in Australia. to increase tourism in the region. Arup’s sporting New running track and playing venue experience includes total multidisciplinary field complete. design of sports arenas and stadia and specific consultancy advice, making the firm an ideal The lightweight flexible partner for project architects Cox/PTW/GHD. roof covering consists But that doesn’t mean that the project was easy only of stressed cables for the teams. Extreme desert weather conditions and PTFE-coated made it essential for all of the roof’s steel and glassfibre membrane. cables to withstand temperatures ranging from The whole roof is in 5ºC to 85ºC. The surrounding flat terrain required tension, which gives the in-depth analysis in a wind tunnel, measuring wind canopy the appearance loads to ensure that the roof, lighting arch and of floating in mid-air. individual cables do not vibrate alarmingly as Client: the regular trade winds blow. International House General The brief from the architects for the iconic Trading, in association with Midmac Contracting and lighting arch was to create a dramatic and delicate

Sixconstruct, on behalf © Arup structure with no visible means of support. Careful of Khalifa Sports City Development Committee. design, based on British and American codes and Architect: guidelines, was called for. After formulating the Cox/PTW in association specifications and co-ordinating the prototype with GHD Qatar Project manager: testing, Arup developed non-linear analysis models GHD to predict the behaviour of the arch at all stages of the installation process. The resulting leading-edge tensile structure has set new standards in sporting venue design and given the client a head start for one of this year’s most important sporting events in the region.

“Designed as a landmark, this stadium features two main arches that result from pure function and demonstrate a sporting concept in a powerful and energetic way. The construction methodology and the detailed design were solved in a short period, thanks to the proactive approach of all parties concerned. Arup’s 3-D design enabled accurate fabrication and construction of this unique steel/cabling structure.

© Arup Arup also engineered the erection sequence in co-ordination with Eversendai/Pfeifer so that site assembly proceeded smoothly.” Didier Bosredon, project director on behalf of Midmac-Sixconstruct JV 14 15 Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Feast and flight: a cleaner, richer The 210m main span was constructed Successful partnerships are always key to the feeding ground has given migratory over an existing navigation channel in success of vital infrastructure projects that cross birds such as the spoonbill reason the Hong Kong waters of Deep Bay. With to nest in Deep Bay once more. a single central inclined tower the cable borders. And for the particularly environmentally stays converged at the anchor piers, with sensitive Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor a back span of 99m and two side spans each of 74.585m. The cable-stayed bridge carriageway, Arup proved that developments like is one of the world’s widest bridges with these can be completed, in record time, without a single central cable plane. the need for unsatisfactory compromises. Words: Tania Coates

© Arup For the bridge scheme, the project team adopted Partnering a cable-stayed bridge with a steel orthotropic deck and a single, inclined, concrete tower. As a result of close negotiation between Hong Kong and on public mainland China, construction began in 2003 – one month earlier than anticipated. In brief Despite the efficient negotiation between partners The Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Arup faced several logistical challenges on this consultation Corridor is a 5.5km dual three-lane project, including designing around the ecologically carriageway, built in record time, sensitive Deep Bay, a vast territory of mudflats and to ease the congestion on three mangroves. Mai Po, an area 6km northeast of the neighbouring boundary crossings project site in Inner Deep Bay and best known and strengthen the position of Hong as a haven for migratory birds, was designated Kong as the hub of the Pearl River a Wetland of International Importance in 1995. Delta region. It is the fourth road to Following public consultation, the World Wildlife mainland China from Hong Kong. Fund in Hong Kong raised fears that the bridge would result in raised levels of sedimentation and a In the wake of China’s admission to the World subsequent reduction in the exchange of tidal water Trade Organization in 2001, the Hong Kong- between Deep Bay and the Mai Po shrimp ponds. Shenzhen Western Corridor (HKSWC) is providing Conservation of the natural habitat was a top the transport infrastructure to fuel the economic priority for the project team. The proposed solution boom occurring within the Pearl River Delta region meant convincing the Shenzhen and Hong Kong further. Arup was commissioned by Hong Kong team to increase the typical span length of the Special Administrative Region to undertake the HKSWC bridge from 50m to 75m, reducing the HKSWC investigation and planning consultancy. number of piers from 106 to 70 pairs. Usually a project of this size and complexity would take over seven years from feasibility study to completion. This project has taken just four years and four months to complete, with design and construction beginning just seven months after Arup’s appointment. The three existing vehicular crossings to Hong The creative partnership between Kong were nearly at saturation point, so building Arup and the contractor resulted a fourth bridge to link Hong Kong and Shenzhen in part of the steel deck segment removed potential bottlenecks to trade and traffic. erection weld being taken off the The HKSWC has also brought the opportunity to critical path for completion at a later develop Hong Kong’s container port, further opening stage. This allowed segments of the up the potential for foreign investment in the region. cable-stayed bridge deck to be Arup’s project team selected four alignment erected within five-day cycles. options for detailed evaluation. Following this, an S-curve bridge alignment option was adopted, as it has less impact on the region’s air and water quality, ecology, waste and cultural heritage. © Arup © Michelle and Peter Wong 16 Hong Kong Shenzhen Western Corridor carriageway

Below: arrows show the principal stresses acting at a typical stay-cable anchorage inside the bridge’s deck. “Many years ago I had an intuition which Two of the technical difficulties I really thought was utopian. To create a overcome by Arup included: space inside a mountain that would offer men and women of all races and colours a great sculpture dedicated to tolerance… Working on top of a The team has not been mountain with steel and permitted to create even The giant space carved out of the mountain other strong electrical a cloud of dust during wouldn’t be visible from the outside. But conductors meant that the their work. To avoid any team needed to be extra environmental impact on anyone who penetrated her heart would be careful of lightning strikes. the mountain, all drilling © Arup able to see sunlight and moonlight inside They set up a special sites were isolated from In addition, the pile caps were installed below the lightning detector with a the rock using geotextile seabed to maintain tidal flow. “We recommended a mountain that overlooks the sea, the warning system to detect blankets beneath the drilling dredging one existing inlet channel linking Inner Deep horizon, a mountain that is unreachable, charge ions in the air platforms and sealed water Bay to some of the shrimp ponds inside Mai Po,” should an electrical storm pipelines. Allowing water explains Alex Kong, Arup’s project director for the necessary, non-existent…” approach. When the to escape would have HKSWC project. “The dredging made the inlet wider Taken from a statement made by Eduardo Chillida to local press in July 1996 warning system goes off, it’s prompted lots of plants to and deeper, so that water could circulate more often time to down tools – fast. grow where they have never than just at high tide, bringing in additional supplies grown before, disrupting of shrimps and fish from Deep Bay into the shrimp the natural landscape. ponds. It meant that the ponds could once more © Arup function as a core feeding ground for birds.” Oyster beds, providers of a delicacy and staple food, carpet the mudflats. Coastal fisheries and The standard carriageway lane in mainland commercial oyster cultivation is a mainstay of the Not content with a single measure, the project team China is wider, whereas the standard hard Deep Bay economy. Unable to avoid the extensive went one step further and recommended removing shoulder in Hong Kong is wider. However, oyster beds in the mudflats, Arup’s partnership with exotic mangroves and marsh weeds from Inner Deep in this joint project, both sides have agreed oyster farmers and the rural community ensured Bay, so restoring the mudflats and further improving to adopt the higher standard, and the wider that oysters could continue to be harvested during water exchange into the fish ponds. carriageway width (3.75m) and the wider construction. The solution was a temporary access Other innovative methods to improve water hard-shoulder width (3.3m) have been adopted bridge to accommodate the construction plant and quality include a Y-shaped funnel mounted over along the whole length of the HKSWC. protect the mudflats. The temporary bridge also piling casing to intercept spillage of wastewater Magnum opus acted as a platform to the deeper waters, easing and spoil material during bored pile construction. marine-based logistics. As well as overcoming the limitations of the environmentally sensitive Deep Bay and making full This is how the celebrated (Estudio Guadiana), to help each one of the 14 boreholes use of the joint implementation of two governments Spanish abstract artist bring this project to life. revealed the rock’s inner to complete the project in record time, the bridge Eduardo Chillida defined The work presents some structure in detail. Despite its is a statement in itself. Aesthetically pleasing, the his idea for his project in unprecedented technical being made up of igneous central plane of cables allows breathtaking views July 1996. Despite his challenges as a result of rock, the mountain carries across Deep Bay and the S-curve elevates the death in 2002, this project the cavity’s shape and rare liesegang banding which driving experience. Once that congestion has is the culmination of the considerable dimensions more often occurs in porous been reduced, drivers will be more inclined artist’s work and every – and the need to rock such as sandstone. to appreciate its unique design, too. effort is being made to immaculately preserve Stone with this banding realise his last ambition. the surrounding environment. is often highly prized for Detailed work in three building façades and the The central chamber will be phases is being carried out Tindaya stone has been an approximately cubic cavity to determine the project’s used locally for the last 300 with few straight angles. The feasibility and Arup has been years, more recently at the horizontal access passage involved at every stage. new Fuerteventura Airport. is northwest-oriented, facing the sea and measuring The first phase included a The Arup team is currently approximately 13m high, series of studies that were working on Phase III,

© Arup 12m wide and some 70m carried out to establish that including the design long. The vertical ‘sun and the project was possible of the cavern support Stay-cables for the 210m span of the moon’ shafts will be around and that the mountain requirements and site cable-stayed bridge. Subject to different 50m long from the roof of would not be affected if the access and facilities. forces, each cable comprises between the cavern to the mountain project finally goes ahead. The final phase, the 52 and 88 numbers of galvanised high surface, very close to its Next, intrusive geotechnical planning and execution tensile seven-wire strands with individual peak. Arup is part of the investigations were carried of the sculpture itself, Client extruded coatings of grease and HDPE, Major Works Project Management Office, design team engaged by out to familiarise the team is expected to take place all contained inside an external HDPE Highways Department, the architects, L Fernández- with the rock’s unique in 2007. The Government of the Hong Kong Client stay pipe with helical surface fillet. Ordóñez and D Diaz Font characteristics. Studies of Estudio Guadiana Special Administrative Region © Daniel Dìaz Font Six things you should know about the Chartist Bridge

It is part of the Sirhowy Costain and Laing were Enterprise Way regeneration awarded the Sirhowy project, project in South Wales, a which operates as a Design, bridge and road scheme Build, Finance and Operate linking the former coalmining (DBFO) contract. With little towns of Blackwood and room in the budget for Oakdale. The most striking architectural extravagance, feature is the Arup-designed Arup, as Costain’s designer, Chartist cable-stayed bridge produced a bridge that was – 230m long and supported minimalist yet iconic in Ship to shore 30m above the valley floor design, a simple and natural by a single 90m high shape built within the value A-frame pylon. demands of a Design and No matter what the weather, Thanks to the painstaking Build agreement. you will never see the conservation and restoration ssGreat Britain move an process, visitors to Bristol’s inch. But this isn’t a new dry dock can view the ship It opened to traffic in wonder of the modern world, that was the largest in the December 2005 – four Mining-related subsidence the first great ocean liner is world when she was first months ahead of schedule. is common in the region, surrounded by a sea of glass. launched in 1843. with the ground continuing Saving her crumbling and to sink in some places. Arup Designed by Isambard corroding iron hull is where designer Kelvin Moneypenny Kingdom Brunel, the ship the Arup team came in, The bridge gets its name says the bridge is designed carried the first English designing a glass sheet from the area’s historical to breathe if further cricket team to visit Australia that stretches across the links with the Chartist settlement occurs and can and transported troops dry dock at water line level. Uprising of the 19th century. be adjusted to compensate during the Crimean War Covered by a thin layer of Many of the protesters for any significant ground and the Indian Mutiny. After water from bow to stern, involved in a march to movements. decades of decay, work this glass sea gives the Newport to demand electoral began on the glass sea in impression the ship is reforms started their journey 2004. It was the final stage floating and forms an airtight from Blackwood and the in the restoration of this chamber around the lower surrounding communities. Arup was also Costain’s historically significant ship. hull, which is dehumidified, landscape architect and to prevent further corrosion. ecologist on this project. Visitors can also descend Environmental surveys beneath the glass into the showed the area was dock to see her great curved home to many protected flanks and mighty propeller. species, including dormice, for whom new trees and shrubs were planted. Aerial crossings were also built to link their habitats.

Client Caerphilly County Borough Council Client’s nominee Capita Symonds Client D&B contractor © Arup SS Great Britain Trust Costain Ltd Architect DBFO company

SSGB © Lance McNulty Alec French Partnership Sirhowy Enterprise Way Ltd 21 Acoustics Worldwide

Around the world, ears have pricked Every building or space has its own unique acoustic signature, or sound characteristics. To date, what up as new technology from Arup is that signature will be has been nigh on impossible What is the damped How does it work? Why is it so great? Has it been used yet? allowing clients and architects to hear to recreate – until now. Using a technology originally outrigger system? The system provides high Arup’s new system increases Yes, on the twin 60-storey Patents developed at Arup’s New York offices, sound Arup’s trademarked damped levels of damping (a term for the level of damping that St Francis Towers in Manila, exactly how buildings will sound, characteristics can be accurately rendered to outrigger system, for which energy absorption) within a can be achieved in an the highest residential before a single brick has been laid. precise specifications. The magic takes place in pending patents have been applied, building’s structure by economical way. It is so buildings in the Philippines. Words: Andrew Bennett the Arup SoundLab, a space designed to enable reduces the motions of incorporating components reliable that the design Arup acoustics experts and collaborators to listen high-rise buildings in windy similar to the shock forces (and construction And what were to a variety of different spaces. There is no need weather and results in absorbers in a car’s costs) of a tall building can the benefits? to wear headphones and by building acoustics into cost savings in construction. suspension. The system be reduced. Arup’s system Reductions in the amount the design process in such a way, money can be reduces wind or earthquake- is unaffected by changes of concrete and Are you saved by avoiding adjustments later in the induced sway vibrations of a to a structure’s stiffness and reinforcement steel in the construction process. tall building in the same way is superior in performance St Francis Towers structure SoundLab is the fruit of 25 years’ experience that the bounce of a car on to Tuned Mass Dampers saved Arup’s client between in measurement, scale modelling, computer a rough road is controlled (TMDs) or Tuned Liquid US$5M and 10M in listening? modelling and research, and design of performing by shock absorbers. With Dampers (TLDs) which construction cost. And arts buildings. Arup’s system, the energy can ‘de-tune’ over time. more net floor space However, the technology is used in every is dissipated in damper TMDs and TLDs also need (through smaller columns imaginable kind of building and not just theatres elements within the to be located at the tops and core walls, and no and opera houses. connections between of buildings – often taking need for space for TMDs) outriggers and columns up a large volume of means greater income and/or cores of the structure. premium space. potential for the client. “Every time I had a The dampers are small, so workshop I would walk Client they don’t take up a lot of The Shang Grand Tower Corporation out of the office even valuable space. more excited about the project. There was a wonderful spirit in the offices – warmth that is clearly embracing. Every It’s actually a new time I was in the Arup application of the same office, it was a jaw technology that was used dropping experience! to cure the wayward Surprised by something swinging of the new every time. Then Millennium Bridge in you go back and get London, UK. overwhelmed again.” Barbara Romer, founder, New Globe Theater

Left: visualisation of © Arup sound propagation on the stage of the New © Arup Globe Theater, New York. 22 Acoustics 23 Worldwide

Public transport interchanges such as London’s “In almost every respect GSA Courtroom General Services Working closely with

forthcoming Heathrow Terminal 5 and the new we have been really very © Arup The United States Administration (GSA) the client and design high-speed TAV terminal in Florence also used the happy with the high justice system is using approached Arup to team, Arup optimised technology to make sure that public announcements acoustic standards the SoundLab to hone conduct a pilot study the design to balance are easy to hear. “The key thing for transport-related teams achieved throughout crisp sound qualities to provide a virtual reverberation and projects, or any large-space project, is speech The Sage Gateshead. inside some of its new reality model courtroom clarity of speech. intelligibility from public address and voice alarm The natural room © Arup courtrooms, so that to test acoustics, systems,” explains Raj Patel, associate principal at acoustics are particularly proceedings can be lighting, sightlines and The SoundLab also Arup’s office in New York. “In large public buildings, fine, and throughout the clearly heard. architecture all at the provided an environment for example, European codes require evacuation 530 performances we’ve same time. Arup in which all the design using voice messages, so speech needs to be clear so far staged here At present all Federal developed a system to and client team members and easy to understand. This calls for the optimum audiences and artists have courthouses in the create an interactive could experience the balance in the design of the transport facility’s sound consistently told us that US have a full-scale 3-D model allowing the courtroom’s acoustics system and building acoustics. We work with the the combination of clarity, plywood mock-up of the architectural finishes and and make collaborative

architect and client to offer a tailored, verifiable warmth and depth they © Arup courtroom built for the lighting to be accurately decisions quickly approach, ensuring that they don’t over- or under- experience here have judges and design team modelled and then and efficiently. spend, giving local enforcing authorities confidence in very few equals anywhere to test and approve the modified during the approving design.” This creative approach to urban else in the world.” sightlines. The downside design process. Based on the success sound management also carries the additional benefit Anthony Sargent, is that the mock-up can't of this effort, this process of reducing noise pollution as much as possible. General Director, be used for testing The model was projected has been applied to SoundLab harnesses some powerful The Sage Gateshead any other specific on to a large screen, so subsequent projects Arup-designed software and hardware to performance issues. that it could be viewed for several clients. recreate the direction, timing and strength of by the whole design team sound reflections from a real or imagined space. and judges in one room The whole process This flexibility means that any space – indoors, at the same time. It can be conducted for semi-indoors, or outdoors – can be modelled to meant that the design approximately 40% optimise its design from the outset. could be discussed and less than the cost of To make a powerful visual link with an existing progressed in real time. a physical mock-up benchmark concert hall, for instance, the listener – a huge saving in both sees images of the venue appear before them on money and time. a screen at exactly the same moment they hear its signature sound. The advantage to this is that you don’t have to be a trained listener to hear the The brief to the architects was to create a new The Sage Gateshead that required specialist differences. So clients and architects using the space within the courtyard of the listed fortification, The Sage Gateshead is listening space immediately understand the different analysis to allow for incorporating a moving roof to shield audiences from already established as aural qualities of various structures and spaces. the fine-tuning that the elements and provide a way to allow for different one of the UK’s finest © Arup It is exactly this approach that is helping Arup to would produce the These images show the kinds of performance. Arup was asked to work with concert halls since its recreate the magic of London’s old Globe Theatre best acoustic results. courtroom virtual reality the architects to make the building sound like the opening in 2004. Arup in modern New York. For example, Hall 1 is model in three stages. original Globe. worked closely with A derelict 19th-century fort on Governors Island, a 1650-seat concert Above: the acoustic model Measurements were taken in the existing London Gateshead Metropolitan which lies between Manhattan and Brooklyn, venue. Fine-tuning this alone and underneath, Globe, along with recordings of Shakespearean Borough Council and is the proposed site for the New Globe Theater. building’s acoustic a render of the light actors. Recordings were also taken in a room where architects Foster and The fort, known as Castle Williams, was chosen signature included luminance levels. there were no sound reflections whatsoever. Both Partners to determine the because of the many similarities it bears to installing motorised Right: this rendering were used to compare sound in the New Globe to acoustic requirements for London’s original Globe Theatre, including the open includes acoustics, that of London’s Globe. This work has meant that the venue and then sound absorbing curtains central courtyard which is almost exactly the same lighting, sightlines and the theatre is now claiming that it is the world’s transform them into that can be deployed to in diameter, as well as its proximity to the water. architectural visualisation. most scientifically informed theatrical space. outline designs. cover most of the walls The final model is Arup has coupled its experience in the acoustics which, along with a ‘real time’, allowing the field with powerful computing technology to Although SoundLab was moving ceiling, client to move through Above right: diagram indicates overcome past limitations. In the same way that still in development when serves to reduce the to view and listen from how sound was heard in The three-dimensional animations have transformed the design phase of the reverberance to suit different locations. Sage Gateshead’s concert halls. visual design, SoundLab has enabled architects project was finished, different performances. Below: rendering shows how and their clients to be in the middle of a three- Arup used the technology sound is reproduced virtually dimensional sound field, sampling and adjusting to allow both client and Many concert halls in the Arup SoundLab. the desired acoustics of their project. architect to listen to the require three months or Other applications include: helping to control halls retrospectively. more for acoustic tuning. environmental noise during the design of new The SoundLab allowed © Arup residential projects; in hospitals, where music is The need to cater for a Arup to listen to different used as part of the healing process; and the Beijing wide range of acoustic room set-ups in advance Olympic Stadium and Beijing National Swimming situations was an integral of testing, with the Centre, to create an atmosphere that will heighten part of the design. The the excitement and anticipation of both spectator venue hosts a variety of musicians in the room. and athlete. concerts including jazz, This speeded up the SoundLab technology has been used in more classical and amplified commissioning process than 150 projects and following the opening rock music. It also needs and gave the musicians of the first in New York, others have been created to allow for speech. more time to get in London, Hong Kong and Melbourne, the future Each of the halls has its comfortable with their is sounding better already. own unique signature new space. 24 Lledr Valley, A470 25 Wales

Setting in stone Sketch, right: these stone-faced retaining walls and new stone boundary walls were built with a dry stone appearance in harmony with The A470 is a vital link between North and the existing walls. Where possible, stone taken

from the improvement area was re-used in © Arup South Wales, but a 7.2km stretch was proving keeping with the area’s natural surroundings. a risky ride until the Welsh Assembly Government decided it was time to take action – now it’s been called ‘the greenest road in Britain.’ Words: Anthony Beachey Designing and constructing major roadworks in some of Britain’s most environmentally sensitive countryside requires the kind of creative approach The long and that Arup is well known for. At Lledr Valley, the existing highway’s narrow alignment and tortuous bends represented a glaring safety hazard, particularly for heavy goods drivers. Poor visibility winding road and minimal verges hampered overtaking, and prevented the road’s safe use by pedestrians, equestrians and cyclists. Congestion, frequent delays and an above-average accident rate prevailed. Road widening and other improvements were an urgent priority. The main issue was that the project brief demanded the design teams to provide a safe and reliable route for road users, whilst preserving a landscape of lush pastures, ancient woodland and diverse flora and fauna without closing the road. A further vital component for an additional route This reduced costs for Laing O’Rourke and “The entire Lledr Valley running through Snowdonia National Park was to minimised highway disruption, as construction project team worked mitigate environmental damage and enhance was occurring next to a live carriageway. Arup towards a common goal aesthetics. Such a project called for a sympathetic repeatedly demonstrated its ability to respond of delivering the road design and demonstrably sustainable credentials. quickly to design changes; for example, when improvement in an A comprehensive planning process and a non- the rockhead level measured at certain sites varied environmentally sensitive adversarial partnering approach helped to minimise significantly from that predicted in the design – an way. The fact that this was disputes and prevent delays. “From the outset, we important factor in terms of piling for the road’s achieved some five months developed an integrated design and construction retaining wall. “We couldn’t just halt the project to early, within a partnering programme, allowing us to deliver critical information send our query 170 miles to Cardiff,” says Saville. framework, and that the on time and as required,” says Dan Saville, Arup “Instead, the flexibility inherent in our modular project is now receiving associate director and project manager for the Lledr design solutions prevented delays.” awards demonstrates that Valley Scheme. “We also worked well with the Welsh The team effectively translated the project’s the team got it right.” Government Assembly and its agent, Halcrow. Our Environmental Action Plan into workable schemes. Mike Gilbert people adopted a proactive approach when dealing These included safely removing fish by electrofishing A470 Lledr Valley Improvement with problems and site queries, which helped ahead of river works, and incorporating recesses project director, Transport, relations and saved immeasurable amounts of time.” in retaining walls to allow reptiles, birds and bats Wales, Welsh Assembly Soil nails (traditionally used to achieve steep to nest and roost. Government. slope angles) were included in the original illustrative The project opened in January 2005, within design, but additional investigation, analysis and budget and five months ahead of schedule, In brief risk assessments showed them to be unnecessary. which allowed Laing O’Rourke to free up staff for In August 2002 Arup and alternative sites. Arup’s own reward has been that construction company Laing the firm helped to build what Countryside O’Rourke won the design-and-build Magazine has described as ‘arguably the greenest contract to upgrade 7.2km of the road in Britain.’ A470 – linking Dolwyddelan and Pont-yr-Afanc, near Betws y Coed. Client It’s a £17.5M road improvement National Assembly for Wales scheme in the ruggedly stunning The bats are back Client’s agent Halcrow Lledr Valley of North Wales, the Right: a pet project was the creation of

© Rob Watkins Client’s environmental advisor eastern gateway to the mountains a new local bat hibernaculum – otherwise Wyn Thomas Gordon Lewis known as the bat hotel – to make it attractive Contractor of Snowdonia. The Assembly Laing O’Rourke Government is responsible for the to the tiny mammals and help facilitate Landscape architect trunk road network and has long construction. Measurable performance TACP Ecologist recognised its importance and the targets such as recycling dismantled stone Cresswell Associates need to launch a series of projects boundary walls in other parts of the project Arboriculturist Amenity Tree Care © Rob Watkins to improve it. maximised sustainability whilst minimising Archaeologist environmental damage. Gwynedd Archaeological Trust 26 27 Automotive Worldwide © Arup

Irizar coach which curve in a The Irizar luxury touring continuous S-shaped Get moving coach is radically different wave, deep into the Left: from sketch to the finished from its peers. The design interior. Cleverly, this article, these are highlights of the difference is immediately creates a sense of design development process for the apparent in the swooping space and calm, inviting new Irizar coaches. external curves, imbuing passengers further in and Right: Arup has worked with Nanjing the coach with energy generating the perception Automobile Corporation on its and Spanish flair. that the luggage racks product strategy for new MG are further away from products, projecting the values of Arup’s automotive travellers’ heads than the MG brand on to a modern global design and engineering they really are. stage. This rendering illustrates experience brought a new MG Nanjing with in-depth Obstacles such as what a future MG could look like. approach to the coach Traditionally the coach Arup has worked in advice on its strategic increasingly bad press industry, which was aided sector uses relatively partnership with the business plan. Due were neutralised by an by using car-inspired low-volume production MG Rover Group for diligence advice and the Arup-led media campaign design techniques such techniques. This keeps over 15 years. provision of an outline to highlight the firm’s role as ergonomic detailing down tooling costs, but blueprint for Nanjing to as lead advisor, providing and high-quality trim results in the use of lower- When the company establish a viable UK advice on the transaction materials. quality components (such “Our ability to help clients develop their brands collapsed into business operated within and strategy that would as seats and steering by employing thorough research at the start of the administration in April the UK completed Arup’s help Nanjing achieve its Inside, there’s little sense wheels). This detracts project makes us different. There is no such thing 2005, with debts of £1.4bn, involvement in the project. goal to become a of claustrophobia or a from the quality of the as an off-the-shelf package at Arup; each design pension black holes and Using Arup teams to carry significant player in the shortage of space as you final product. However, solution is unique and appropriate – our approach no early signs of a buyer, out this work was a highly global automotive field. move down the central the high-quality/low-cost is creative and the results innovative.” it threatened the future of unusual move as the role As a result, Nanjing aisle. Instead, using prototype tools developed From understanding the owners’ lifestyles and the car manufacturing of lead adviser is successfully acquired the experience gleaned from by Arup meant that higher brand perceptions, to building engineering risk- industry in the UK. traditionally held by assets of the MG Rover designing aerospace production runs for Irizar assessments and computer-aided engineering investment banks or Group in July 2005. industry jets, Arup created were possible, resulting evaluations, Arup’s specialist vehicle design team The following month, major accountancy firms. overhead luggage racks in cost-savings and knows how to define and build a new vehicle Arup began working Arup’s transaction It was the first overseas in the style of aircraft increased quality for the from the design board up. with Nanjing Automobile advice team advised corporate acquisition baggage compartments, Spanish coach company. Ground-breaking advances in computer- (Group) Corporation (NAC) Nanjing on the from administration aided engineering (CAE) developed by the Arup on its purchase of MG administration process, undertaken by a automotive team are used to test and develop Rover’s assets, with two which is very different Chinese company. vehicles through simulation, rather than relying on main roles: lead adviser from that which prevails Car manufacturers are under enormous pressure expensive and time-consuming physical testing. on the transaction bid in China. to build new models faster, while model life spans Manufacturers are therefore able to build with itself and providing are becoming ever shorter. Starting with an greater confidence, without compromising on understanding of target customers’ lifestyles and creating excitement for the driver. brand perceptions, Arup’s work in vehicle design These techniques have been evolving over the begins with accurately defining the concepts and past 20 years, when Arup first began working in requirements for a new vehicle. the automotive design sector. Computer simulation The specialist team then integrates styling techniques, developed for the nuclear industry, with engineering, feasibility studies and structural formed the basis for a new generation of crash analysis assessments to produce innovative, yet software that Arup pioneered for vehicle realistic design solutions in timeframes that are crashworthiness applications. far shorter than usual. Arup’s approach, involving Development projects for all-new cars can integrating brand analysis and engineering feasibility, be in the order of hundreds of millions of pounds Brand ensures reduced costs, a better product and less and take between three and five years to bring to risk. Resulting designs will also be easier to fruition. A combination of these two factors often manufacture and more exciting for the target results in substantial finance costs for the “Our objective is to use our customer group. manufacturers involved. business and technological and deliver “In today’s highly competitive market, branding But while the cost of testing a prototype is is everything,” says Neil Ridley, a director at Arup. considerable, it’s the time delay that really hurts. skills to deliver creative Vehicle design is a fast-moving industry “We understand why some brands have emotional Ford’s revamped GT, for example, was designed designs that have a direct ‘pull’ and how to enhance and develop them. Often to invoke the spirit of the original, much loved, that is as much about the brands as it our brief is very much about what a client represents, 1960s model. It also had to be developed in half influence on improving our is about getting bigger, better products rather than what it makes. the usual time, to help Ford celebrate its recent clients’ bottom line.” centenary. From design sign-off to production Arup Neil Ridley, director, Arup to market in double-quick time. helped Ford complete the project in just 18 months, Words: Adrian Holliday © Irizar thanks to this innovative approach to analysis. Now there’s a driving force in vehicle design. 28 The World’s Largest Timepiece 29 Zurich, Switzerland © Roman Keller/Gramazio & Kohler The world’s largest “The architect’s concept gave us the idea of How it was done Keeping the structure stable pixellating the individual lights so they could work Cable structures are Parallel to the creativity of the lighting, Arup faced the in unison and function as a large screen displaying notoriously complex,” challenge of delivering a discreet support structure timepiece patterns along the street,” explains Arup’s Florence explains structural that would perform in extreme conditions. In addition Lam. “We then suggested placing occupancy engineer Andrea De to bearing the weight of the lights, allowances had to sensors along the Bahnhofstrasse. These could track Donno. “The stiffness of be made for the load generated by windstorms and In a city famous for its watches, an artistic movement of pedestrians along the street and send a cable is directly affected temperature variations, while maintaining a strict statement centred on the concept of time data back to a control point to generate images.” by its geometry, so every clearance zone between the lower cables and the Arup created a 7m-long prototype light tube possible movement and Bahnhofstrasse tram power lines. could not be more appropriate. made up of 32 individually-controlled sections. reaction to temperature, Studies conducted at the initial feasibility stage Words: Clare McKenna Each section contained 28 environmentally friendly wind and weight had to established the locations and weight capacity of light emitting diodes (LEDs) supported and activated be calculated. We had to the existing anchor points from the previous Canopy by a tubular circuit board with a unique chip behind fine tune the geometry of of Light installation. The new design needed to each LED. A pure white light was chosen for its the cable system to find minimise the anchor forces, to avoid the risk of Working alongside Swiss architects Gramazio modern and clean look, further distinguishing The the best balance between damaging the buildings and allow as many of the & Kohler, Arup helped to breathe life into the World’s Largest Timepiece from the previous display. minimising the tension existing anchors as possible to be reused. design of The World’s Largest Timepiece, a “As each section has its own electronic identity in the cables and A high-strength steel cable structure was designed contemporary veil of light that will now shimmer it can be individually dimmed to create the illusion respecting the and non-linear analysis was conducted to determine down the middle of Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse of movement along the street,” explains Florence. deflection requirements.” how cable tension and deflection would change in for 30 Christmases to come. “As the light is distributed evenly along the fibreglass varying loading conditions. The design selected The new installation replaces another entitled tube there is no sharp demarcation when one enabled 88% of the existing anchors to be reused. Canopy of Light, a more traditional display funded section is turned off, which creates a flowing effect.” Throughout the design and analysis stage, Arup by the Bahnhofstrasse Business Association. shared its modelling, methodology and knowledge When the association commissioned the latest with the architects and contractors. Arup developed design, its members were looking for a new, a straightforward but accurate installation procedure more economical and environmentally friendly together with the cable contractor. This inclusive display that would reduce maintenance costs approach guaranteed the scheme’s success and and last another 30 years. ensured the high specification of cable structure The solution has proven extremely effective: was realised exactly in line with the architect’s it uses just a quarter of the electricity needed original proposal. The World’s Largest Timepiece to power Canopy of Light. The lights have been was delivered on budget, on time and as promised. designed to reflect activity in the street below How it works as the Christmas season comes and goes. Working with Arup, The interactive display responds to street activity, Gramazio & Kohler transmitting a unique sequence of light every devised a unique time someone walks beneath it, time and street algorithm to computer- occupation are the key elements of influence. generate images along It is intended to stimulate debate around the screen of lights modern versus traditional art and re-establish using real-time data Bahnhofstrasse as a premier destination for generated by the shopping and culture. Design occupancy sensors Gramazio & Kohler, Zürich combined with the ims Industrial Micro Systems, Winterthur Kummler + Matter, Zürich time and date. Each Encon, Felben image is different as time and date are Realisation ims Industrial Micro Systems, Winterthur constantly changing – Gramazio & Kohler, Zürich creating a stunning, Cowex, Pratteln Encon, Felben contemporary display. © Roman Keller/Gramazio & Kohler © Arup Kummler + Matter, Zürich 30 31 JetBlue USA © JetBlue Airways The terminal, measuring approximately Ready, 60 000m2, is being connected to an icon of airport architecture, Eero Saarinen’s former TWA Terminal. Customers will be able to reach the new terminal via two jet, go walkways from the Saarinen terminal, which is due to be refurbished soon. The advent of the low-cost airline Airport terminals are often grandiose structures The process engineering that can be frustrating places for the very people approach means passengers will has revolutionised the aviation they are supposed to serve. Flying in the face of have minimal walking distances industry’s approach to pricing. that tradition is an US$850M project at New York’s and changes of level as they © JetBlue Airways John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) board and alight their planes. Now the stakes are even higher, for JetBlue Airways. The airport’s new Terminal 5, due to open as the world’s first low-cost airline in 2009, is a showcase project designed to terminal is about to be revealed. demonstrate the kind of innovation and efficiency Words: Andrew Bennett needed by such a fast-growing industry. JetBlue’s new terminal is projected to handle 20M passengers a year when fully operational – double its current activity at JFK. “The aviation industry has been through a revolution in terms of its cost base,” comments Greg Hodkinson, Arup’s Americas region chairman and Terminal Five’s design team leader. “Competition means customers want lower fares and extravagant civic monuments are no longer appropriate. The new era being ushered in by JetBlue requires efficiency, but is also rooted in humanity.” Arup’s aviation pedigree is a long one. It includes terminal and infrastructure projects at airports Before the designs were even conceived for including Zurich, Switzerland, Terminal 5 at Heathrow, this project Arup worked closely with JetBlue, Beijing’s Terminal 3, Nagoya in Japan, Washington factoring in considerations such as flight schedules, Dulles’ new terminal, Los Angeles/LAX, along with growth projections and the number and type of renovation of Terminal 6 at JFK for JetBlue and customer-processing facilities required. Terminal 7 for British Airways. Then there’s the It will stand out for being extremely functional, planning, design and engineering of JFK’s Terminal 4. avoiding frustrating layouts that result in queues both inside the building and outside on the taxiways. With aircraft turnarounds projected in just 30 minutes, there is a premium on common-sense thinking. The resulting innovations include a highly ‘pilot-friendly’ approach on the airside and a highly automated set of building and operating systems on the inside. Far from cutting corners, low-cost airline operators have no room for anything but the most tightly run of operations – and that means ensuring

© JetBlue Airways that airports can cope with demand efficiently. Richard Smyth, Vice President of Redevelopment at JetBlue, is quick to point out that tight budgets are not what this project is about. “Low-cost means being efficient, not using low-cost materials,” he says. “The building will look tremendous. Per square foot we are likely to be the busiest in the world, with 10 ‘turns’ per gate, per day.”

The centrepiece of a large retail Client area in the middle of the terminal JetBlue Airways Architect will offer a wide variety of food Gensler and other goods; this is important, Retail space architect Rockwell since there are no in-flight meals. Civil engineer DMJM Harris Construction manager Turner Construction © JetBlue Airways 32 Tall Buildings 33 © OMA/Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas/Arup Worldwide

The shocking events of 9/11 challenged both When disaster struck in America on September 11 2001, the viability of tall buildings came under siege industry and consumer perceptions of how safe and across the world the security in everyone’s tall buildings are. Since then, building owners, living and working environments came under unprecedented review. Nevertheless, tall buildings occupiers and developers have increasingly are also planned for construction in some of the called for building designs that are not only most environmentally hostile regions on earth, where typhoon winds (Hong Kong), or unpredictable taller than ever before, but more robust as well. seismic activity (Beijing) present additional challenges. The following three case studies demonstrate Such locations require special consideration and customised solutions. In the race to build higher Arup’s response to the new demands of this and higher, the need for buildings to continue to changing market. do their job in extreme circumstances is pushing Words: Chris Webb at the boundaries of engineering, requiring more and more from design and materials. Arup’s response to the World Trade Center disaster was swift, establishing an Extreme Events Mitigation Task Force charged with evaluating the Tall orders risks of disasters similar to those that have taken place in recent years, analysing the technical Ever since the word ‘skyscraper’ entered into challenges they represent and developing design architectural vocabulary in the late 19th century, solutions to address them. With typical zeal, and architects and engineers have strived to push chaired by the late Tony Fitzpatrick, then chairman the boundaries of structural possibility. Now, of Arup’s Americas region, the task force mobilised those boundaries are not only concerned with the might of the firm’s in-house research and height but also with form itself – an area in which development capabilities and specialist teams on Arup leads the way. tall buildings, fire, materials, structural analysis and Tall buildings are not, of course, all the same. other disciplines to see what lessons could be First, they may differ in function, as Craig Gibbons, learnt from the World Trade Centre disaster. a director in Arup’s Hong Kong office, explains. Under the direction of a single project director, “A client’s new headquarters may be there to the task force continues to play a critical role in make a special statement – an iconic structure. the operation of facilities when unplanned or The primary design driver for a mixed-use building, unanticipated events occur. Arup makes full use such as one that includes apartments, offices and of its multidisciplinary fire, risk, security, information a hotel, will more likely be that of useable floor technology, telecommunications and systems space – though the client may equally want it skills to amass a rapid understanding of the threats to be a landmark.” and risks faced by the client. Based on this, A statement, a landmark, lots of floor space: the task force assesses reasonable risks and these are all important in tall buildings, where the develops additional mitigating measures to address need to accommodate many occupants in comfort exceptional scenarios, where appropriate. Client is paramount. Nowhere is this more apparent than requirements and cost-effectiveness are also taken in Hong Kong, where population densities may into account in the overall design solution. be as high as 45 000km2, space comes at a Despite the catastrophic events and subsequent premium and plot ratios are high. The equation uncertainty surrounding the future of tall buildings is simple: small footprint and high occupancy in relation to safety, the industry has continued to equals tall building. grow to be as mighty as the buildings themselves. Tall buildings may also differ considerably in their In fact, there are more tall buildings on drawing layout, a factor that can have serious implications boards now than ever before, making this one battle on their viability, and consequently, their cost. in which technology has triumphed over terrorism. By using the latest technology in 3-D and 4-D modelling and always considering the latest in materials and construction systems, Arup teams are always able to work within the parameters of any given project. The result of this approach is a better understanding of not only the static and dynamic issues, but also the social and environmental problems a particular building presents. There are also considerations relating to building form. No longer must a client be constrained by simple building forms. Buildings can instead respond CCTV building, Beijing to their function. 34 Tall Buildings 35 Worldwide

CCTV building, Beijing Chinese Central Television Early on, the Arup team (CCTV), the Chinese state- determined the only way run media company, to deliver the desired has ambitious plans to architectural form of the compete on the world building was to make the stage of broadcasting, two towers rise at an transmitting in time for angle of six degrees, Ltd © Sun Hung Kai Properties the Beijing Olympics in to be joined at the top by 2008. This expression a 9–13 storey ‘overhang’ of national pride extends that is suspended to its new US$600M 36 storeys high, all of Situated on opposite sides of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, headquarters in Beijing’s which combine to form Two International Finance Centre and International Commerce The CCTV project central business district. a continuous tube. The Centre will form a new gateway to the city. involved close The commission to design building will achieve its collaboration between the building was won by landmark status because the architect and the Ole Schreeren and Rem of its form, as opposed to engineer. Fold-out Koolhaas from other buildings designed analytical models of Rotterdam-based Office to achieve landmark status 2IFC Hong Kong the need for codified the building were for Metropolitan through their height alone. Winner of the prestigious ductility requirements at developed to convey Architecture (OMA), with Zhan Tien Yau award for floor plate connections the stresses in the Arup. The Arup team, The CCTV building is a engineering excellence to avoid disproportionate diagonal braces and working closely with unique, and structurally in China, Two International collapse. Towering at develop the precise OMA and East China unprecedented, Finance Centre (2IFC) 420m and 88 storeys, configuration of the Architecture & Design 450 000m2, 234m-high is one of the most 2IFC is one of the tallest expressed form of the Institute (ECADI), a cranked and leaning prestigious buildings to buildings in East Asia, structure better. Shanghai-based local form consisting of a be constructed in Hong and just a part of the

© Arup design institute, delivered nine-storey base on Kong in recent years. multi-phase US$3 billion the design through a rectangular footprint. At the time of the 9/11 IFC Development. In all, it seamless global attacks in New York, provides a total floor area collaboration, crossing the 2IFC building had of 180 000m2 of grade A time zones, cultures, cost been constructed up to office accommodation. centres and even the the 30th floor. Perhaps not SARS outbreak. surprisingly, 2IFC was Arup also had to subjected to intense address special design re-analysis and requirements in order © Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd verification to assess the to provide for rapid Tall buildings present Solutions can include safety of the design and construction of the Going up Arup’s vertical anything from reducing potential implications for building. These included Though the idea of transportation team the capital cost of the re-design. The studies several construction-led building an incredibly tall with vitally important lift installation to and their findings principles including the building or structure may opportunities to make reviewing lifting options revealed that the design building of a 61.5m seem appealing at first, it a considerable difference where the net lettable was inherently sound, diameter temporary can often be the most to the viability of a space occupied can requiring no changes, cofferdam to allow an practical elements that project. Recent designs be reduced. and provided direct early start to the raft put a stop to a project – for a 100-floor tower feedback to world foundation and the like lifts, for example. included a required lift This approach often practice on the design surrounding basement provision that would requires Arup to work of tall buildings post 9/11. to be constructed from occupy almost 90% of the well outside of normal Dynamic robustness the top down, saving floor space in certain parameters for a lift concepts have taken an around eight months parts of the building. By engineer, integrating elevated importance on in the construction using double deck shuttles solutions with other International The main structural the world stage following programme. and multiple sky-lobbies, specialist considerations Commerce Centre, skeleton of the ICC 2IFC studies – specifically, this was reduced from such as fire, security Hong Kong, China is formed from a high- 13 000m2 to 8 000m2. and acoustics. Hong Kong’s tallest strength concrete inner The value of this saved Consequently, the team building, the International core wall, steel and space in London would works closely with Commerce Centre (ICC) prestressed concrete CCTV 2IFC amount to approximately lift manufacturers, is the centrepiece of the outrigger structures Developers Developers £50 million. often reviewing new MTR Kowloon Station and eight mega columns Chinese Central Television Central Waterfront Properties Architects Architects products before they development. The total on the perimeter. OMA/Ole Scheeren & Rem Koolhaas Cesar Pelli Associates The team is constantly have even been released. building stands 484m In partnership with Local Design Institute with Rocco Design Ltd ECADI reviewing and questioning It gives Arup the high and consists of architects KPF/Wong common practice to find opportunities to discuss 118 floors, housing & Ouyang, Arup is ICC areas where innovation any potential challenges hundreds of grade A providing civil/structural Client/Project manager Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd can make a real difference facing clients and to offices and a world-class and geotechnical design Building services engineer to clients’ businesses, offer guidance on how hotel. When complete, ICC for the Kowloon Station J Roger Preston Ltd Architect either by improving the manufacturers can adapt will become Hong Kong's development, scheduled Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd financial return or the their products to better tallest building and the for completion in 2010. Concept architect Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates business process itself. suit these demands. third tallest in the world. © Arup/Kenny Ip 36 Supreme Court, Singapore

Arup is using an insulated glass unit with a laminated stone-glass combination for the inner pane, The problem of finding a made from Portuguese marble. good home for travelling The It has resulted in an amazing quality exhibitions has proved Called the Nomadic © Foster and Partners of light passing through the façade tricky in the past. Arup and Museum, it has been into the office spaces during the day, architect Shigeru Ban built using almost entirely portable and makes the whole building into designed and put together recyclable or reusable a glowing lantern at night. a permanent travelling materials, including 152 © San Tzer Ning Jeremy/Stzern Studio home for the art exhibition steel shipping containers gallery Ashes and Snow, complete and paper support columns. with a large-scale, column- free digital cinema in the central space. The project The entire museum took just four short months measures 55m wide by – and it’s opened up a new 105m long. With the roof approach to the concept of included, the total height collapsible building. of the museum is 17m. Smoke ventilation was an essential requirement in the development of the building’s façade. Forward planning The internal space is allowed Arup’s team to work around divided by hand-made the potential impact this may have on curtains created from one the appearance and meant that the million Sri Lankan tea bags. client did not have to look into last- minute prefabricated solutions that would have looked completely different The Nomadic Museum The roof truss components from the customised façade. The top made its debut in March include 300mm diameter third of the building’s upper window 2005 on the Hudson River paper tubes attached to units automatically open outwards, Park’s Pier 54 in New York 750mm diameter paper tube acting as smoke vents in the event City. Its other homes have vertical support columns. of a fire, but no one can tell that these included a parking lot panels are any different from those at the Santa Monica Pier lower down. in California.

Client Principal Architect The Supreme Court of Singapore Shigeru Ban Architect Associate Architect When its time at each Foster and Partners/CPG Consultants Pte Ltd Gensler General Contractor location comes to an end, The RMS Group the entire exhibition is Overview Arup proposed making the stone Roof Contractor packed into just eight Designed by Foster and Partners, the finish the innermost part of the Tenta Project Director containers. The additional new Supreme Court building houses building’s envelope, allowing the John Picard 144 containers necessary 12 civil courts, eight criminal courts stone to be the users’ interface Featured Artist Gregory Colbert are hired at the next site. and three appellate courts. Acting as with the building and keeping it façade consultants for the building, away from the weather. Arup worked alongside the architects The shipping crates to develop the building envelope are arranged into a from sketches on a napkin through checkerboard pattern to completion. pattern to create rigid walls and stacked 10m high to form the outline of the three main exhibition spaces.

Openings between containers have been The legal secured using diagonal light house membrane panels. The innovative use of stone and glass has transformed Singapore’s Inside, a central 3.5m wide walkway made out of hickory planks is surrounded Supreme Court building into a by black river stones. Overhead the unframed naturally glowing lantern at night. artworks hang from cables and suspension

Words: Hollie Boughton © Michael Moran rods installed between paper columns. The problem But that isn’t all … What does offshore It all started seven years What makes it The ground had to be A little logical Natural beauty: Demand for liquefied natural Offshore LNG storage LNG storage mean Inside out ago, when the Department inside out? capped with 300mm of thinking gas (LNG) is on the increase facilities are an answer for the industry? of Primary Industries (DPI) in The concrete structure clay before any building Every little bit helps when it because gas in liquid form to the ‘not-in-my-backyard’ It’s not entirely clear. Australia set out to deliver is exposed on the inside work could begin (it reduces comes to energy efficiency, LNG made is much easier to transport, syndrome, and Arup Fierce winds and waves are thinking an exemplary environmental and timber cladding insulates water infiltration across so Arup oriented the satisfying growing energy engineers are again a tricky combination with project demonstrating the the outside, maximising the the landfill area and provides building accordingly. Office demands quickly. But public leading the way. Traditional the flammable and valuable Victorian Government’s benefits of thermal mass. a physical barrier to workspaces sit on the front safe and easy concern over the perceived thinking has dictated LNG. To date, these commitment to sustainability. Its walls and ceiling absorb contamination). The tricky side, taking advantage of volatility of LNG means these structures must off-shore projects have been The result is an inside out, heat in summer and naturally part was supporting the increased natural daylight finding sites for storage use a breakwater style prohibitively costly, but the yet very attractive, US$20M warm its interiors in winter. building on ground that and the prevalent sea facilities is difficult. of construction, a long US Compass Port LNG energy-efficient intelligent The building opens and would continue to move for breezes from across Port rectilinear shape behind Terminal off the coast near research, development and closes the windows to let many years. The traditional Philip Bay. This also protects What can be done? which the LNG transport Mobile, Alabama, is likely education centre packed heat out. It also senses solution, piling, wasn’t going the laboratories that need Operators and industry vessel sits to protect it to proceed to construction with futuristic gadgetry. natural light coming through to work because of the risk to avoid direct sunlight. experts are looking at a from the waves. Arup soon, setting the benchmark the windows and skylights of disturbing contaminants. range of solutions to the has led studies that have for offshore LNG. Whatever “This project has been and only turns the lights Water-wise storage dilemma. One shown the breakwater is happens, Arup expects to very much a complete on when they’re needed. The innovative solution Precious rainwater is option is an innovative unnecessary, opting for a be a major player in this shared vision,” explains relied on a technique known captured from the office all-concrete LNG tank cheaper and more efficient fast-growing field. “We’re Barry Steinmeyer at Arup’s Doing the groundwork as dynamic compaction. roof, the laboratories and (ACLNG). Instead of cylindrical LNG storage developing technology Melbourne office. “Its The selected site, on the By working the site with the courtyard areas, and opting for a traditional tank design that resists which will be the standard successful delivery came approach to Queenscliff, an impact roller, the soil stored in tanks to be used Client metal primary container, wave forces instead. for tomorrow’s applications,” Department of Primary Industries (DPI) as a direct result of the is a disused landfill site, was compacted to a depth in the building for irrigating the ACLNG uses a simple, says Brian Raine, a project Victorian State Government collaboration between which still has contaminants of 3m, resulting in a stiff the roof. Fresh water is a Architect cost-effective, ‘liner-less’ director and lead design Lyons Architects Arup and the client team, buried deep inside. Building upper soil layer which pollutant to Swan Bay’s concrete container. Also, engineer at Arup. Project manager project manager, architect, on such a site required could support the building. precious eco-system. Atkinson Project Management the traditional metal liner Contractor landscape designer stringent environmental It also reduced the ground Excess stormwater and

© Arup on the secondary container Kane Consultants and builder.” sensitivity, particularly level by 300mm, avoiding the run-off from contaminated has been replaced with because of its proximity need to take contaminated areas such as roads are a simple spray-applied to Swan Bay, which was material off site and leaving infused into the ground coating. No more welding. designated a World Heritage room for the capping layer. by grass swales and Marine Park in 1999. a seawater wetland, preventing pollution from reaching the Bay.

Forecast growth in global demand for LNG Source: Deutsche Bank, July 2004 © John Gollings Photography 41 Sands Macau Macau Special Administrative Region, China © Arup

The Daido pile foundations of the building are precast, prestressed concrete piles of 600mm in diameter. They are prefabricated in factories located in Shenzhen and require only a very short lead-time before delivery. It’s a cost effective pile type commonly used in Macau.

Client Venetian Macau Ltd Architect Art attack Paul Steelman Design Group Aedas

Architect Peter Eisenman’s The Center’s galleries were The best bet partially under water and required land reclamation iconic Wexner Center for closed to the public and before construction could begin. the Arts at The Ohio State with a tight schedule and You’ve got to work fast to stay ahead in the gaming There were challenges right from the start. University was originally even tighter budget, the The Arup team predicted that the soft marine mud designed as a tribute to Arup team set to work. industry – not only did the Arup team start the foundation would shift due to displacement by the driven contemporary art. But over They fixed the heating, work of the Sands Macau project on a site partially under precast, prestressed, concrete piles. Consequently, time, his stunning design ventilation and air- the team had to control the contractor’s pile-driving began to jeopardise the conditioning systems water in less than four months from design inception, sequence to minimise the mudflow. Arup advised very work it was designed and replaced the curtain but also helped to enable the opening of business for that completing the project within the ideal for. Eisenman’s massive wall and skylight with a timeframe of 12 months would only be possible if glass curtain wall of windows new and improved model the casino and restaurants in just 20 months. the development design could exclude a basement stretching over 1300m2 that promised a better © Venetian Macau Limited © Venetian Words: Clare McKenna originally planned below sea level. This wasn’t an let in so much light that thermal performance option, as it was to house electrical and mechanical remedial measures, such whilst ensuring a proper services and a 400-space car park. as shades and covers, range of luminosity. Sands Macau is the first American-operated With untiring efforts in refining the structural became necessary to gaming facility to open in Macau, Special designs in order to save time during construction, ensure a proper museum The Wexner reopened Overview Administrative Region of The People’s Republic Arup’s project team overcame the crippling environment. Temperature to the public in October Project: of China. The region’s economy has been growing pile-driving problems and clawed back some and humidity fluctuations 2005 – fresh and Sands Macau. at an impressive rate. Travel rates have exploded in much-needed time. within the building were invigorated from its three- Size: recent years and indications suggest that these As planned, the major facilities of the Sands compounding the problem. year, US$15.8M refit. Total construction area of numbers will continue to rise. Macau including a large gambling hall, the first floor In addition, the giant 650m2 102 000m2.. Sands Macau is the first property in Macau Paiza Club for VIPs and the 888 Las Vegas Buffet skylight leaked on occasion. Capacity for 20 000 customers from developer Las Vegas Sands Corporation Restaurant, opened on 18 May 2004 and and 2000 staff. and was designed to appeal to the growing welcomed an estimated crowd of 35 000 visitors Trying to generate museum- Arup provided: tourism market in the territory, recreating the glitter on its first day of business. Sands Macau’s quality conditions in a Structural engineering, geotechnics, and glamour of Las Vegas whilst adding a unique opening caught the attention of the media and the ‘greenhouse’ is difficult, façade engineering, traffic planning, oriental atmosphere in keeping with the culture Macau community on day one due to the high but gallery bosses wanted civil drainage, fire engineering, of the region. visitor numbers, the plush decoration of the casino to maintain Eisenman’s information technology, and However, an experienced betting man might and the 45-tonne, 15m-high chandelier. Today the design in all its bold, mechanical and electrical choose not to gamble on the likelihood of anyone casino has 444 gaming tables, 921 slot machines, idiosyncratic glory. © Arup engineering services. delivering a total engineering solution for a casino, seven restaurants and other amenities. from design through to construction, within 20 Arup is now working on several more large-scale months. Especially, when the site in question was Las Vegas Sands Corporation projects in Macau. 42 43 Songdo City Development Korea

Korea’s New Songdo City Development is one of the It was working out a structure to support that roof

© KPF that proved most testing. The roof is a long-span largest private development projects ever undertaken. arch comprised of large-diameter tube sections. It Its remarkable centrepiece, the convention centre, works by bending at its connections, which must be designed to hold substantial loads as Korea’s features a roof that has used a fraction of the steel weather is extreme, to say the least: typhoon-force originally anticipated. winds, earthquakes and heavy snow are common. Words: Lisa Clifford The tubes used on this project had large diameters and thin walls – they aren’t covered by any design guides. Traditionally, the solution to this problem would be to make the connections rigid by inserting numerous stiffeners into the tubes, which A city are then welded closed, all at substantial cost for Above: aerial view of Central US developer The Gale Company, which is building Park and the canal system. Songdo alongside Korean conglomerate, POSCO. The Northeast Asia Trade Tower But a new design technique developed by Arup without (NATT) in the foreground, at has minimised the number of joints that needed 305m, will be the tallest building stiffeners, saving the cost of cutting and rewelding in Korea, and will complement the tubes. The analysis has also minimised the limits the iconic beauty of the number of stiffeners needed. convention centre, shown left. Using methods developed by the motor industry for car crash simulations, Arup engineers created a virtual prototype of the connections then tested them in a virtual laboratory to see how much load each could take under various combinations of extreme conditions. From this analysis they developed capacity “By introducing a lot of daylight Rising up from 1500 acres of reclaimed land along envelopes for each joint and then checked the we are virtually able to turn the Incheon’s waterfront is Korea’s US$20bn Songdo joints for the hundreds of loadcase combinations electric lights off, meaning you development. The city includes a park, golf course, that the roof experienced. are way ahead of the game in seawater canal system, hotel, offices, school and This modelling process, called ‘virtual prototype terms of energy consumption a 300m tower – all of which Arup is designing, testing,’ had never been used before to justify a and the amount of greenhouse alongside the 140 000m2 Convention Centre that long-span structure. The analysis showed engineers gases produced.” sits at its heart. A wind farm will generate power exactly how many stiffeners were needed at each Ashok Raiji director to move the seawater through the canal system connection, ensuring nothing unnecessary went and principal, Arup – just one of Songdo’s many sustainable features. into the roof. “Using this technique is the only way Inside the Convention Centre, which comprises we’ve been able to make this a cost-effective eight large exhibition halls, meeting and seminar structure,” explains Scott. “And that to me is really rooms and banquet facilities, green is also the exciting. We are developing new ways to design watchword. Arup has realised a structure at the cost-effective long-span structures, which has cutting edge of sustainable development, using allowed us to work with architects KPF to create natural lighting, ventilation, a recycled (grey) water this remarkable roof.” system and energy-efficient HVAC systems. Outside, its mighty vaulted roof with curves, valleys, peaks and troughs forms a complex reverse boat design that is not dissimilar to the Sydney Below: computational fluid Opera House. “The large troughs and valleys result dynamics (CFD) analyses are used in some challenging wind and snowdrift loads. to model thermal conditions The roof works as a combination of an arch and a and airflow in the Convention shell and spans 145m, coming down on two points. Centre’s Exhibition Hall.

“It’s a great structure,” comments David Scott, the © Arup engineer leading the structural design of the project and a principal at Arup’s New York office. Elsewhere, a grey water system is planned for the second phase of the centre’s development – important in Korea, where water is scarce. Under this plan, wastewater will be collected from sinks, showers and dishwashers, cleaned and reused for non-drinking purposes. When Songdo is finished in 2015 it will be a free economic zone housing 50 000 people – a place to live and work and a centre for trade between east and west. Flats are now being sold, though the first Developers residents won’t arrive for around three years. Most Gale International will come from the congested cities of Seoul and POSCO E&C Incheon. Arriving at Songdo, with its world-class Architects architecture and modern facilities, will be, quite KPF © KPF literally, a breath of fresh air. 44 45 Water of Leith Edinburgh, Scotland

In summary Technical focus “Having attended a number of public displays April and November 2000 A major part of Arup's work in the in the city, it was great to see Arup taking a Serious flooding in parts of the Water Water of Leith scheme proposed proactive approach with the residents. The of Leith. City of Edinburgh Council lowering the water level in three scope of the scheme addressed all the main (CEC) undertake a Flood Study. upstream reservoirs – Harperrig, concerns of those living in the flooding areas.” 2001 Threipmuir and Harlaw – in order to Len Harvard, Colonies (resident) Flood Study reported there was a need reduce the flood risk. The proposals © City of Edinburgh Council for extensive flood protection along the are to modify spillways so water levels river channel and lowering the water can be lowered between 600mm and level in three upstream reservoirs. 900mm. Lowering has required some January 2002 environmental mitigation work to Arup appointed to undertake scheme protect Sites of Special Scientific design, promote the flood prevention Interest (SSSI) and bird and fish order and apply for planning. habitats. The company’s experience August 2002 and technical expertise in hydrology, A week-long exhibition showcasing hydraulics and reservoir engineering proposals held at three venues across were crucial to the success of this the city. phase of the project. September 2003 Flood prevention order promoted to 4000 residents, stakeholders and owners, followed by 90 days of consultation. November 2003 Two Planning Applications lodged with the CEC and West Lothian Council; permission granted by WLC in April 2004 and by CEC in July 2004. Above: Cross-section through proposed walkway adjacent November 2004 to river (1 River bed; 2 Flood defence wall; 3 Raised walkway; Public Local Inquiry held. 4 Steel sheet piles; 5 Existing walkway; 6 Existing road). Spring 2006 Advanced works packages prepared For this project, the firm had professionals for tendering. working in areas such as the environment, Main project to start in 2007. sustainability, hydrology and engineering. But The Water of Leith has become an ‘auld enemy’ for the team was not only charged with the task of some of Edinburgh's residents who live upon its evaluating flood prevention measures, it also had meandering banks. Since time immemorial the river to manage residents’ expectations. Playing a pivotal has had a propensity to burst its banks, but the part in the scheme has been Arup's proactive disruption in 2000 was the last straw, as local consultation with local residents affected by the people struggled once again to recover from the floods, including a series of public exhibitions, “The Water of Leith plans were put devastating effects. In 2002 the City of Edinburgh meetings and mailshots. on display in the local libraries and Council commissioned Arup to develop and Arup’s influence with the Scottish Executive at the exhibition. These gave me implement a flood alleviation scheme. This ran from has been key in driving the project forward. a valuable insight into the scheme a pre-feasibility stage to detailed design and site “We worked closely with the executive so it proposals. The exhibition and public supervision. The pre-feasibility stage proposed that could make its planning and consultation process displays were well received from the flood-prevention works would encompass 9km more efficient,” adds Clement. “We have learnt residents affected by the flooding.” of line flood defences, works to bridges, modification many lessons throughout the project which we Stuart Kinsman, Hanover Housing of building façades and major services and utilities are now feeding back to the executive to assist Association, Edinburgh interfaces. The scope also covered the modification ministers with future schemes.” of three Category A dam structures, to enable them Arup also advised the City of Edinburgh to retain more water high in the Pentland Hills before Council on procurement strategies, contract Flash flood it reached the Water of Leith. forms, legal aspects, contractor selection and “We were chosen for the project on the strength phased programming of the construction. Following of a combination of cost and quality, taking into the passing of vital legislation for the project, Arup is account our reliable track record in flood prevention preparing advanced works packages for tender in prevention consultation and appraisal,” says Richard Clement, 2006, leading to construction in late summer and the Arup project manager. “It was our overall autumn. These packages include modifications to approach towards tackling the project and reservoirs, strengthening two buildings at Canonmills, When the Water of Leith burst its banks prioritising key flood prevention issues which set relining of a large sewer at the Colonies and “I was consulted by Arup on all us apart from the competition.” modifications to footbridges at Belford and Damside. in 2000, over 500 homes and businesses pressing issues through the exhibition Arup developed and delivered a Flood Prevention The main three-year project is scheduled to start and by phone, mail and email. This were powerless to stop the flooding. But Order to over 4000 Edinburgh residents under the in 2007. included everything from design Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961. Since 2002, the City of Edinburgh ruled it would never changes to the reservoir weirs to the project team has progressed through the option more domestic flood prevention happen again and launched the fastest appraisal stage, outline design environmental concerns. I also found the project Client assessment, planning and detailed design. “To date City of Edinburgh Council flood-to-prevention notification scheme manager to be very patient with the project has been the fastest flood prevention Landscape architect in Scotland. good people skills.” The Smeeden Forman Partnership scheme to go from the planning to the legislation Architect Anne Fortune, Colonies (resident) Words: Andrew Moore stage,” adds Clement. Halladay Clark Architects 46 Intelligent Visualisation 47 Worldwide

Arup has been using computer-assisted design Airborne light sensors

(CAD) to create three-dimensional models for a © Arup LiDAR is a new form of long time, yet it’s only in the last few years that the remote sensing technology necessary computing power has been available to which uses a helicopter- process the large amounts of data required to do mounted laser to pulse this to a practical degree of engineering accuracy light at the ground to with detailed visualisation. generate very precise In the last 18 months Arup engineers have geographical co-ordinates added a fourth dimension to the design and to within plus or minus construction planning of large engineering projects: 50mm. time. This ‘real-time’ layer, when applied to 3-D drawings, provides a level of visualisation that even The applications and the most experienced planners would find benefits of LiDAR are impossibly difficult to achieve in any other way. many. It can extract the Take city modelling, for example. By using shape of the surrounding snapshots of fine-grained topographical data held buildings around a in Geographical Information Systems, instead of proposed site, which flat topography, Arup can create a realistic ground Above and main pictures: coupled with photos model with the building sitting on it. Arup’s Manchester intelligent visualisation provides a startlingly In fact, Arup is currently bridging the gap between team has built a 3-D real time model of the realistic model. Last existing software shortcomings to develop models sea front at Blackpool, UK, to investigate the year, Arup used LiDAR that will demonstrate the impact of multiple variables impact of coastal defences on the famous to carry out a 900m wide over time. The more data sets brought into a 4-D sea front. topographical survey of model, the more precise the visualisation and the the M25 – that’s 380km lower the margin of error. of motorway, earthworks The approach makes for better decision-making and structures – in just and improved communication with stakeholders. six weeks. Arup calls it Intelligent Visualisation. Moore’s Law anticipates that computing Clients power will double every 18 months. So far, British Airport Authority Blackpool Council this has proved true and as the following two Union Railways projects show, it’s giving Arup a ground-breaking opportunity to use advanced modelling to streamline the design and construction process further, while increasing quality, reducing time and costs and mitigating risk. Words: Nick Kettles Virtual world, real benefits © Technical Services at Blackpool Council © Technical 49 Intelligent Visualisation Worldwide

Left: 4-D model of Heathrow’s Channel Tunnel offers is the opportunity Terminal 5 clearly shows the many Rail Link (CTRL) to bring many variables, stages of the construction process. A similar approach was previously assessed in used for the possession isolation, together into planning required to one virtual environment complete the high-risk to offer a more holistic re-alignment of the North design and planning London Incline onto a process. Indeed, as “An outstanding example newly constructed viaduct remote sensing becomes of engineering leadership for the Channel Tunnel ever more precise the under difficult conditions Rail Link Project. A 4-D potential is also there and in the middle of the construction planning to test designs before world’s busiest airport. simulation was developed they are built. This demanded a high allowing the sequences quality solution, and by from all contractor Johnson adds: “It can God it got it.” programmes to be also help to prototype. Judges’ comments overlayed, highlighting You can take a model following Arup’s award for delays in an easily of a bridge and drop Excellence in Collaborative accessible format. it into a detailed Engineering at the UK A much more efficient representation of a 2006 Quality in Construction programme ensued, proposed space, and Awards, for the design of resulting in the project if it doesn’t fit within the Heathrow control tower being completed a day a few centimetres, then early, and avoiding severe you know you have an financial penalties. engineering problem.”

In both cases, Arup’s With the people skilled intelligent interpretation in analysing the data Heathrow Terminal 5 BAA appointed Arup to of 4-D computer models from these systems The potential of IV has undertake 4-D planning resulted in better stake- so maximum value already been clearly for the interchange, and holder communication, can be extracted from demonstrated through the soon a high-level reduced risk, and any simulation, Arup is use of 4-D construction integrated 4-D model was promoted a co-ordinated currently assessing how planning during the established, identifying ‘right-first-time’ approach. to add cost as a fifth development of The the overall build sequence dimension to 4-D models, Interchange Plaza project including contractor “Intelligent Visualisation showing how costs vary at Heathrow’s new exclusion zones, crane allows information to be with different proposals. Terminal 5. The project usage, access and presented to anybody, in required extra planning general site logistics. 3-D over time,” comments And, providing Moore’s due to the complex Jim Johnson, director, Law continues to prove interface of three Weekly planning sessions Arup. “They can then see itself, the firm will separate teams building were convened with the what it looks like in the eventually be able to the multi-storey car park, 4-D model simulation real world – retaining introduce an increasing main terminal building projected on a large engineering quality and number of variables into and Heathrow Express rail screen, viewable at any accuracy – but presented a model, including station in close proximity. time interval. Once in an intuitive and easily pedestrians, traffic, individual clashes or understood way.” fire, wind and lighting. “Typically, communication issues were resolved, What Arup’s Intelligent in these situations is or a ‘best fit’ way forward Visualisation potentially based upon drawings was decided, the master and models, with either programme was revised, a basic timeframe along with the graphics. illustrated or Until the advent of 4-D accompanied by a this would have required Gantt chart (which aims new phasing diagrams – to show the relationship a time consuming and of different tasks or expensive process. activities),” explains Tom Honnywill, head of Arup’s Here, Arup’s work project planning team. demonstrated that “However, either the efficiencies of six months timeframes are too could be gained against broad, or the reader the initial Tri-Project has insufficient skill master programme. in interpreting them, The value of this saving, resulting in a limited estimated by BAA, was understanding of what approximately £2.5M. © BAA needs to be done where, when and how.” 50 51 Guangzhou New TV Tower China

Project progress: Giants are often considered clumsy and ungainly Seismic shocks March 2004 creatures, but this is just one of the many The team had to factor in Amsterdam office entered conventions that the remarkable Guangzhou performance-based design based the design competition with New TV Tower in southern China appears to flout. on a severe earthquake study. Information Based Architecture The structure is an impressive feat of technical The designs focused on a second (IBA) from Amsterdam. expertise and elegance, but at 610m high the tower set of criteria based on constraints April 2004 has posed some tough total engineering design above current limits for buildings Competition design submitted, challenges for Arup’s team, numbering 40 designers up to 200m high in mainland China. 13 teams shortlisted. and engineers from the Amsterdam, London, Hong By introducing a new non-linear June 2004 Kong and Shenzhen offices. It’s designed to house approach, the critical buckling load London, Hong Kong and TV and radio transmission facilities, observatory for each element in a structure can Shenzhen offices joined with decks, revolving restaurants, exhibition space, be calculated. Amsterdam’s team. conference rooms, shops and 4-D cinemas. Its slim August 2004 waistline and complex geometry required the team Second phase competition design to walk a tightrope between architectural form, submitted, three teams shortlisted. safety and cost. 28 January 2005 The tower, which will broadcast the 2010 Asian Arup’s Hong Kong office, Games, comprises an external steel frame and as the lead consultant, signed inner central concrete core. This core is for the lifts, the contract with the client in escape stairwell and vertical building services risers. Guangzhou, under the witness It is a highly functional building with a unique of the Municipal Government architectural form. The structure’s shape is created officials. The date launched by a rotation between lower and top-level floor Arup’s international assignment plates, characterised by a twist and narrowing China’s newest for the fascinating project. waist midsection. The complex geometry was May 2005 designed by parametric associative software, Approval of the Scheme Design. which can generate geometrical and structural November 2005 models based on a set of variable parameters super structure Approval of the Detailed and link the geometrical data to the analytical Preliminary Design. and drafting software. 25 November 2005 The outer steel-framed structure consists of By the end of 2009, the tallest structure in the world Official ground-breaking 24 steel columns with concrete in-fill, a series will stand as a unique iconic landmark on the skyline ceremony conducted by the of 46 oval-shaped rings of different sizes and Municipal Government. The single-direction diagonals throughout the structure. of Guangzhou, a fast-emerging city in southeast ceremony was officiated by Spatially, the tower appears as a series of mini- China – now there’s something worth broadcasting. the Secretary of Guangzhou buildings hung within the superstructure, with mega and the Mayor of Guangzhou. spaces in between. The roofs of the mini-buildings Words: Andrew Moore Present are used as sky gardens where visitors can feel Basement excavation the weather variations at different heights. work in progress. Because of the tower’s complex structure, the team has adopted the most advanced technologies in wind engineering and wind tunnel studies based on sectional models with computer stimulation. Using the wind data, a series of performance-based design options were assessed. The special set of design criteria developed took both building safety and human comfort into account. An iconic structure asks for an iconic lighting scheme. The concept of the exterior lighting design aims for a memorable and lasting impression of the Architect Information Based Architecture night-time view. At night, the glowing image of the Local Design Institute Tower will be a beacon for the city of Guangzhou. Guangzhou Design Institute

Guangzhou Petronas Eiffel Gateway Temple Expiatori de Pyramid of Khafre Tower Towers Tower Arch la Sagrada Familia 143m 610m 452m 324m 192m 170m (when Giza, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, St Louis, complete) Egypt © Arup © Arup China Malaysia France US Barcelona, Spain 52 Salt mines 53 Northwich, England

“Our ability to An explosive situation Drilling the 200 boreholes monitor and to pump grout into, and understand extract brine out of, is proving risky. An air

what is going copyright Licence no. 100023301 © Crown pocket was hit during on in four exploratory drilling, blowing a casing 30m out inaccessible of a borehole. Contractors salt mines are now using blow-out preventers to manage will enable For years, anxious residents and retailers have and vent air pressure. the town of been hoping for progress on the fate of Northwich’s four abandoned salt mines. The four spaces in Wrekin is carefully Northwich to question are equivalent to 296 Olympic swimming monitoring the rate of plan for the pools in total, all filled with brine, 90m underground. Planning ahead injection and extraction The mines’ extreme depth has made access very Above: location map to ensure that pressure future and difficult and the salt water made investigation outlining the location in the mines remains regenerate even more so. of mines and salt pillars. constant. If one of the The unpredictable nature of salt degradation injection pumps stops itself in a way means the salt pillars currently supporting the roof working or one of the that has not of the mines could fail at any moment, opening grout pipes becomes up a 5m chasm capable of swallowing the town blocked, the pressure been possible centre above. within the mine can be This dire prediction has inhibited any notions adjusted to compensate. for 100 years.” of meaningful development over the past decades. While other towns have grown and prospered since Tom Brooks the decline of the mining era, Northwich has been

project manager © Arup left behind, but the problem remains: the town’s “No-one has ever used a saturated brine solution mines require urgent attention. in a mix like this before,” explains Tom Brooks, In November 2004 a partnership between project manager. “The brine prevents the pillars Wrekin Construction Ltd and Arup took control dissolving because the water can’t hold any and began modelling the mines using ultrasonic more salt.” surveys. The proposed resolution was to infill the Although optimistic the mix would be successful, mines using a grout mix made up of 96% pulverised Wrekin needed more information on the chemical fuel ash (PFA, a by-product from coal-fired environment to guarantee the outcome. Arup power stations) and 4% cement lubricated examined the mix to establish how it would respond with a fully-saturated brine solution. in the mine. Tests concluded that the cement reacted with the saline water, grew and hardened around the PFA, making it solid enough to prevent the mines collapsing. “Arup’s capability to provide scientific rigour and Problem solved Each mine is now being methodology to this project means we have been When the infilling of the modelled in 3-D as the able to create value for Wrekin, the local authority mines began, it quickly grout is injected, allowing Deep below ground in northwest England, and the backer English Partnerships, by making became clear the mix engineers to predict it possible for this technically challenging project wasn’t gaining enough where the grout will fall the future prosperity of a modest former to continue,” adds Tom. strength underground. within the mine, giving a mining town hangs on the outcome of “Our ability to monitor and understand what is Through a process of far greater level of control going on in four inaccessible salt mines will enable computational fluid over the infill process. one crucial civil engineering project. the town of Northwich to plan for the future and dynamic (CFD) analysis, Words: Clare McKenna regenerate itself in a way that has not been Arup’s numerical possible for 100 years.” modelling team identified The smallest of the four mines was successfully an issue with the daily filled during late 2005. The entire project is on flush-through of the schedule for completion in September 2007. pipes, allowing a superior A mining town injection methodology in trouble to be adopted. Partnerships Wrekin Construction Ltd The officers of Vale Royal Borough Council English Partnerships © Cheshire Museums Service © Cheshire 54 Educational buildings USA

1 2 All natural The Stanford E&E building is currently at design stage. The sketches below show the effects that the planned designs will have on the building’s heating and ventilation systems. Kirsch Center: (1) transparent infrastructure means that students can learn from the building in class; (2) lots of natural light makes © Boora Architects Stanford’s E&E building is just one example of the teaching environment a pleasant place in Arup’s ground-breaking work in educational design which to work all year round; (3) solar panels All on this page: © Cody Andreson/Arup and construction. It all began with the Kirsch Center maximise the building’s energy efficiency; (4) for Environmental Studies at DeAnza College, the exterior is fashioned to catch as much Cupertino, California. Kirsch, a two-storey, 2000m2 natural light (while blocking unwanted heat) construction, exemplifies the next generation in as possible; (5 & 6) the exposed systems are educational innovation. Kirsch showcases energy used by students as part of their research. efficiency and renewable energy technology to a huge audience – it’s one of the first sustainable green buildings within the California Community 5 6 3 College system. The system includes 109 members and 2.5M students, and claims to be the largest Natural ventilation system of higher education in the world. From integrated photovoltaics, solar hot water and unique, high-performance thermal wrap to radiant cool/warm floors and demand- controlled ventilation, Kirsch highlights the clever use of technology to sustain the living world. It is also undoubtedly a teaching tool. Adjacent to one of the classrooms, for example, is a radiant manifold 4 system that allows hot or cold water to circulate through the concrete floor. The system is housed behind a Plexiglas cover, enabling students to gauge People in economically advanced societies the water’s temperature, flow-rate and pressure, spend up to 90% of their time indoors. Small so that they can work out how much energy the Summer sun angle – 76º wonder, then, that the places that we inhabit can system is using. Daylighting have a huge impact on the way we think about the The exposed radiant system is only one example Winter sun angle – 29º world. By virtue of its very existence, a building can of many. Ground-breaking design apart, the unique – and often does – create the momentum for feature at Kirsch has been the input of the building’s Kirsch has now been put forward for a coveted change. This is particularly true when those occupants, who formed a committee and played Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design buildings are academic institutions which, with a central role in the building’s development, from (LEED™) rating. Meanwhile, Roberts is playing a role research programmes, leadership roles and fundraising through to the initial concept and in educating the students that pass through Kirsch, influence over current and future elites, are ideally thematic design, right up to the building’s by delivering lectures in the building that he helped placed to promote the ‘green’ agenda. construction and operation. to design. Understanding the purpose of the structures Stanford E&E and similar projects, such as the and work that will be conducted at each educational Northern Arizona University Applied Research and building is integral to Arup’s design process. The Development Facility (NAU ARD), have already The educational buildings market is now so firm’s engineers often consult a building’s future adopted many of the ideas used in the development occupants before seeking to create optimal of the Kirsch building, as well as introducing fresh sophisticated that gaining a competitive edge conditions for successful scholarship. Later, the concepts. At NAU ARD, the desert climate, high means designing buildings that are not just teams share noteworthy innovations such as elevation and low rainfall will shape innovations exposing the building’s systems, like heating, in water-saving technology that will be passed unrivalled learning environments, but can also to allow them to be used as teaching tools with on to the local community. Once complete, the be used as teaching tools in their own right. the wider design and research community. ARD will be the most energy-efficient laboratory Words: Anthony Beachey “Our innovations are a response to the © Hopkins & Partners Architects building in Arizona. programmes taught and researched in academic The concept of creating buildings that teach institutions, rather than a product of building for may be relatively new, but it is already filtering the educational market per se,” says Cole Roberts, Climate control through to the mainstream in countless ways. a senior engineer at Arup, USA. “Our focus is to With an emphasis on Luckily, the chances of being outsmarted by the support research and actually turn the buildings plenty of natural light and building that you study in are still a long way off. Learning passive solar heating, the themselves into teaching tools. So the innovation is often driven by an issue that prompts research, NAU ARD atrium creates DeAnza Community College Design architect rather than developed for its own sake.” its own microclimate and Van der Ryn Roberts cites studies conducted at Stanford captures nearly all of its Executive architect on location University, California, into the effects of seismic heat from the sun. VBN © Arup events, corrosion and structural degradation on Stanford University buildings as an example. In this case, a Stanford Architect Boora Architects Environment and Energy (E&E) Department researcher wanted to attach sensors to a new faculty Northern Arizona University Design architect building that Arup is helping to design, in order Hopkins & Partners to use it as an example to support her research. Executive architect Burns-Wald Hopkins 56 Green Plaza Beijing, China

be very hot. To keep the development’s temperature constant, the team created an air ‘buffer-zone’ between each of the buildings and the envelope. The making This buffer-zone increases the thermal insulation in winter reducing heating loss and, consequently, those energy bills. To prevent overheating in summertime of a microclimate the team needed to create a mechanism whereby the trapped heat could be let out in the most energy- Words: Hollie Boughton efficient way. Part of the solution included installing ventilation louvres at the very top of the envelope that Overview: Green Plaza is one of China’s biggest sustainable would act as a chimney and allow the warm air to Arup’s investigation covered: architecture projects and it marks the beginning of escape. As the hot air pulls in cooler air from the • Energy efficient air distribution systems a new approach to architecture in the region. Not bottom of the buildings it creates movement and • Ecological-enclosure thermal only is it the first building in Beijing designed to be natural ventilation. The prohibitive heat means that © Arata Oguri and ventilation studies environmentally sustainable but the creation of a the building still partially relies on air-conditioning in • Underground water cooling microclimate, designed by Arup’s Hong Kong team summer and autumn, but far less than normal. • Outdoor and indoor cooling tower schemes specifically for this development, has also set the Innovative though the microclimate may be, it is • The building’s thermal and pressure distribution standard for a completely new approach to this ultimately its contribution to the continuing strides • The building’s solar and daylight access kind of project across modern China. in the field of sustainable building design that makes • The building’s energy simulation A microclimate is defined as any contained this achievement so significant. • Chiller plant heat rejection study environment within which the effects of weather “Sustainable building design is more than just an • Ventilated façade are both relatively uniform and easily modified. environmental strategy,” Raymond Yau, a director at • Air-side and water-side free cooling Microclimates are affected by factors such as air Arup, points out. “It’s a means of making buildings • Hybrid ventilation speed, temperature, moisture content, light and that are more humane places to inhabit, more • Night cooling visual effect. Green Plaza includes two nine-storey intelligent in the way they balance their energy flows, • Radiant cooling and two 18-storey buildings. Inside, there’s a retail more respectful of nature and the resources it offers area, offices and a six-star hotel and all four buildings and more understanding of the substantial changes are encased in a transparent glass and ETFE that buildings will undergo during their lifetime.” (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) envelope. Space invaders The biggest benefit in constructing a microclimate The environmental shield helps create the solar is that once it has been established, energy bills will chimneys for heat stack effects, which provoke In the densely populated The unique chequered

Architects: be kept to a minimum for the lifetime of the building. fresh air movement and bring natural ventilation residential area of Sendai façade allows each elevation Integrated Design Associates Winters in Beijing are harsh, while the summers can into the interior spaces. on Honshu Island in Japan, to act in its entirety under space is in very short supply. horizontal loading, using Yet in a small corner of this precast concrete panels busy suburb, there’s a major measuring approximately column-free, 10m-high 2m x 2m. space in a three-storey manufacturing workshop. All the factory-made concrete panels were Working in partnership secured together on 5 with one of Japan’s site using horizontal 5 most talented architects, prestressing tendons. Professor Hitoshi Abe This ensures that there of Tohoku University, in will be no slippage at

© Integrated Design Associates 3 association with the firm joint lines due to force Atelier Hitoshi Abe, Arup under either long-term or created the three-storey short-term loading cases. 3 building with an entire external façade that is 2 Client the only load-bearing and Sasaki-Gishi Prosthetic seismic-resistant element. & Orthotic Services Inc. Architect 3 Put simply, there are none Atelier Hitoshi Abe of the expected internal Contractor 4 supporting columns Ando Corporation occupying much-needed 2 2 floor space. The external walls are the only thing keeping the ceiling up.

Design features of the ‘microclimate envelope’ to enhance ventilation 1 Cool fresh air intake 1 1 2 Office façade windows for natural ventilation 3 Hot air discharged through office air shafts 4 Hot air discharged through inclined roof vents 5 Hot air discharged from top vents Client Chevron Situation However… We left no footprints US oil and gas company The proposed plant will All aspects of the ground Chevron has found natural draw natural gas from the engineering project require gas in the Gorgon Gas field and after processing strict environmental controls Field approximately 70km on Barrow Island, it will on a wide range of activities. offshore and plans to pipe be shipped and sold on Arup has had to devise new it to Barrow Island. The international markets. ways of working to minimise company is proposing Arup’s work on the project the impact on the Barrow to build a liquefied natural included geotechnical site Island ecosystem and the gas (LNG) processing investigations and analysis, team discovered that there’s plant on Barrow Island, management of drilling and huge scope to be genuinely for which Arup is doing testing subcontractors, kind to the environment. the ground engineering. development of groundwater monitoring and testing bores. Equipment, clothes and All of this work had to be boots were meticulously conducted without harming steam cleaned and treated the surrounding environment. to remove any trace of dirt, grease or seeds that may Barrow Island was classified have promoted growth as a Class A nature reserve of foreign plants. Drilling © Dr Frank Lucien and Rueben Rajasingam, UNSW in 1910 and its relative programmes were scheduled isolation, along with to avoid disturbing turtle Chevron’s stringent breeding patterns and all Environmentally quarantine management waste from the drilling procedures, has helped to process was shipped friendly engineering protect it from introduced back to mainland Australia. species of animals and plants Even the grasses were now common in Australia. left undisturbed. The claim How are you What makes it Is it nearly finished? Clever Arup is helping to make doing that? so special? The process is currently the world a greener place Actually, it’s all about the The manufacturing process under Arup-funded by researching and development of a chemical used to make it will reduce investigation at the concrete developing more binding process that the pollution levels School of Chemical environmentally-friendly will produce a cleverer, associated with cement Engineering’s laboratories construction materials. environmentally friendly kind production. It will also have at the University of New of concrete. The resulting a much lower ecological South Wales in Australia. product would be a bonded footprint than conventional calcium carbonate with Portland cement. Will it save the world? similar material properties Not quite. But it involves

to concrete. What’s an ecological turning the CO2 generation footprint? problem on its head, so Sounds complicated, In general terms it’s a that the gas is consumed is it? measure of the amount of rather than generated in

CO2 is used as a means fossil fuel that is consumed, the process. Rather than

of bonding together calcium and the amount of CO2 emitting large amounts

carbonate particles. In emitted into the atmosphere of CO2 during production,

effect, the process sets out resulting from the actions of some CO2 could be to copy the metamorphosis an individual, a household, a captured during limestone of limestone to marble, company, or even a country. particle bonding. All this but in minutes rather than takes place at room millions of years. So what’s that got temperatures instead of to do with cement? the extreme temperatures The production of needed for cement. It’s Portland cement is an a double bonus with big energy intensive process environmental implications. which requires high temperatures and results in environmentally damaging by-products,

including lots of CO2. © Image courtesy of Chevron Australia Pty Ltd © Image courtesy of Chevron 61 Fire Worldwide

Rendering of Beijing’s Water Cube (National Swimming Centre), from Appraisal time an external perspective.

What is SPeAR? Why is it so great? These diagrams form The Sustainable Project Let’s look at an example. the foundations for the Appraisal Routine (SPeAR) Since 2004 Arup has been SPeAR analysis process. is another innovative using SPeAR with its client They display a range of Arup-developed system Kingspan Insulation, which established criteria for to enable companies to manufactures polymer- measuring sustainability. categorise, measure and based insulation boards Categories measured improve sustainability. It in Herefordshire, UK. include the impact a can be used to appraise Following the SPeAR audit, product has on natural a wide variety of projects Arup presented Kingspan resources, energy use, and masterplan proposals, with an improvement action waste, procurement, buildings, corporate and plan. A year later Arup working conditions operational performance. returned to carry out a and a company’s second assessment to economic sustainability. How does it work? check on the effects of It assesses sustainability Kingspan’s implementation. performance and identifies By adopting SPeAR, strengths and opportunities Kingspan has undergone for future improvement. a rapid cultural change. SPeAR allows managers The next step is to raise to decide what changes staff awareness so they they would like to make can submit their own to improve performance. sustainability suggestions. Additional assessments To make this possible, over time can track Arup developed the Team changes and demonstrate SPeAR coaching package continuous improvements which helps teams to work through design, construction together to gain a clear and operational stages. picture of their strengths, opportunities for Has it been used yet? improvement and blind Yes. By over 100 spots, and to promote clients worldwide. more productive ways of working. All of this has been carried out under Kingspan’s existing budget Fire fighters The resulting fire strategy even incorporated the arrangements – proof use of a set of coloured lights (part of an exhibit that being sustainable by artist Dan Flavin) wired-up to the back-up power does not cost you more! supply for emergency lighting, avoiding the need When the American artist Donald Judd passed for aesthetically intrusive emergency lighting on And what are Stories about the devastation away, his will instructed the Judd Foundation to some floors. This is a typical example of Arup’s the benefits? that fire can cause are the stuff preserve his installed spaces by turning them into approach, which tailors its fitting of fire and Undergoing a SPeAR museums – including his home at 101 Spring life-safety measures to meet the individual analysis and then acting of legend. But the solutions are Street, New York City. The historic building is not building’s requirements. on its findings will make not always simple, which is why one where the ceiling can be easily torn open to Chris Marrion, associate principal at Arup’s a company: install sprinklers and smoke detectors, as this New York office, says the firm’s local and global • more competitive Arup has teams across the world would impact the building’s appearance. fire engineering knowledge is paramount to • more resilient to shocks that are dedicated to turning up So, when fire safety codes required the main successfully meeting clients’ needs on projects • nimbler in a fast- staircase – a key feature of the building – be closed like these: “Having already established our credibility changing world the heat on fire safety. off on one floor, the Judd Foundation considered with the fire department by working with them on • more unified in purpose Words: Nick Kettles this an unacceptable intervention. various committees to rewrite the NYC Building • more likely to attract In fact, meeting this requirement would have Code, they were very willing to listen and work with and retain customers caused the organisation to re-evaluate its mission us when we did our analysis and showed that these and employers statement. Until, that is, Arup’s fire engineering alternative approaches would be safe.” • more at ease with and design teams conceived an innovative fire Arup’s extensive experience in developing regulators, banks, insurers strategy that limited the impact to the aesthetics performance-based codes and fire engineering and financial markets of this historic building and its contents, provided guidelines, reflecting the local vernacular and • better positioned for a cost-effective solution and met the client’s regulatory regimes of cities and countries, is vital the future.

© Arup/CSCEC/PTW mission statement in one fell swoop. in addressing clients’ objectives successfully. 62 Fire 63 Worldwide

Left: computer models such as these help Arup’s fire engineering teams to predict the flow of smoke and people in the event of a fire and plan accordingly. © Andrea Steele (MBB)/Judd Foundation © Andrea

Left: exterior view of 101 Spring Street, home of the late artist Donald Judd. Below: CFD analysis showing a proposed model for a smoke management system. Research This experience has allowed the firm to adopt an breakthrough open-minded approach, bridging the gap between As part of their ongoing with a protective layer individual needs and prescriptive regulatory codes, study into the quantifiable such as concrete,” at times demanding a compromise in building physics of fire, Arup’s explains David. Under design or functionality. This has created opportunities David Moorehead is laboratory test conditions for Arup to author books such as Extreme Event researching how unlined with additional computer Mitigation In Buildings (Editor: Brian Meacham, tunnels constructed in modelling, the sandstone Associate Editor: Matthew Johann) and Egress sandstone, an area of did not break up due Design Solutions (Authors: Jeff Tubbs and research not well to the build up of water Brian Meacham). understood, could provide vapour pressure within Life-safety is reassuringly central to Arup’s equal or superior safety the stone, a key performance-based design approach, but this does © Arup standards in concrete- advantage over not exclude the need for innovation. Arup’s solutions lined tunnels. concrete. And while yet can also embrace broader issues, including business to design for the optimum safety of the Water “Better understanding to be completed, the continuity and the protection of assets. Cube’s capacity: 17 000 spectators and athletes. of this will provide more research may also For the US$100M Beijing National Swimming “People prefer to enter and exit from the same place, confidence in the eventually be used to Centre (the Water Cube), Arup addressed so the fire design favours open circulation routes, prediction of tunnel produce a predictive fundamental challenges about its design at a and incorporates fire safety systems like sprinklers performance in fires, both modelling tool for use in conceptual stage of the project, so that it could and smoke exhaust – making the building safe for cases of untreated real tunnel design, in be used safely for the 2008 Olympics. for longer periods of time and allowing the more rock, and where provided similar sedimentary rock. Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), the amazing- familiar circulation routes to be used for exit,” yet-combustible material proposed as the skin of adds Marianne Foley, the project’s fire engineer the Water Cube’s revolutionary soap-bubble design, based at Arup’s Sydney office. Below: Schematic description did not conform to local fire codes, until the firm’s The value of the performance-based design of experimental set-up for complex analysis demonstrated that it shrinks approach to fire safety can equally be applied sandstone lining away from fire – self-venting to allow smoke out to infrastructure-related projects, such as of the building. underground stations. The local code would have also required the Fiona Tsui, from Arup’s Hong Kong office says: Water Cube to incorporate over 100m of exit doors, “Fire engineering is a viable means to address the further impacting the aesthetic appeal and creating fire safety challenges posed by subway stations a significant security issue. Using advanced and tunnels – particularly those entrances with long computer modelling to help predict the spread of tunnels located deep underground, where new smoke and movement of people, Arup was able technology may be applied to approach fire safety issues such as high capacity lifts for underground evacuation.” By considering the performance of each building’s structure, service systems and

functional planning in case of fire, the result is © Arup typically a cost-effective design that meets fire safety objectives, as well as the design and functional objectives of the stakeholders. 64 6500 Historic buildings London, UK

Tower Environs snapshot “The Tower Environs project is Right: the new additions

The Tower Environs project was © Arup a huge improvement. Before the to the RGS building an essential part of the last phase scheme, the Tower Hill area was have been designed of an eight-year scheme to improve heavily congested with traffic and to complement the the setting of HM Tower of London. overgrown with trees. The project existing architecture. © Arup/James Morris © Arup/James Morris Originally commissioned by Historic has created an interesting and Royal Palaces (HRP), the engineering exciting open space for the public.” works were largely invisible – yet Geoffrey Field, resident governor, vital to preserve various features HM Tower of London of Tower Hill. In collaboration with “The building we now have ideally suits our needs Stanton Williams Architects, Arup and provides much better aesthetic space. Arup’s designed new additions to existing engineering solution for maintaining a cool room buildings including the Tower Vaults temperature has paid off. Materials are now Canopy, the Salvin’s Pumphouse, preserved in a much better environment.” and the new West Pavilion. Dr Rita Gardner, director, Royal Geographical Society London’s melting pot of modern and historic buildings requires designers to be increasingly Less is more creative when it comes to making old and new Another project that has made noises as part of designs work in harmony. Although Arup is no Arup’s own design portfolio was the refurbishment stranger to innovation, renovating heritage buildings of two buildings owned by the Royal Geographical and sites in a highly developed city such as London Society (RGS), launched in 1998 after a joint win in inevitably comes with major challenges. an architectural competition by Arup and architects Arup’s ability to combine modern design Studiodownie. infrastructure with a building’s legacy has been The project involved helping the RGS to devise a well-documented. During the firm’s involvement with strategy to create a purpose-built modern archive the Tower Environs project, launched in 1999, the store, reading room and garden pavilion, team was charged with preserving the entrance and complemented by extensive refurbishment of the surroundings of Her Majesty’s Tower of London. existing Grade II-listed buildings. The scheme also Originally commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces proposed the creation of seminar and education © Arup/James Morris Living history (HRP), the work was an essential part of the last spaces and the refurbishment of the Ondaatje phase of an eight-year, £12M scheme to improve the Lecture Theatre. setting of the Tower. The scope of the project included “Although the RGS wanted us to add more Designing new solutions for old buildings in highly pedestrianising the area around Tower Hill so it space and function to these buildings, our aim was developed areas such as London calls for an intensely became an open space flanked by three new to make the most of what the RGS already had,” buildings, designed to make the Tower of London states Tim Snelson, project manager. “The project creative combination of sensitivity and innovation. more visible. called for a great deal of joined-up design between Words: Andrew Moore The buildings were designed in collaboration with Measuring up the architect, structural and services engineers.” Stanton Williams Architects with Arup contracted to But it isn’t just projects that focus on a building’s Arup first looked to make the most of the undertake structural and civil engineering and provide exterior that continually test Arup’s design mettle. building’s traditional features by installing a cooling building services design. Key elements included In 2002, Arup participated in an open competition system within the voids of the jack-arch flooring, establishing a retaining wall for a moat ramp and to reshape and revitalise the Grade II-listed London for example. This allowed an old map room to terrace, together with new building additions Coliseum, the largest auditorium in central London be converted into a teaching and seminar room. © Stanton Williams such as the Tower Vaults Canopy, the Salvin’s and home of the English National Opera. The firm’s The team also developed sensitive solutions Pumphouse and the new West Pavilion. role was to act as structural, building services and to safeguard the existing structure. “Outside the acoustics engineers, overseeing major structural lecture theatre we designed discreet but strong Steely resolve alterations combined with the introduction of air concrete frames to allow parts of the walls to be The biggest challenges were posed by the conditioners within the auditorium and modifications removed without disturbing masonry walls above.” revetment and conservation of the tower’s moat Below: Coliseum to public spaces. Arup’s design approach also resulted in a low- ramp. Due to instability problems, Arup’s team auditorium roof Arup was co-designer of the new features, energy servicing strategy, using spare capacity devised a scheme to prevent the embankment under restoration. such as a new glass and steel barrel-vaulted roof, on the existing boilers for the new development. sliding into the moat, which also required the extensive remodelling to front-of-house areas, “We enhanced the building in keeping with its installation of a pedestrian ramp. The presence modern toilet facilities and an innovative low-noise architectural style,” sums up Snelson. “It’s simple, of the Docklands Light Railway tunnels below the © Arup ventilation system. The building needed a vastly with an elegance that comes from the fact that surface meant that the engineers had to install sheet upgraded air-conditioning system in order to satisfy the design is not flash or gratuitous in any way.” piles into the ground to a limited depth. These were stringent regulations. So Arup sourced and installed using a ‘vibration-free’ pile driver, while Tower Environs modelled an innovative solution by mapping the parts of the embankment were reconstructed using Client Historic Royal Palaces analysis using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Architect Stanton Williams Architects lightweight polystyrene block fill to minimise loading. Cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald model. Caroline Ray, project manager, explains: The period retaining wall was then tied to the sheet Contractor Wallis “The real challenge was to achieve technical pile wall with a reinforced concrete slab that forms English National Opera solutions to meet the demands of a modern the new moat path. “Arup is often asked to blend Client English National Opera audience within the particular constraints Architect The Arts Team old and new architecture considerately,” comments of a Grade II-listed building.” Project manager GTMS Richard Henley, Arup’s project director. “We were Theatre consultant Carr and Angier Carrying out the work in harmony with the Construction manager GTCM able to create a modern public space which opera seasons was vital, as modifications to the Quantity surveyor G&T complemented the historical architecture.” Use of Lighting designer Lightmatters foundations and the basement area had to be specially designed steel for the new buildings won made before the opera season ended. To enable Royal Geographical Society the 2005 Award for Building in an Historic Context, Client Royal Geographical Society with IBG the auditorium to look and sound the part, Arup awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects Architect Studiodownie Architects helped co-ordinate a low-noise ventilation system. Cost consultant Davis Langdon Everest (RIBA) London and English Heritage. Contractor Durken Pudelek Ltd 66 67 British Energy UK © British Energy Regenerating British Energy A slump in UK wholesale electricity prices When nuclear power generator British Energy Previously the approach to (BE) was first set up in 1996, its focus on low- improve plant performance and a shortfall in operating income forced cost electricity generation made it an extremely was to take it offline and shut British Energy dangerously close to promising business proposition. However, the it down. However, because introduction of New Electricity Trading Arrangements British Energy provides 20% of The new nuclear era (NETA) in 2001 radically changed the UK’s the UK’s electricity, that wasn’t administration until 2002, when consultation, British Energy is now well placed wholesale electricity market. In 2002, a shortfall an option – all eight of BE’s a £600M government rescue package and to become a major player in the in operating income put BE into severe difficulties plants needed to remain fully new nuclear era and Arup is and close to going into administration. BE sought operational during the PIP to a Performance Improvement Programme finding its hard work is also financial support from the UK Government. The meet the country’s power needs. paying off in other ways. from Arup turned it all around. Government approved the offer of a £600M working Words: Lisa Clifford capital and trading collateral credit facility, on the When Westinghouse, US, wanted condition that BE put in place a restructuring plan a report to BE with over 250 recommendations, to improve the performance and a Performance Improvement Programme (PIP). including between £700M and £1bn expenditure on of three nuclear facilities, the As a consequence of the aid package, BE invited resources and power plants. All this would require company approached Arup companies to tender for PIP and Arup was selected considerable planning and management, so Arup to create an enhancement in open competition. Never before had a rescue was retained to deliver a tangible action and programme based on a operation of this size (it covered eight operational execution plan. recommendation from British nuclear power plants) and complexity been A nine-month mobilisation phase followed, Energy. “This is the most attempted concurrently in the nuclear industry. based around six fundamental strands: foundation, rewarding testimony we can Arup led the investigation phase with US energy training, human performance, equipment, reliability, achieve when recommended by group Entergy, consultants Rossmore and Severn work-management and operational focus. one satisfied client to another,” Trent Utility Services, and set about analysing the Arup recognised that in order to deliver change says Dr Gary Walker, Arup’s business from top to bottom, including all the within BE’s organisation, the organisation itself global director for Major power plants and staff employed by BE. The needed to be bought into the change, which Projects. “Because we took on findings confirmed that the company was operating had to occur at all levels and all locations across the challenge at British Energy at around 80% capacity, as opposed to the 98% the BE fleet. in the first place, we are now achieved by top generators. Following the initial While the emphasis for the mobilisation phase was recognised as market leaders 12-week investigation phase, Arup presented on an action plan, the following phase concentrated in this kind of programme on delivering actions at the required locations. management.” Thirty months into the programme, the World Association of Nuclear Operators has called the turnaround at BE ‘exceptional’. An increase in wholesale power prices has helped the share performance, but Arup’s efforts across the BE fleet and the changes currently being made will © Arup ensure the continued health of the business if prices fall. It’s a very different picture from the one that all parties involved faced at the beginning of this miraculous journey. The work is ahead of schedule so far and in addition to praise from the industry, results include a 40% improvement in accident frequency rate, 68% reduction in the defect backlog and a 30% improvement in the unplanned automatic trip rate. No longer synonymous with the words ‘troubled’ and ‘struggling’, the nuclear power generator’s share price has more than doubled in the past year and has recently made a triumphant return to the FTSE 100 index, in line with British Energy’s vision to be a ‘Safe, Profitable and Proud’ company.

© British Energy Left: Hinkley Point B Power Station 6800 Design Schools School www.arup.com Worldwide

Great ideas come from stepping The philosophy behind the design school workshops, which operate globally, is simple: think freely and away from the ordinary and devising laterally about design issues with colleagues from new ways of tackling old problems. all disciplines. Attendees work in groups on a series of imaginative design exercises, most of which are So to keep the creative juices flowing outside the scope of their normal work. At a recent at Arup, we encourage our people East Asia school, for example, participants were asked to design a boardroom table for the opening to work interactively with each other of Arup’s new office in western China. But even after in a variety of ways. school’s out, the work continues. Words: Lisa Clifford Arup runs in-house skills networks offering people throughout the company forums on which to share knowledge, ask questions, propose solutions and build on past experiences. “Through the skills networks you can dip into a pool of knowledge much People broader than the people sitting around you,” explains Faith Wainwright, skills network director. But even though being innovative is part of power everyday life at the firm, demonstrations of sheer outstanding creativity are promoted through schemes like the first-ever edible structures competition held in the summer of 2005. Run in three rounds, the simple brief required each structure had to be made entirely from edible materials. More than 130 submissions from 14 countries were reviewed, including a leek and cucumber bow and arrow and a bridge made completely from frozen fish. However, it was a 1.2m spanning bridge made with a candy stick truss and a cracker biscuit deck that took one of the three top prizes. Lessons learned included the compressive strength of rice cakes and the tensile capacity of nougat. Now there’s some food for thought. © Arup

Right: design schools offer an © Arup © Arup opportunity to develop skills in teamworking, communication, planning and group decision- making through an intensive weekend of collaboration. Here, the American Design School 2005 challenged participants to produce a vehicle that would pass a rigorous crash test and move two eggs as far as possible.