AL_A receive award with engineers Arup and steel contractor Bourne
October 4 2018The V&A Exhibition Road Quarter has won a prize at the Structural Steel Design Awards 2018, which awards construction efficiency and the integration of structure and architectural design.
The judges commended the project’s “inverted ‘Toblerone’ shaped trusses [that] form a neat arrangement to support a new public courtyard and entry from Exhibition Road above new basement level galleries. This array of steelwork was hugely refined through the design process to maximise the efficiency of each member. Good use of light and colour for wayfinding in the new extension is exemplified by the striking red steel columns that so appealed to the judges.”
The 6,360m² Exhibition Road scheme is an engineering feat with extraordinarily challenging structural works, carried out by steelwork contractor Bourne, main contractor Wates and engineers Arup. The project and its gallery 18m below the surface necessitated piling 50m down within 1m of a Grade I Listed building and underpinning a wing of the V&A and its collection. For the duration of the project, the entire Museum remained fully operational and accessible to the public.
Other winners included London Bridge Station, Bloomberg London, the Ordsall Chord Viaduct, the Jaguar Land Rover Engine Manufacturing Centre, and the Knostrop Weir Bridge.