Cranleigh School’s Sustainable Building Recognised at International Awards
Istruct08, the international competition for structural engineers recently held their award ceremony in London’s West End. The Structural Awards are the world’s pre-eminent awards for structural engineering excellence and this prestigious gala event marked the centenary of the Society of Structural Engineers. It was attended by 400 eminent structural engineers from around the world, as they gathered to see the short-listed projects and hear the winners announced.
The Woodland Workshop the brain-child and dream of Stephen Owen, Cranleigh School’s designer-in-residence is about to rise from the ashes of the catastrophic fire at Easter. Stephen used Thomasons LLP of Guildford as the structural engineering consultants for the project, who have a long-standing relationship with the school.
Stephen comments, “From such simple beginnings I was amazed to learn that my building had been short-listed for this award. I’m pleased to see that my desire to show that being ‘Green’ and yet contemporary in design can excite people so much. It was amazing to see my project on display alongside such big schemes as the swimming pool building at the Beijing Olympics and the new Terminal 5 building at Heathrow!’’
The Chairman of the awards ceremony enthused that “as always we have wonderful projects recognised at this ceremony: projects conceived and executed by people with an obvious passion for the challenge.” Among the judges’ comments on Stephen’s Woodland Workshop were the following: “This project shows how the embodied energy in a building structure can be vastly reduced when local timber is used in such a relatively unprocessed state. Exposing its natural appearance also saves on further finishing materials.”
Such praise will help inspire Stephen as he embarks a second time on bringing this dream to life.
Published
18 November 2008
- Category
Developments
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