15 May 2012
Arup wins big at the HKIE/IStructE JSD Structural Excellence Awards.
To be honoured in four awards in this prestigious engineering award is a great triumph for Arup.
China World Tower, Beijing
The Grand Award in the Mainland/Overseas Projects Category goes to the China World Tower which won the 10th Tien Yow Jeme Civil Engineering Prize. At 330m tall, this is the tallest building in Beijing and in a high seismic zone in China. The Arup design team introduced a unique bracing system – an eccentric brace that does not join to its opposite corner – to the structural design, reducing the potential damage to the building in the event of serious earthquake, and setting new benchmarks for seismic design of tall buildings.
Opus Hong Kong
Opus Hong Kong is awarded the Commendation Merit in Hong Kong Projects Category. The twelve-storey residential building overlooking Victoria Harbour is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry. Arup provided total engineering services from the concept design stage until completion of works. The building’s rotating form posed a design challenges to our structural engineers. The unique structural form includes irregular floor plates, reinforced concrete flat slabs supported by core/load bearing walls and external steel columns, allowing maximum flexibility for the column-free internal spaces.
Marina Bay Sands® Integrated Resort, Singapore
Another Arup project the Marina Bay Sands® Integrated Resort wins the Commendation Merit in the Overseas Projects Category. The judges were impressed by the unique design of the top SkyPark® observation deck which boasts a 66.5m cantilever and links three 55-storey hotel towers. Arup completed the SkyPark® design with a combination of innovative engineering approaches, robust dynamic analysis and advanced 3D modelling technologies.
Arup x WZQ Bridge, Mixia Village, Yunnan Province
The hand-built Arup x WZQ Bridge was recognised with the Special Mention Award for Charitable Projects. This bridge has an impressive span of 20m to avoid the floods that used to destroy the makeshift bamboo bridge. Conceived and designed by Arup, and built by a team of Arup volunteers, university students and Wu Zhi Qiao Charitable Foundation members over the Christmas and New Year holidays, this bridge illustrates the social usefulness of engineers by creating a safe and stable lifeline to education and agriculture for over 3,000 villagers in rural China.