SSDA shortlist highlights steel success stories

The shortlist for the 50th Structural Steel Design Awards (SSDA), jointly sponsored by the British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) and Trimble Solutions (UK), has been announced.

The 22 shortlisted projects are all steel success stories, showcasing the material’s flexibility and versatility in a number of different and varying applications.

The shortlist also reflects the wide geographical spread of steel’s appeal for a variety of projects ranging from museums and entertainment venues to education buildings, with entries also received for a variety of bridges, commercial schemes and infrastructure facilities across the UK.

The winners will be announced at an evening reception in London on 3 October.

The SSDA 2018 shortlist is:

• Bloomberg London
• Two St. Peter’s Square, Manchester
• Thirty Broadwick, Soho, London
• Seventy Wilson, 70 Wilson Street, London
• Four Pancras Square, King’s Cross, London
• 101 The Embankment, Greengate, Salford
• 1&2 London Wall Place, London
• The Greenwich Peninsula Low Carbon Energy Centre, London
• Jaguar Land Rover Engine Manufacturing Centre, Wolverhampton
• Brooklands Museum Aircraft Factory and Racetrack Revival, Weybridge
• Victoria Palace Theatre Refurbishment, London
• Walthamstow Wetlands, Forest Road, London
• Belfast Waterfront Conference & Exhibition Centre, Lanyon Place, Belfast
• The Beacon of Light, Sunderland
• V&A’s Exhibition Road Quarter, London
• The Ordsall Chord Viaduct, Salford and Manchester
• Approach Viaduct South, Queensferry Crossing
• Somers Town Bridge, King’s Cross, London
• Knostrop Weir Foot and Cycle Bridge, Leeds
• Walkway Bridges, London Wall Place, London
• Manchester Victoria Redevelopment
• London Bridge Station

“The structural steelwork sector has evolved significantly since the SSDAs were launched in 1969, however one constant has been the ability of steel to deliver the most efficient and cost-effective solution for a building or structure, while also providing practical, flexible and beautiful spaces.

As the original offsite framing material, structural steel is now looking to the future to deliver a more complex level of design for manufacture and assembly,” commented BCSA Director General Sarah McCann-Bartlett.

Trimble Solutions (UK) Managing Director Richard Fletcher commented: “It’s good to see that the shortlisted entries in this 50th anniversary year of the SSDAs are an outstanding combination of complex and interesting projects which in some cases have been modelled to very high levels of detail.

“This illustrates the strength of structural steel within the UK and Ireland and also the maturity of digitalisation of design for manufacture and assembly within this industry, which Trimble are proud to be part of.”