SSDA 2019
Introduction
By Christopher Nash RIBA – Chairman of the Judging panel.
talented judging team comprising a balance of architectural and engineering
designers and experts from the steel fabrication industry. All members of
the panel always bring enthusiasm and enjoyment to the job, as well as fairminded
dispassionate judgement, and this year has been no exception.
This year there has been a greater variety in the types of projects entered for the
scheme.
Scales of entry range from the largest sports building projects, through prestige
city and regional office buildings, to smaller educational projects. While there are no
residential projects this year, we see an increase in high quality leisure sector projects
and footbridges.
As in previous years, a preliminary selection was made on the basis of a close
examination of the entry documents. I would like to make a plea for the initial
entry documents, particularly photographs of projects, to be of high quality and
comprehensively descriptive so that the panel can make as informed an initial
judgement as possible. The entrants of resultant shortlisted schemes from the initial
‘desk-top’ selection were all then notified and each project was visited by at least two
judges from different disciplines.
At this point I’d like to pass my thanks to the hosting teams who went out of their
way to be present to answer the judges detailed questions. Unlike some other award
schemes, we believe it is essential to get down close and personal with the entered
projects before making our final assessments. The project teams’ demonstration of
collaboration always comes through and is a major part in our assessment of the entry.
Projects that are represented by an informed and enthusiastic team are a step ahead.
There are jaw-dropping achievements here, and beautiful gems. I believe everyone
involved in the steel construction industry should be proud of what has been
achieved, and I trust that the Structural Steel Design Awards reflect the quality of the
achievement.
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Again this year I was very pleased to moderate the deliberations of our
October 19
/Fabrication
/Multi-storey_office_buildings
/Education_buildings
/Residential_and_mixed-use_buildings
/Leisure_buildings
/Design_of_steel_footbridges
/Construction