Comment
NSC 5
BARRETT
STEEL LIMITED
Headline sponsors:
Gold sponsors: AJN Steelstock Ltd | Ficep UK Ltd | Kingspan Limited |
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Silver sponsors: Hadley Group | Jack Tighe Ltd | Tata Steel | Trimble Solutions (UK) Ltd
Bronze sponsors: Barnshaw Section Benders Limited | Hempel | Joseph Ash Galvanizing | Jotun Paints |
Kaltenbach Limited | Kloeckner Metals UK | Sherwin-Williams | Tension Control Bolts Ltd |
Voortman Steel Machinery
Nov/Dec 18
Steel construction
quality stands out
The entire construction team on the steel-framed Bloomberg European headquarters building in the City will be
delighted to have received further recognition of their achievement in the shape of the 2018 RIBA Stirling Prize for
Architecture on top of their earlier Structural Steel Design Awards success (NSC October 2018).
The Stirling Prize is one of the most coveted in world architecture, and is given only to projects that demonstrate
outstanding achievement on a broad range of criteria, including design vision, innovation and originality, sustainability
and client satisfaction. Chairman of the judges Sir David Adaye called the building, whose BREEAM ‘Outstanding’
rating led to it being hailed as the world’s most sustainable office building, an ‘astounding commitment to quality
architecture’ (see News).
It is high praise for a project that shows steel construction at its best, one in which steelwork contractor William Hare
can take great pride. Superlatives like those of Sir David are not used lightly, but they can in fact be justifiably applied
fairly routinely to a wide range of steel-framed buildings and structures, and often are by grateful construction teams
who clearly understand and value the virtues inherent in steel construction, including speed of construction, offsite
manufacture, and just-in-time delivery of sections to congested sites.
In this issue of NSC we can find ringing endorsements for steel as a modern method of construction delivering
outstanding benefits. At the University of Warwick ‘cutting edge’ sports facilities are being created for use by students
and the wider community, a project described by the contractor as a ‘fantastic project’ to be part of. Using steel meant
cost savings for the client and a frame erected five weeks ahead of schedule.
Speed of construction from a well tried and tested steel construction approach is also impressing at a batch of five
secondary schools in the North East, where the construction programme had to be mindful of working hard up against
pupils taking examinations in adjacent school buildings. The contractor had been pleased with steel’s capabilities on
earlier projects and has developed a standardised steel-framed school design approach.
Steel has earned new admirers at Bishopsgate where the City of London’s tallest building, second in height only to
the Shard in Western Europe, is under construction. Steel allowed engineers to design foundations around the preexisting
foundations of a cancelled project, saving time and cost.
The speed of steel construction is also impressing in Coventry, where what will be the City’s tallest two buildings
are under construction. The project at Fairfax Street involves four blocks designed to accommodate 1,192 students in
studio apartments.
The steel construction sector has been delivering this sort of outstanding performance for many years, but some
may be worried about the potential impact of Brexit negotiations. BCSA President Tim Outteridge explains in his
President’s Column why even a no-deal Brexit is in fact unlikely to cause any upset to the manufacture or availability of
structural steelwork in the UK.
Nick Barrett - Editor
For further information about steel construction and Steel for Life please visit
www.steelconstruction.info or www.steelforlife.org
Steel for Life is a wholly owned subsidiary of BCSA
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