Record high undergraduates awards entries

Entries for both Corus’ 2006 Undergraduate Architect Awards (UGAA) and Corus’ 2006 Undergraduate Design Awards (UGDA) are running at very high levels.

More than 200 teams have registered to enter final designs for the 2006 UGAA, which challenges them to find a creative solution using steel that illustrates how architecture can communicate global environmental issues to individual communities. The UGAA provides a creative vehicle for undergraduates to learn about the use of steel in sustainable developments.

The UGDA aims to give structural engineering students an opportunity to display their design skills in an innovative and effective way. The awards will be made in two categories, Bridge design and Structural design.

The 2006 bridge design brief is to design a cost-effective and elegant structure to carry a single carriageway over a deep gorge while the structural design brief is to design a high level access building for a theme park roller coaster.

In both cases the competitors are expected to demonstrate sound engineering and structural design skills to produce elegant structural solutions. In addition they are expected to demonstrate individuality and an ability to communicate their ideas in a written report with calculations and drawings.

Corus Construction & Industrial General Manager Alan Todd said: “The increase in numbers reflects not only the growing interest in steel design, but also the desire of the undergraduates to test their classroom knowledge against complex real problems and generate credible overall solutions.”