As architectural design becomes increasingly more challenging and complex in nature, Buro Happold is continually developing new technology to ensure we deliver original, innovative solutions for the built environment. SMART (Software Modelling Analysis Research Technologies) is a team of analysts and researchers that helps provide simple, innovative solutions to complex engineering problems – in the areas of geometry, advanced analysis, and crowd flow modelling. The team’s expertise in numerical modelling has resulted in the development of several software tools that enable us to forecast potential problems at the early stages of the design process, making complex ideas easier to understand and delivering added client value.
SmartMove is our in-house software that allows us to predict, analyse and optimise the movement of thousands of people in complex scenarios. It helps optimise the design and layout of stairs, escalators and corridors in buildings. In educational establishments, pupil movement modelling enables the team to identify potential problems in terms of space provision and its effects on comfort, safety and management. By predicting activity patterns such as lunch breaks and class changeover congestion, we are able to reduce crowding and enhance the performance of the building in the long term.
In addition to enabling the safe flow of people throughout a space, we are able to predict the risk of fire conditions of skeletal steel and composite framed buildings by using Vulcan, our unique finite element fire modelling tool. Developed as a joint venture with Sheffield University, the software allows us to measure the performance of buildings under fire conditions, creating another important development in the area of people safety and risk management.
SmartForm, our in-house digital prototyping software, has been developed to create optimal solutions for complex curved geometries including gridshells, fabric domes and facades. Our structural experts are able to use SmartForm to analyse a 3D surface to map structural grids that are optimal not only to the performance of the building (e.g. a minimum surface) but also to issues such as buildability (e.g. flat panels), digital fabrication, transportability, etc.
Another specialist modelling tool is Tensyl, an in-house software development that helps us to determine the most effective form for fabric and cable-net structures. Constantly evolving to meet the new and diverse range of challenges that tomorrow’s buildings require, our SMART team is able to customise the software on a project-by-project basis. Tensyl is now available as a windows programme and boasts a 3D virtual reality-style interface that allows us to build, analyse and examine models.
The demands on a modern structure includes the need to resist loading due to explosive devices and impacting objects. We are experts in advanced dynamic analysis techniques that assess blast pressures and material behaviour, working closely with our security consultants and structural engineers to identify which areas need to be protected and to what degree.
Through cutting edge research the team is progressively extending its capability to new areas of expertise, supporting the two key areas of modern building industry’s needs: Intelligent Building Design and Intelligent Building Management.
