More award successes for Buro Happold

26/07/2011 No comments

International engineering consultant adds to growing list of award wins

International multidisciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold has continued its winning streak with the announcement that the Royal Shakespeare Theatre has been shortlisted for yet another major prize; the Stirling prize.

The prize is considered the UK’s most prestigious design award; set up in 1996 it is named after the great British architect Sir James Stirling (1926 – 1992) and is only awarded to companies with UK based head offices, although the nominated buildings can be located in the UK or Europe. The Royal Shakespeare theatre is one of six shortlist projects from which the final winner will be revealed in October.

Also receiving recognition are the Copernicus Centre and new British Embassy in Warsaw; two of the consultancy’s European projects which have just been named Building of the Year by the Polish Union of Building Engineers and Technicians, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the General Inspector of Building Control Poland. The awards stand for great performance in the built environment achieved by partnership and cooperation between investors, designers and contractors.

This year’s Awards received 49 nominations from investors, developers and local governments. The buildings were assessed on the basis of structural solutions, quality of contractual works, health and safety as well as site management.

Financed through Warsaw city council’s ‘Infrastructure and Environment’ programme the Copernicus Science Centre is the biggest cultural project in the Masovia region, east central Poland. The mission of Poland’s most modern education and cultural centre is to inspire curiosity, support learning and make science more accessible and comprehensible to a wider audience by combining science with art. The centre will champion scientific discovery through science shows, workshops, laboratory classes and planetarium sessions together with more artistic endeavours such as concerts, performances and films to build a positive image of science and show the part it plays in today’s culture. Buro Happold provided multidisciplinary design services for the concept and scheme stage of the project, and structural engineering during the construction stage of the building. The architect was Polish firm RAr-2 Laboratorium Architektury.

Located in the prestigious embassy district of Warsaw the distinctive 4,300 sq m new British Embassy has been designed to feature a number of environmental measures to reduce energy consumption. It has been hailed a successful example of international partnership working. Since the building’s inception in January 2006 Buro Happold, has worked with both British and Polish designers and sub-contractors, delivering a range of services including structural and building services engineering, sustainability and alternative technologies, fire engineering design and risk assessment and acoustic consultancy. Tony Fretton Architects lead the design team.