Buro Happold’s work on Battersea Power Station wins Major Project Award for Sustainability 2023 

Buro Happold’s work on Battersea Power Station was key in seeing the iconic development take home the Royal Academy of Engineering’s prestigious award.  

Battersea Power Station is a world-renowned cultural landmark, deeply embedded in London’s engineering history. Any visitor to the city will be familiar with the huge icon which once generated a fifth of London’s power before it was de-commissioned in 1983.

As part of the large-scale restoration project, Buro Happold’s involvement in Battersea Power Station’s regeneration began in 1999. The team worked collaboratively with client Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) and architect Wilkinson Eyre between 2012 and 2023. We were engaged by the client to provide multi-disciplinary engineering services, including structural engineering, facade engineering and sustainability. 

Buro Happold’s work across Battersea Power Station has since been awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Major Project Award for Sustainability 2023. 

The award recognises a team that has played a critical role in a major engineering project that has had a substantial impact on society and sustainability and was awarded to Buro Happold due to the extensive work done, along with the client team, on the restoration of the Grade II listed building.  

Buro Happold led the Conservation Steering Group Committee with key stakeholders including Battersea Power Station’s Development Company (BPSDC), Historic England, the London Borough of Wandsworth and local community groups.

Together, we agreed that the four chimneys were beyond safe repair. They were dismantled to create new geometric replicas on site around strong internal steel frameworks. This required 600 tonnes –25,000 wheelbarrow loads – of concrete and 1,500 litres of paint using 1940s processes to ensure perfect replicas. 

The team’s contribution includes the brick replacement programme, reconstruction of the four iconic chimneys plus critical roles in schemes across the former 42-acre brownfield site. 

Sam Youdan, Project Lead for Battersea Power Station Phase 2 and Director at Buro Happold, said: “It has been a pleasure and a privilege working on the Power Station over the last 10 years, restoring and repurposing this icon for the next generation to use and enjoy.  

“I feel like we have been custodians of the building whilst we have brought it back to life. It was an amazingly emotional feeling to see the public enter the building for the first time at the opening and this award is a testament to the huge team involved that made this possible.” 

The award win was celebrated last night at the Academy’s awards dinner at The Londoner Hotel, Leicester Square. The project team – Justin Phillips (Project Principal), Franck Robert (Project Director), Wolf Mangelsdorf (Project Design Lead), Michael Brooks (Project Lead – New Build Superstructure), Sam Youdan (Project Lead – Restored Building Elements and Sub-structure) and Rachel Monteith (Project Lead – Ground Engineer) – collected the award on behalf of the 100-strong Buro Happold team involved in this project.  

Sustainability highlights 

• Re-use of the existing building structures – foundation, columns, beams, slabs led to saving more than 36,000 tons of C02e of legacy carbon, equivalent to about 20% of the overall total embodied carbon within the primary structural frame. 
• Over 1,750,000 replacement bricks were specially made by brickmakers in Gloucestershire and Shropshire that made the original bricks back in the 1930s and 1950s. 
• Refurbishment of external elevations masonry resulted in a saving of approximately 4000 tons of C02e of legacy carbon. 
• Buro Happold found a solution for instrumentation and monitoring to help protect the listed structure. 
• Raised the existing listed Thames River wall and identified climate resilient sustainable drainage solutions.