Patterns

the magazine of buro happold issue 15 autumn/Winter 2010

big art
The role of engineers in the worlds most ambitious artworks

profile
Phillip Blond: Mr Big Society turns to the future of cities

education
How the Middle East is transforming its childrens schools

resources
The worlds supply of oil is running out. What do we do now?

Buro Happold Comment

Buildings Environment and Infrastructure Consulting

From our very first project we have used our intricate knowledge of the industry to push the boundaries and his founding partners from an early stage in achieve more. It is this commitment that sets us apart, that adds value, that makes us award winning. We apply their careers. The instruction the same level of complex thought and specialist expertise to every project we work on. was simple: be

GavinThompson, CEO,BuroHappold

Our people define what we do. We invest in them in the same way that they invest in us; by providing broadly. Seek to understand the skills and opportunities to learn, to research, to develop. Our way of design is to draw on every talent, to consider every challenges of those get results. approach, to strive to progress; but to always use our proven methodologies to with whom we chose to

curious! Explore, think deeply, but also think work our clients, city governors, architects,

Becurious! Explore,think deeply,butalso thinkbroadly

BELFAST BATH LONDON MUNICH SAN FRANCISCO LOS ANGELES CHICAGO TORONTO BOSTON NEW YORK

Patterns has been the name of our technical group of areas that makes us unique; it is how We are at the forefront of low energy design: we deliver projects that have less carbon emissions and are more publication since the early days of the practice. we span these areas to create solutions which sustainable, we deliver projects that do not cost the earth. Our expert teams of engineers and consultants know We wanted to continue this tradition of sharing have lasting value. We should not be afraid to how to get the best out of the worlds precious land and resources to provide for a growing population. We are our deep technical knowledge, but also ask why is this so? but must do so from a firm leading the way in shaping a new future. want to share our curiosity within the built foundation of knowledge and appreciation. environment looking for patterns, if you In this edition of Patterns you will see us will, and exploring how the gaps that exist in lifting the curtain on our world, sharing those themes that have aroused our curiosity. From looking at the concept of Big Society and the role the built environment might play in it, to considering the great challenges facing society through peak oil, we have deliberately sought breadth. Looking not just at our technical skills but at how an individual experiences a new building, how art and the work of the structurcurrent thinking can be bridged to yield better al engineer fuse together, and indeed how art solutions to the future challenges that will face influences the lives of people outside their work society. at Buro Happold. Most of the current owners of Buro I hope you enjoy this small window on our Happold were coached by Ted Happold and world.
EDINBURGH GLASGOW LEEDS MANCHESTER BIRMINGHAM COPENHAGEN BERLIN WARSAW MOSCOW HONG KONG PUNE MUMBAI DUBAI ABU DHABI CAIRO KUWAIT JEDDAH RIYADH

After 35 years in the industry we have never lost our desire to be challenged, our passion for creativity and our better of the cat but it is the life blood builders, project managers and so on. It is not sense of adventure. We know that building a place with a future involves creating strong communities that of Buro Happold. enable economies to thrive, engaging with societys bigour deep enriching peoples lives. in any one or any issues and technical knowledge

uriosity may have ultimately got the

Patterns

Contents
Patterns is a twiceyearly publication produced by The Architects Journal, part of EMAP Inform, for Buro Happold. Magazine director: Tom Foulkes, global head of marketing, Buro Happold; magazine coordinator: Rachel Davies, senior marketing co-ordinator; editor: Ruth Slavid; design: Brad Yendle, Tom Carpenter; sub-editor: Alysoun Coles; CEO, EMAP Inform: Natasha Christie-Miller. Patterns is printed by Headley Brothers on FSC-certified paper. Buro Happold To contact anybody at Buro Happold email first name. last name@ BuroHappold. Cover image: Voussoir Cloud, Los Angeles

In association with

04 elcome W Patterns is about our enthusiasms, your projects, and our exciting collaborations 06 ews N Drive for better buildings, Rensselaer award, Trada chair, Green Building success P 08 rofile Radical thinker Phillip Blond on his philosophy, the Big City and what the future holds 12 ducation E Middle Eastern states are investing heavily in schools in a bid to boost home-grown talent 16 igpicture B A glimpse at what lies behind the classroom features that help inspire the pupils R 18 esources We are nearing the point where oil reserves start to decline. The implications are huge T 22 echnology From desert condensation and embodied carbon to sculptures and technical design tools 26 ngineeringart E Mike Cook adores big art and the engineering that makes it work. How do the two relate? A 30 dayinthelife Three men, three continents, one project, 24 hours: its all in a days work for the Zero-E team S 32 port Ireland fan Sean Mackey gives an insiders impassioned view of the Aviva Stadium S 36 ecretlives Zac Braun is a structural engineer by day, but hes also forging a career as an artist A 38 boutBuroHappold Vital information about this worldwide practice, and contacts for key sectors

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Welcome

Buro Happold is redrawing its engagement with its most exciting partners you. By Tom Foulkes

atterns, the name of this new magazine, may ring a few bells. It is a title that Buro Happold has used before. Buro Happold, founded by the late and great engineer Ted Happold in 1976, built its strength on imaginative and innovative structural engineering, much of it in collaboration with the worlds best architects. Projects such as the lightweight tented enclosure at Munich Aviary and the Al Marzook Centre for Islamic Medicine in Kuwait soon showed the quality of work that the practice could produce. When the first issue of Patterns was published in 1987, it reflected the company as it was then. Packed with information, and densely written, it was a celebration and explanation of some of the most interesting engineering going on in the world. Features included a construction analysis of unusual structures, a piece on developments in lightweight engineering, and an article on working in Iraq, which described two projects in detail, but explained that they were in abeyance, due to the war. This was written by Rod Macdonald, now chairman of the practice. Patterns was hugely informative, so much so that you felt that if you read it thoroughly, you could, whatever your back-

ground, probably have a good go at designing those buildings yourself. But in fact to fully appreciate it to really see the genius that was in the detail you needed a technical background. Buro Happold produced the magazine very much for its peers in the design community. A lot has changed since then. Ted Happold sadly died in 1996, but the practices strength and ingenuity in structural engineering has continued to grow, as evidenced by such projects as the Millennium Dome (now the O2) centre, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment centre, Kazakhstan and the Aviva Stadium in Ireland. The fact that the architects for these projects were, respectively, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Populous, shows the practice still works with the very best architects. But now Buro Happold is much more than just a structural engineer. It expanded first into other engineering disciplines, such as mechanical and electrical, facade, and fire engineering. Now the practice is involved in every aspect of the built environment, offering clients masterplanning, environmental impact assessment, and advice on land purchase and planning. Everything from the initial conceptual stages of a project, when the client may not even be sure that there is a project, through to specialist engineering

Patterns

services, is offered by Buro Happold. And the practice has also expanded geographically. When the first issue of Patterns was published, Buro Happold had four offices, in Bath, Kuwait, Riyadh and Hong Kong. Now our website lists 24, and with a business this size there are new offices opening all the time across the world. As the company has changed, so has the way in which it wants to communicate. It has much to say, and it wants to say it to a growing number of people. The new Patterns is not about specialists talking to specialists. Instead, it is much more outward looking. It has been devised to talk to people who are working with Buro Happold or who may wish to work with them in the future. These people are skilled and knowledgeable, and interested in the built environment, but they are not necessarily trained as engineers, and may not want to be bombarded with technical wonders. So this magazine is very much about what interests the fascinating, diverse and multi-talented people at Buro Happold, and what they would like to offer to the equally fascinating people with whom they work. This issue covers a huge range of issues, from peak oil to education in the Middle East; from a new approach to social science and how it may affect public services all over

the world to how art and engineering relate to one another and where the boundaries blur; but it also covers some of Buro Happolds newest thinking not quite in the same detail as the Patterns of old but if it interests you and you want to know more, then you can contact the people involved. If theres one thing Ive learnt while coordinating this magazine it is that the people at Buro Happold love to share their knowledge, and do it with such passion and energy that even if the acronyms and terminology go in one ear and out the other its still a great conversation and you will feel richer for it. And yet even covering such ground as it does, this new Patterns is still not a representative snapshot of the work of Buro Happold. Indeed it isnt even all about Buro Happold. But it does embody the practices spirit and enthusiasms. One of the greatest of those enthusiasms is for you, its existing and potential collaborators and clients, and it is in this spirit that Buro Happold is delighted to offer you the first of the new incarnation of Patterns.
Tom Foulkes is global head of marketing at BH. To contact Tom email tom.foulkes@burohappold.com

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News
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Macdonald heads industry drive for better buildings

Rod Macdonald, chairman of Buro Happold, has initiated a process which is leading to a UK parliamentary inquiry into the poor design and quality of the products available for the construction of our built environment. Macdonald, who also won the 2010 ACE Engineering Ambassador of the Year Award, is working with APDIG (the Associate Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group) and other bodies to find ways to produce cheaper, better quality buildings and improved components. Leading the first steering group meeting in July, he said the construction industry has fallen behind others in adapting to the modern world and appropriation of new technology, and that the industry should strive to deliver unique buildings from highly developed components that continually evolve and improve.

Recognition for NYs Rensselaer...

The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, has won an Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations. The building, which contains a 1,200-seat concert hall within a red cedar hull, was designed by architect Grimshaw with Buro Happold.

... and for Saudis ancient capital

Happold Consulting played a pivotal role in the addition in July this year of the first Saudi capital, Al-Turaif, to the Unesco register of World Heritage sites. Happold Consulting is working in the region on the Arririyadh Historic District Comprehensive Development Plan, which includes the area of the historic town, and encouraged its clients critical support for the application.

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Cooks first as he Eureka! Westbury chairs timber body is in the top 100
Mike Cook, Buro Happolds director of buildings, has been named chair of the UKs Timber Research and Development Association, the first chair in its 76 year history to come from outside the timber industry. The structural engineer said, Our goal is for timber to be the natural first choice material for construction and for TRADA to be at the centre of its development. BHs European MD Paul Westbury is in The Times Eureka 100 guide to the most important contemporary figures in British science. His entry reads: The roof structure of the Millennium Dome weighs less than the air held within [it]. The Emirates Stadium houses 100 flights of stairsWhat do the award-winning buildings have in common? Paul Westbury, the structural engineer who led their design teams.

New Mumbai office opens

This image Rensselaers award-winning arts centre Below Al-Turaif, Saudis historic capital

Green team builds in New Orleans

The RAMPed UP team, a collaboration between Buro Happold and Rogers Marvel Architects, is one of four national finalists in the US Green Building Councils Natural Talent Design Competition. The team comprises young professionals Daniel Bersohn, Tim Hanna, Rossella Nicolin, Lauren Page and Irmak Turan from the BH New York office, and four from RMA. They were asked to design an 800ft2 LEED Platinum home in New Orleans that is affordable ($100k), hurricane and flood resistant, and handicap accessible. The finalists homes will be graded on energy efficiency, water reuse and indoor air quality, and be built in New Orleans. The grand prize will be awarded at Greenbuild 2011 next October.
For the latest BH news go to www.burohappold.com or twitter.com/burohappold

Buro Happold opened its first permanent office in Mumbai, India, on 1 November. It is at No. 201, Delta Building, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai 400 076.

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Profile
Phillip Blond is translating his Big Society to the Big City. He talked to Ruth Slavid.
it has had frequent revolutions in political thinking. Since World War II we have had the welfare state, Thatcherism, new Labour and now the Big Society. It is just the latest idea, Blond says, but he is convinced it is the most important. The state and the market have failed, and we need a new mechanism to deliver public policy, that of civic association. He says, Civic society can create a market and a state that works better for people. We want to back the excluded middle the life on our streets and in our neighbourhoods, as the site and source of power and prosperity. A society of civic association is better able to express individual and collective needs. This needs an enabling physical environment as well as the political structures. Blond is very taken with the work of Canadian writer Doug Saunders, whose book Arrival Cities looked at the areas of cities where immigrants from overseas or the country pitch up. There are some poor areas of the city where poverty traps you, Blond says, and some where it integrates you into society and accelerates you out of disadvantage. This is particularly true in rapidly urbanising countries. Few have thought about urban transition zones, he says, and what is required for them to be successful. Looking at how cities can succeed is one of the aims of a project Blond is undertaking with Buro Happold, to produce a report next year called Big City. It will look at cities that work and those that dont, and attempt to explain how both existing and new cities can become fit for a big society. Blond will not say which cities he sees as successful, but he has a clear idea of which buildings work.

oliticians are so busy with tactics they often have little time to spend on strategy, so it is not unusual to see them turn to others to do their thinking for them. When David Cameron talked about the Big Society, both before and after his election as UK prime minister in May this year, he was adopting ideas from philosopher, theologian and political thinker Phillip Blond. And when Blond launched his think tank ResPublica in November 2009, Cameron spoke at the opening. But Blond insists he is politically independent. He says his ideas, though grounded in his experience in England, have a wider application. Britain is the home of policy innovation and radicalism, he says. Europe often tracks Britain on policy. Britain is important because, he believes,

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There are some areas of the city where poverty traps you and some where it integrates you
He praises the Great Court at the British Museum, being particularly keen on what some might see as a failure in that it interrupts direct circulation through the building. I like the disruption that causes the flow to go back on itself, creating a social space, he says. In Britain, he adds, we generally think of spaces as something that we walk through, but in classical European cities people like to parade in front of one another. They are not segmented by age or occupation. Most British towns are age and time restricted. After a certain time of day too many of them are populated solely by alcohol and bad food. Blond likes hybrid buildings that join old and new, like Tate Modern, and the Bund in Shanghai, with its mix of older buildings and new arrivals. He is less enamoured of many entirely new buildings. They all look the same in so many ways, he says. There is nothing symbolic or metaphysical about them. He has clear ideas about housing, praising Penoyre & Prasads scheme for north Londons orthodox Jewish community. Providing accommodation for three generations, it reflects the way we need to go. And he loves Erno Goldfingers very beautiful Trellick Tower in London, which went from vilified to adored, through being understood soft culture. Blond describes cities as the hardware that has to accommodate the software of everyday civic life. It is Buro Happolds expertise in providing that hardware makes him keen to work with the practice. It is one of the most innovative and profound world firms, he says. It goes from building the entirely new in China to renovating broken parts of the city in Detroit. We are very interested in working with them because of the importance of what they do and a strong parallel between our approaches. We have much to learn from them. If there seems a mismatch between the global reach of Buro Happold and this newly established think tank in central London, that may not last long. Already ResPublica has gone from just two people to 20 full time staff, plus 10 to 15 part-timers. Blond has been approached to set up offices in London, Berlin and Paris, and an organisation wants to endow an office in Washington. He has strong links in eastern Europe, and his was the only think tank on a recent government mission to China. The rather optimistic vision I have is to become the first global bespoke policy think tank, he says. We want to be an international platform for best practice. Blonds path to this point started with a

BH is one of the most innovative and profound world firms. We have much to learn from them
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degree in politics and philosophy because I thought that none of the problems of politics could be solved without philosophy. After his MA, a spell in local government and a fellowship in New York, he studied for a PhD in theology because I thought that none of the problems of philosophy could be solved without theology. The ultimate questions are ineluctably tied into some theological account of the nature of existence. Why is there something rather than nothing, why is there a good? These are fundamental questions. His PhD was on the beatific vision of St Thomas Aquinas and he hopes one day to turn the 200,000 words still waiting to be written up into a book on vision and belief. I am very interested in art and sculpture and in the metaphysics of vision, he says. But at the moment this will have to wait.

Even a man of Blonds undoubted energy is fully occupied with a growing think tank, a not insubstantial media career, with inspiring the UK government and playing a growing role on the world stage. Asked why he has done so well so fast, he says, Sometimes the concepts you have capture the moment; its a combination of good ideas, strong vision and a lot of luck. We are a small organisation but have increasing national and international traction. Our ideas are good, and we have some brilliant people. Its a very exciting organisation to run.
Tofindoutmoreaboutourconsulting servicesgotowww.happoldconsulting. com.TofindoutmoreaboutResPublica gotowww.respublica.org.uk/

Phillip Blonds CV 1966 Born in Liverpool 1984-87 BA in politics and philosophy, University of Hull 1987-1988 MA in continental philosophy, University of Warwick 1988-1991 Policy officer in finance department, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London 1991-1995 Prize fellowship in philosophy, New School for Social Research, New York 1996-1999 PhD in theology, University of Cambridge 1999-2000 Lecturer in theology, Exeter University 2000-2009 Senior lecturer in theology, University of Cumbria January 09 Joins Demos think tank November 09 Sets up ResPublica 2010 Publishes with Faber and Faber Red Tory How left and right have broken Britain and how we can fix it.

Therather optimistic visionIhave istobecome thefirstglobal bespokepolicy thinktank

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Education
Its the states of the Middle East that are really building schools for the future. By Alice Knight.
hen Tony Blair was campaigning to become British prime minister in 1996, he famously made the phrase education, education, education one of his mantras. It was one on which his government followed through, although not without criticism. Its biggest project was Building Schools for the Future, which aimed to transform every secondary school in the country. Austerity and a new government have ended that programme. But the countries of the Middle East, acting independently but with much synergy, have taken up the baton and are investing heavily in their education. The Middle East is a growing market for education, says Mukund Patel, business development director for contractor Sammon Group UK, the largest provider of educa-

tion buildings in the Abu Dhabi region. The population is expanding, and they want to modernise education. These countries realise that if they want to compete in a global market and not rely on importing talent, they need appropriate education. Their large expatriate populations mean they have a lot of private schools offering international curricula. Less than 20% of the UAEs 6 million population are Emirati nationals, and Saudi Arabia has 26% expatriates. Schools exist, and are being built, that offer British, American and Indian curricula, and also the International Baccalaureate. A 2008 World Bank report found the quality of education in Arab states falling behind other parts of the world and needed urgent reform. The lowest literacy rates were in Djibouti, Yemen, Morocco and Iraq. Although considerable investment since the 1980s has improved standards, this came from a very low base. Students were also tested by the report and their performance was found to be below those in East Asia, with even wealthy countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia scoring below the international average. The report highlighted growing dependence on private education, which it says will contribute to inequality. In 2003, when the study was done, 71.8 per cent of primary education in Qatar came from private schools. In Lebanon the figure was 64.7 per cent and

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LeftChildrenatthe Sultansschool, Muscat,Oman FarleftGEMSDubai ModernHighSchool wasbuiltbySammon Contractinginjust eightmonths

in UAE 57.6 per cent, and the figures had generally risen in the last 10-20 years. While governments are investing in staterun schools, cash is also being put into private schools as many of these are not up to scratch either. To complicate matters, many countries also invest in private schools, though few go as far as Qatar which is nearing the end of a programme called Education for a New Era, the primary purpose of which is to turn all state schools into independent schools. Demand for schools can be huge. Sammon Groups Patel was previously based in the UAE and says, There is a large demand for good and affordable schools. Some have a waiting list of 600. The number of students in private education in Abu Dhabi, of whom 69 per cent are expatriates, rises by 5 per cent a year. And the facilities are not necessarily good. Abu Dhabi has 185 private schools and inspections for Abu Dhabi Education Council recently found 68 per cent were unsatisfactory in terms of efficiency and teaching standards. In a speech earlier this year, Dr Rafik Makki, executive director at Adec, the office of planning and strategic affairs, said, We found that nine out of 10 of our students are not ready for higher education, and require a bridging programme. So new schools, better facilities and a new approach to education are needed. For instance, two primary schools in Abu Dhabi are to start using a Finnish approach to education in an attempt to raise

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Below Brislington Enterprise College in England is the kind of facility many Middle East schools would like

standards Finland is acknowledged to have the best-educated population in the world. In terms of physical fabric, six schools recently had to be closed because of health and safety risks. The government has also made physical education mandatory, in response to concerns about childhood obesity. In July, Musanada, the organisation set up to deliver projects for the Abu Dhabi government (the name means to support) announced a plan to build 15 new schools. This is just the first phase in a 10-year plan to build 100 schools in total. In September Abu

class and interest in a US curriculum. Patel says that schools built for expatriates are very like those of the academy programme in the UK. They typically have imposing entrances and impressive atria. Every curriculum, he says, makes different demands on a building. The International Baccalaureate has a lot of project-based work, which needs large spaces. American schools emphasise sports (their facilities are incredible); Indian ones tend to classes of 30 rather than 24, and a more traditional academic curriculum. In general though, the facilities in the UKs

In Saudi Arabia, SR4.2 billion was allocated to improve the educational environment
Dhabi enshrined in law a scheme called Estidama (the Arabic name for sustainability), a green rating scheme which Buro Happold helped to set up and which is similar to the American LEED or UK BREEAM. All buildings in certain categories must comply and the aim is to reduce energy use by 40 per cent, and water use by 26 per cent. It rates buildings in terms of pearls and the new schools will have to achieve three pearls from a potential five. The government is also undertaking a major refurbishment programme which involves everything from increasing the size and number of classrooms to ensuring there are adequate facilities for pupils with disabilities. In terms of private schools, Patel says, Private operators are trying to meet demand. They are struggling to find funding for major projects but pressure is acute in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Egypt, with its growing middle academy schools, such as design technology and food technology areas, will be increasingly wanted in the expatriate schools. In Kuwait, the government is trying to foster e-learning, which will have a big impact on the fabric of schools. Saudi Arabia is another country spending a lot on schools. In 2009 King Abdullah announced a major investment in education, saying, We need more efforts to strengthen Saudi Arabias position by building brains and investing in humans. He pledged SR9 billion for educational development, and set aside money specifically to build new schools. A total of SR4.2 billion (US$1.1 billion) was allocated to improve the educational environment. The country has said it wants to follow models from Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China, New Zealand, Finland, France, Ireland, Britain, Canada and the US. There is further evidence of this commitment. Of 1,018 development and construc-

tion contracts announced in July by Saudi Arabias Ministry of Finance, worth a total of $16 billion, 287 were for the establishment of schools, colleges and training centres. Robert Okpala, a Buro Happold group director based in Dubai, says that when designing sustainable schools in the Middle East, water usage is as important as energy. And while air conditioning may be unavoidable in summer, there is increasing interest in opening the building for natural ventilation in winter. Theres concern about air quality, and an interest in using outdoor spaces with shading. He sees particular opportunities in Qatar, which is spending a lot on its schools. For instance, it recently let two contracts for seven schools, due to complete in 2012, at a total value of $100 million. With its ambition to improve both the delivery of its education and the buildings in which this is delivered, the Middle East is an exciting area in which to work.
Buro Happolds education sector leader is Mike Entwisle. To contact Mike email mike.entwisle@burohappold.com
Buro Happold/Hufton & Crow

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BelowleftAlFaisal UniversityinRiyadh, SaudiArabiais underconstruction Belowright Masterplanfor KuwaitUniversity Al-Shadadiyah CentreAlFaisal UniversityinRiyadh, SaudiArabia BottomConstruction workatPrincess NouraUniversity forWomenin SaudiArabia

Highereducation TheMiddleEastisalsoactiveat tertiarylevel,attractingstudents andeducationalistsfromoverseas tocreatethebestpossiblelearning environment.Thehighest-profile operationistheMasdarInstituteof ScienceandTechnology,whichwill openin2011,inthenewsustainable cityofMasdarinAbuDhabi.Ithas stronglinkswithMassachusetts InstituteofTechnologyintheUS. Meanwhile,inDubai,BuroHappolddevelopedsystemsforKings Collegetoreduceenergy,usewater moreefficientlyandimproveusabilityforoccupants. DubaiInternationalAcademicCityishometooutpostsof28institutions,including theUKsUniversityofExeter,the UniversityofPhoenixinAmerica, IndiasMahatmaGandhiUniversity andtheUniversityofWoollogongin Australia.Intotalthereare16,000 studentsandithasfurtherplansfor expansion.DubaisKnowledgeVillagehasaparticularemphasison traininginhumanresources,while theemirateRasAlKhaimahhas createdafreezonetoattractaround fiveUKandAmericanuniversities tosetupcampuses. InRiyadh,SaudiArabiaisbuilding thePrincessNouraBintAbdul- RahmanUniversityforWomen,at acostof$11.5billion.Whenitis completein2012,theuniversitywill caterfor26,000students,andwill includea700-bedteachinghospital. EvenmoreambitiousisQatars EducationCity,masterplannedby JapansArataIsozaki,andwitha centrallibrarybyRemKoolhaas, whichopensin2012.Itwillhavethe MiddleEastslargestconvention centre,designedbyYamasakiArchitects,andisduetoopenthisyear.

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Bigpicture CastleRockSchool BuroHappoldfinishedworkon CastleRockSchool,Leicester, in2006,aspartoftheBuilding SchoolsfortheFutureprogramme. Itwasdesignedtoprovideoutstandingteachingfacilitieswitha strongfocusonsustainability. OfstedsJune2008reportpraises CastleRockasagoodschool withsomeoutstandingfeatures. 01. Lots of natural light and fresh air help improve pupils concentration. 02.Solar treated glass and controllable blinds boost comfort by reducing the impact of the sun. 03. Glulam timber frame structure used one-sixth the energy of similar strength steel, and saved on budget. 04. Passive infra red controls turn off lights in empty classrooms, helping cut electricity costs by up to 25%. 05.Sustainable features, including rainwater harvesting and solar roof panels, have won the school a BREEAM Very Good rating. 06.The windows very low U-value of 1.54W/m2K keeps the classroom warm in winter while the high performing filters help it stay cool in summer. 07.Secure cycle storage for 10% of pupils means parents need not clock-watch at going home time. 08.The average pencil can write 45,000 words. For this pupil its writing a story that will get a B+.

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Resources
As peak oil looms and reserves fall back we need to nd a new way to live. By Alasdair Young.
2% demand growth 1% demand growth Zero demand growth

Projected peak of world oil production (million b/d)

SOURCE: DOUGLAS-WESTWOOD LTD

elatively recently the buzz words climate change and carbon footprint have been joined by peak oil as governments and energy suppliers grapple with the realisation that our supplies of the fuel that has driven so much of our development are not in nite and that the end is in sight. is will a ect every aspect of our lives including the built environment. What is peak oil? Peak oil is the point at which the rate of oil extraction reaches a peak and starts to decline. It is an area shrouded in controversy, and the methods of calculating when peak oil will occur are complex and open to debate. Some think we have already reached that point, others that it is yet to come. A study by the UK Energy Research Centre in October 2009, which brought together the ndings of more than 500 pieces of independent research, concluded that peak oil would occur sometime between 2009 and 2030. But whether it has already happened or is still some time o , decline is inevitable. While the experts argue about the details, the rest of us need to face reality. Once the peak has passed, even though there will still be a lot of oil available, the world will be very di erent. Oil will rapidly become scarce (for which the synonyms are expensive and unreliable) because, without drastic changes,

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demand is set to keep growing. In 2009, the International Energy Agencys (IEA) Reference Scenario projected an increase in global oil demand of nearly 40% between 2005 and 2030 (an average annual growth rate of 1.3%). is took account of measures adopted by governments up to mid 2006, and assumed that there was no further change in behaviour. According to BP, world primary energy consumption including oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, and hydroelectricity fell by 1.1% in 2009, the rst decline since 1982. is was largely attributable to the recession, and cannot be expected to continue. As oil is going to be extracted from increasingly di cult and therefore expensive sources, we can expect to start feeling the e ects of shortage earlier than the more optimistic gures may suggest. And the resources are not spread evenly around the world. As we pass peak oil, we will all depend increasingly on oil from the Middle East. e International Energy Agency has warned that an oil crunch could happen as early as 2013. Once oil reserves start to decline, we will enter an unstable period. Rather than simply rising slowly prices will uctuate, and so will availability, bringing enormous political pressures to bear. Clearly, the better equipped the worlds economies are to replace oil, the more stable the situation will be. ere is another fossil fuel available. Coal

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is abundant, particularly in Russia and China. is would be an easy solution if there were no such thing as climate change. But unfortunately, coals greenhouse gas emissions are far worse than those of oil, so such a switch would be disastrous. At a BH partners meeting in 2005, Jeremy Leggett, founder of independent solar company Solarcentury, warned, Renewable energy and fuel use, alongside energy e ciency, will increasingly substitute for oil and gas, growing explosively whatever happens. However, amid the ruins of the old energy modus operandi many will try to turn to coal. is means that the extent to which renewable energy grows explosively instead of coal expansion, rather than alongside it, will determine whether economies and ecosystems can survive the global warming threat. Energy supply after peak oil? At the end of 2009, two American research scientists, Mark Z Jacobson and Mark A Delucchi, published a paper in Scienti c American, arguing that the world could meet all its energy needs by 2030 from renewable energy. ey deliberately limited themselves to technologies that are already available, rather than relying on new, as yet undiscovered, technologies. ey work on the assumption that there is a current maximum annual power demand of 12.5 trillion TW, and the US Energy Information Administration estimates that this will grow to 16.5 TW by 2030, taking into account rising population and living standards. is is based on the assumption that domestic cooking and most heating will become electric, and that vehicles will be powered by rechargeable fuel cells. Renewable energy is more e cient than fossil fuels, so demand would be only 11.5 TW.

The growing gap Oil discovery and production

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060
SOURCE: PEAKOIL.IE

Past discovery Future discovery Production Past discovery based on ExxonMobil (2002) Revisions backdated

Far more than this, they say, is readily accessible, with water potentially able to supply 2 TW, wind 40-85 TW and solar 580 TW. ey envisage the worlds energy being produced in the following way: Water 1.1 TW (9% of supply) 490,000 tidal turbines 1 MW <1% in place 5,350 geothermal plants 100 MW 2% in place 900 hydroelectric plants 1,300 MW 70% in place 3,800,000 wind turbines 5 MW 1% in place 720,000 wave converters 0.75 MW <1% in place 1,700,000,000 rooftop photovoltaic power plants .0003 MW <1% in place 49,000 concentrated solar power plants 300 MW <1% in place 40,00 00 photovoltaic power plants 300MW <1% in place

Limitations would come from potential shortages of some specialist materials, most particularly lithium for fuel cell batteries. But in general terms, the authors calculate not only that this power could be produced, but that it would be available at costs equivalent to the price of the fossil fuels we use today. is may be a very optimistic forecast. But major resources are certainly available. e UK, for instance, is very well placed to generate electricity from wind power. A 2005 report by the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford found that the UK had abundant reliable wind that blew at the right time. ere is more wind in winter, when electricity demand is higher, and it blows more strongly during the day than at night. In winter, what the authors de ne as low wind speeds would a ect the whole country only occasionally there would only be one hour in every ve years when they would cover 90% of it.

Patterns

Large-scale solar power also has great potential in sunny parts of the world. Large plants have already been built, such as the Olmedilla photovoltaic plant in Spain, generating 60MW. Even more interesting are concentrated solar power plants, some of which have been built in southern Europe, the US and Africa. ese use either mirrors to focus the suns energy on a single point, or energy generated by the upward movement of hot air. Deserts are particularly appropriate places for solar power plants, with uninterrupted sunshine and relatively low land values. e wedges solution In 2004, two researchers at Princeton University, S Pacala and R Socolow, came up with the concept of wedges to reduce the growth in CO2 emissions. As the graph shows, each wedge represented an activity that could reduce carbon emissions and so help to stabilise the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere over the next 50 years. ey calculated that there were 15 technologies or actions that could do this. ese ranged from making buildings more e cient, to capturing CO2 at plants converting coal to synthetic fuels, to the use of conservation tillage in agriculture. e pair proposed that it should be possible to reach the target through seven wedges by scaling up our emissions-reducing e orts in seven of the 15 activities. Deliberately, none of the techniques they proposed were radical. e point was that they had done the sums and believed their plan was achievable but only through a combination of approaches, rather than a single one. Given how often ambitions fall short of targets, this approach could be roughly translated as we need to try hard at everything we can. ere are some obvious ways in which this will a ect the built environment. Most coun-

tries are committing to improve the environmental performance of their buildings. In the UK, for instance, there is a commitment to make all new domestic buildings zero-carbon by 2016, and all non-domestic buildings by 2019. At the same time the UK, like most other developed countries, is having to work out how to bring its vast stock of existing buildings up to current standards or better.

to having opening windows will be either if they prove not to be the most e ective way of controlling the environment, or if wind is a problem most likely in tall buildings. Transport will drive many of the changes. Electrically-driven vehicles will have a smaller range than existing petrol- red vehicles. Travel will be expensive, and have to be considered carefully. Both sea and air transport are

The International Energy Agency has warned that an oil crunch could happen as early as 2013
As buildings start to reduce the fossil fuel that they consume in operation, so the embodied energy within them will gain importance. So attention will move to the recycling and recyclability of materials. e bigger question is how these developments will a ect our cities. In some ways this could be very positive. For instance, if all transport is electrically driven, it will be much quieter and fume free. So the only inhibition
Fossil fuel emissions (GtC/y)
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 Stabilization triangle Continued fossil fuel emissions

pro igate consumers of fossil fuels. is will drive us towards more local production and consumption, for both environmental and commercial reasons. Making (and growing) things locally will be far more attractive, with everything from agriculture in cities to a resurgence of manufacturing a possibility. Adam Poole, an analyst with Buro Happold, says, People will spend more time where they live. Will you have shared facilities for people to come together and work in one place for other people? e o ce as we know it, already shrinking as more and more people hot-desk, may become smaller yet. If commuting drops right o , the whole pattern of the use of our cities will change. And as planning and development take a long time, this is an issue, like peak oil, that we should be addressing not some time in the future, but today.
Alasdair Young leads BHs natural resources team and is based in London. To contact Alasdair email alasdair.young@burohappold.com

SOURCE: WWW.SUNHOMEDESIGN.WORDPRESS.COM

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Technology
BH at work: condensation in the desert, embodied carbon, a design tool, and a sculptural net.
less steel. One difference between them is their thermal emissivity the amount of radiant energy a surface emits, compared to an ideal black body. Thermal emissivity is high in anodised aluminium; low in stainless steel. Maddocks task was to see what effect the different materials would have, by setting up an experiment on site. He explains: We had to think about the dome as a stack of giant sieves: a huge fractal-like object that might condense thousands of litres of vapour from the pregnant air at any one time. Not to mention the capture of all that airborne salt splashed up by the caustic Gulf Sea. The quantities are surprising. Some 2g of sea salt will fall every day onto every square metre of exposed horizontal area. Over the 250,00m2 that would equal half a ton of salt per night. At night, anodised aluminium will cool more rapidly than stainless steel, because it will emit more radiant heat into the clear, thin desert atmosphere. The difference in night time radiative cooling rates is pronounced in the order of 100 W/m for anodised aluminium and 30 W/m for stainless steel under clear skies. And the more the dome cools, the more likely it is that it will reach the dew point temperature, at which point it turns into a mega condenser, converting surplus energy at the surface into dew. Maddocks explains, The experiment confirmed the condensation rates for the aluminium that we had predicted earlier, but hadnt announced. We couldnt quite believe the figure of a quarter litre of condensate for every square metre on a winter night that is, until we saw it with our own eyes. And the figure for the low-e stainless steel, predicted and measured? A tenth of that, if any at all. On the first night, Maddocks had another surprise, when there was a sea fog, which typically happens 38 times in the year. It licked every square metre of surface area with the same quarter litre of condensate, regardless of emissivity or orientation, he explained. All 250,000 m of the dome system will engage to produce 60m3 of condensate! We want to avoid the 6m3 trickle of condensate produced by radiative cooling, because it will transport salts and other corrosives from above into nooks and crannies in the lower layers. However, we cant avoid being drenched by a 60m3 sea-fog deluge. Dealing with that is down to detailing and concourse drainage. Ironically, we think that, unlike the radiative-cooling-induced trickle, the sea-fog-induced deluge will create a useful self-cleaning effect (although we didnt get a chance to investigate this empirically).
All enquiries about the Louvre Abu Dhabi should go to Tim Page, project director in Bath. To contact Tim email tim.page@burohappold.com

here is some fascinating work going on in the Buro Happold offices around the world, developing new technologies and solutions. Here is just a small sample. How not to get steamed up in Abu Dhabi The choice of materials for the shimmering perforated dome of Jean Nouvels Abu Dhabi Louvre, due for completion in 2014, might seem a simple matter of appearance and costs. But research by Ian Maddocks, a facades engineer in the London office of Buro Happold, revealed another important factor condensation in the vapour-laden desert air. Nowhere else on earth is so much radiant heat energy absorbed by the day and released at night. The clear sky above the Arabian peninsula admits large streams of solar energy, which is absorbed on the ground and converted into heat. Some energy is lost to the surroundings, and some is radiated back into space as electromagnetic waves invisible to the eye. The rate of radiative cooling at night can be surprisingly high in the order of 100W/m2. This is enough to cool exposed surfaces several degrees below ambient temperature (the Persians famously developed an ice-making technique using this natural effect). Condensation soon forms on these cooled surfaces if the air is humid. The two favoured materials for the domes cladding were anodised aluminium and stain-

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RightThecomplex traceryofthe domemakesit particularlyprone tocondensation BelowJeanNouvel designedthe LouvreAbuDhabi withadomethatis reminiscentofArabic geometricforms

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Technology

Analysis of the net

Knitting patterns Knots and knitting are not the most common concerns of engineering practices, but for Buro Happolds New York office they formed the basis of one of the firms most fascinating and demanding projects. The practice worked with the artist Janet Echelman to create a hanging sculpture that forms the centrepiece of a new civic space in Phoenix, Arizona. Called Her Secret is Patience, and inspired by the pattern of desert winds, the installation is a huge, conical, multi-coloured mesh structure, suspended from a metal ring slung between three slender steel posts, each 75cm in diameter. A full 29m across at its widest point, and about 30m high at its highest, it comes down to just under 12m above the ground, and sways about in the breeze, like some enormous translucent creature in the sea. The artists conception is magnificent but it couldnt have happened without the engineers who helped to make it. Echelman has worked with meshes before, but this was her largest and most ambitious commission yet. As with some of her earlier projects, she collaborated with the New York architect Philip Speranza to develop the form, and Buro Happolds involvement at this stage was to advise on what was physically possible. Eventually they settled on a kind of inverted cone, supported on two suspended rings of very different sizes. Ian Keough, an associate with Buro Happold who originally trained as an architect, explains how the practice turned the concept into something that could be produced. We had to write a fair amount of software, he says. We called it Netbuilder. We took the original models and broke them down into their constituent pieces and put them into Tensyl, a piece of Buro Happold

software that is usually used for the design of membrane structures. This examined how the structure would hang under its own weight and made sure it would not be over-stressed. Next the software had to create a looming diagram. The structure was to be made on a giant loom that is usually used to make fishing nets, and the curved profile would be created by the number and spacing of the knots on each line on the loom. The installation has two sculptural nets, an inner and an outer, the latter of a much wider weave and less immediately visible. The inner net was knotted automatically on the loom, although some manufacturing techniques had to be tweaked. Normally the manufacturer will tension the completed net by pulling it to ensure the polyester knots cannot slip, and will then boil it to fix it. Here the tensions were uneven, so the knots had to be tensioned by hand, and the net could not be boiled in the usual way because the colours would have run. So instead, a fine polyurethane coating was applied to hold the knots in place. The sculptural net had to be knotted entirely by hand. A company called Diamond Knots undertook the task. They are real pros, says Keough. It only took them a couple of days to knot the whole net. Once both nets were knotted and had been fixed together and then attached to the rings, all that remained was to hoist them in the air and leave them to float about in the breeze. The sculpture, despite its enormous size, looks as insubstantial as the artist intended. There is little hint of the hard work and clever calculations that went into making it.
Ian Keough is an associate based in Los Angeles. To contact Ian email ian.keough@burohappold.com

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Below Janet Echelmans Her Secret is Patience, engineered by Buro Happold

Embodied carbon of structural frame

9% 25% Steel frame Concrete frame Floor slabs Sub structure 61%

North overhang depth versus % glass

30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

5%

Measuring embodied carbon As buildings become greener in operation the embodied carbon in their physical fabric becomes increasingly important. Conventional thinking has been that the amount of energy a building consumes in its lifetime, and hence the carbon dioxide generated if that energy comes from conventional sources, far outweighs the CO2 embedded through the production, manufacture, transport and assembly of the components. But as the amount of CO2 produced in a buildings operation falls, the importance of the structures embodied energy increases. Now Ed Sauven, a structural engineer in the Buro Happold London o ce, has developed a structures carbon tool that helps engineers to make a rapid assessment of the embodied carbon in di erent structural options. e company has now embedded this tool in its BIM (building information modelling) software, so that the potential embodied carbon in the structure can be considered alongside other elements as the design develops. What next? Buro Happold is in the early stages of developing a technique called whole-life carbon management, which would bring together whole-life models of a building, along with a version of the structures carbon tool. is should allow people to make an informed judgement about not only the greenest option for a building, but also to assess just how green that option as a whole will be. We are moving beyond the stage in which good intentions are enough in sustainable design. We need hard facts, and this work aims to produce them.
Ed Sauven is a structural engineer based in London. To contact Ed email edward. sauven@burohappold.com

Taking the HEAT out of design Sophisticated methods of calculating the behaviour of buildings are suitable for the later stages of a design, but what is needed early on is quick and reasonably accurate responses to design changes. is is what Alan Shepherd, who runs the San Francisco o ce of Buro Happold, has come up with. You need something you can use in real time to make decisions, the developer of HEAT (holistic energy analysis tool) explains. It concentrates on orientation, plan depth and oor-to-ceiling height which Shepherd says are the most important factors in the thermal behaviour of a building. And it ignores detailed geometry and thermal mass, which complicate the calculations, and have a lesser e ect. Shepherd has based his tool on Cambridge Universitys LT method, which divides buildings into passive and non-passive zones. Passive zones have access to natural light and can be naturally ventilated, while non-passive interior spaces need mechanical ventilation. Because it is quick and easy to use, HEAT allows the design team to look at alternative scenarios and gauge the size of the e ects of making changes. It produces simple outputs in Excel spreadsheets and by batch running multiple iterations of the model it can produce graphs showing the best orientation, percentage of glass, plan depth and depth of shading overhang. By the time that the design reaches the stage at which the more sophisticated, and time-consuming, analyses are needed to produce accurate results, the whole team should be con dent they have the best solution.
Alan Shepherd is an associate principal based in San Francisco. To contact Alan email alan.shepherd@burohappold.com

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the bean by atelier One and Chris hOrnzee-JOnes. phOtO: View piCtures

Engineering art

When it comes to big art are we facilitators, inhibitors or part of the project, asks Mike Cook?
have a passion for big art. Art you can walk round; walk through; even sit in. Not buildings or bridges that have a brief to fulfil, but art its sole purpose to draw out human response and add to our experience of what the world is. When I inhabit a Serra, walk round a Kapoor or sit in a Turrell I thank the unknown minds and hands needed to achieve this object. And then I start to wonder about the engineering of art that interplay of artistic imagination with technical realisation. Sometimes, though not often enough, I have found myself talking to artists about a new project, perhaps a competition for a work or a new commission that needs to be developed. And I realise that Im always wondering about my role. As an engineer I can have big impact or small impact no impact isnt an option. But what is the right balance? Big impact happens where the artist is stepping into the unknown. Engineering experience can help guide the artist away from the unrealisable towards the achievable. It may be about materials that wont do what they want, or ideas that would end up in a ditch because people might die. Engineering is about how to make things taking materials and building up an object from them with the right form, the right colour and a chance to last a lifetime. And the experienced engineer should understand the cost and affordability of things where that is an issue. Size does matter in this case. Big works are usually harder to make and they can engage people in potentially dangerous ways. There may be manufacturing complexity in small works but as you get bigger the construction logistics start to become important. So when working small the unique hand of the artist is likely to be more easily engaged and apparent. In the relationship between architect and engineer there is, I like to think, a clear common goal that of the functioning of the building for the benefit of the client. This helps to stabilise and ground the dialogue between engineer and architect and legitimise the influence that technology can and must have. In the relationship with the artist such common ground is less apparent and the works purpose is legitimately more personal to the artist. For me the question is do constraints hinder or help? Do they simply take away the freedom of the artist to express what he wants, or do they become an essential part of the work? And how much influence should technology have on the artistic creation? How much should concerns about what can be done influence the creative urge to do something different? Shouldnt art force us into new territory, force us to find new ways to make things; new ways to make things safe; new ways to experience life? So might not an

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Previous page Anish Kapoors Cloud Gate in Chicago, popularly known as The Bean Below Voussoir Cloud was a gallery installation, produced by a collaboration between Buro Happold and Iwamoto Scott

engineer, technologist or fabricator be in grave danger of imposing constraints; no longer a facilitator but an inhibitor? This is the challenge to the engineering of art: always to search for the technological route forward, always to encourage a new path; to allow technology to be a facilitator and to find new solutions where none yet exist. But there is another way too, where the technology is the art or at least forms a fundamental part of the story. In this case it becomes a different level of collaboration between artist and technologist. A game of ping pong (or should I say wiff waff?) between the what if and the how could, where you cannot predict who will bring what to the table. Its a jam session of ideas and exploration. But this makes a different kind of art a technologically inspired or at least steered art. And the question for me is who is the artist? So I have been looking at examples of collaborations between artist and technologist to see what might come from different types of collaborative relationship. Do these relationships change the art or does the art simply allow the relationships? How did Christo and Jeanne-Claude make their art? It challenged the possible that seems to have been the point. In that way it challenged peoples perceptions of their world. So it was shaped heavily by what was possible or more to the point by what their collaborators said was possible. But art needs leadership so Christo and Jeanne-Claudes role was to lead; to start things, to make choices, and to keep it moving. How did Henry Moore achieve his grand art works? Certainly through engagement in the technology of casting and finishing that involved outsourcing a lot of the work. At the start he used a makeshift foundry in the

garden (according to Anthony Caro, one of his assistants) and the technical constraints and opportunities of the making process became a major aspect of his creativity. Anish Kapoor has achieved some astounding works. The Bean in Chicago is a tour de force of precision and perfection, and was achieved through the critical engagement of many engineers and craftsmen. His steel and membrane installation in Tate Modern relied on engineering to ensure the transformation of material into art. I am fascinated by the question of how much his art was influenced by these collaborations, and the

impact of his collaborators views on the possible and the impossible the engineering of the art? To what extent did that collaboration affect the end product? The question remains How far should the influence of the engineer go? The simple answer is that it is different in every case, and this is not a simple cop-out. We all know that every building is different, but artworks, and crucially artists, are probably more different to each other than are buildings and architects. I have already pondered on the differences in the type of work that the artist is creating, but there are also differences in the experience

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Judson Terry

BelowBuro Happoldsanalysis ofAorticArc BottomAorticArc insitu

of the artist. Crucially, have they created any work of this kind of scale before? Do they understand what is and isnt possible? Do they understand what the cost implications are? An experienced artist may just want the engineer to help them to realise their vision; but someone younger and less experienced may need a great deal of help and guidance. Inevitably that may mean we are setting limits and boundaries to what the artist can do. But that may be no bad thing. Just like architects, many artists do their best work in response to limitations. Working with artists, we should be preCasestudy CaliforniaCollegeofArt Ablandstudentloungeatthe CaliforniaCollegeofArthasbeen transformedbyagianthanging sculpture,aperforatedwhiteHDPE creationwhichdrapesacrossa sculpturalbeamandwithtwovalve openingsatthetophenceits name,AorticArt. ArchitectMarkDonohueof VisualResearchOffice(VRO)wona competitionforthepiece,andthen broughthisideastoBuroHappold forrefinement.Hehadanidea, saysRonElad,anarchitectinBuro HappoldsLosAngelesoffice.He wantedanobjectwiththreeholes init.Theshapeofthesurfacewas aestheticallydriven,butsomeof thecurvescouldntsupportthemselves.Wehaddiscussionsabout howhisdesignintentcouldwork.

pared for the unexpected for great sophistication or, dare I say it, great ignorance; for demands we have never met before, and for them to change their minds during the construction process in ways that no experienced architect could expect to do. It can be difficult and frustrating, but also hugely stimulating and rewarding. My colleague Victor Frutos-Juarez, who has recently been working with several young artists in London, told me I get a lot of satisfaction out of it. Art is more personal. You can do many buildings but they all have the same constraints because buildings have to perform.

Every piece of art is different. And once the concept has been developed, we can sometimes find ourselves leading the process. I have always said that good architecture needs good engineers. Once art reaches a certain scale, it is equally true that good art also needs good engineers. What can be more rewarding than engineering in the service of a passion for big art?
MikeCookisdirectorforbuildingsat BuroHappold.TocontactMikeemail mike.cook@burohappold.com

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Rien van Rijthoven

Thestructurehadtobeentirely selfsupportingbutthematerialhad noinherentstiffness. Weplayedaroundwiththeopenings,andtheirorientation,Elad explains.HeusedCATIAdesign softwaretomovethingsaround, andthen:Oncewefoundsomethingwewerecomfortablewith,we startedanalysingit. Someofthisworkwasvery sophisticatedbut,tohelpDonohue understandwhyitwasimportantto workwiththeconceptofminimal surface,Eladsetupademonstrationusingtworingsandsoapbubbles.Thecollaborationwas,says Elad,positiveonbothsides,and heisdelightedthatitdoesntlook thatdifferentfromtheoriginal model.

Worldwide
Alan Shepherd San Francisco, USA

A day in the life of the far-flung Zero-E team. By Ruth Slavid.

ero-E was a pilot project carried out by Buro Happold in collaboration with architect Woods Bagot to model a large-scale sustainable scheme that would not merely reduce the energy of new development but look at ways to heal a damaged and fractured city. A truly international project, it involved several Buro Happold offices, and took as its subject an industrial site in Chongqing, China. In three months of working the teams carried out detailed research work to produce a holistic resource system that integrated photovoltaics, solar thermal panels, absorption chillers, biogas fuel cells and an anaerobic waste digester. There was complex calculation involved, and parametric modelling, led by Alan Shepherd in San Francisco. The project culminated in a twoday workshop that looked at everything from climate change mitigation targets for China to agreeing a process for market testing, communication and collaboration. Sustainability director Dan Phillips, based in London, worked closely on the presentation with Jeff Till from Woods Bagot. Other main contributors to the project included Laura Wingert and Kurt Komrous in LA and Pablo Izquerdo in Bath. Weaving this project in among all the others that occupied the team members, and operating across widely different time zones, is all in a days work. 3am San Francisco / 11am London / 7pm Hong Kong Dan Phillips meets aviation director Alan Regan and Azhar, a director at Conran and Partners, to discuss a competition for a new airport in the Baltic. 5.30am San Francisco / 1.30pm London / 9.30pm Hong Kong Associate director Alan Shepherd is woken by a scrub jay screeching in his back yard. 6am San Francisco / 2pm London / 10pm Hong Kong Dan Philips discusses the practices approach to sustainable healthcare with BHs business strategist Adam Poole. 8.45am San Francisco / 4.45pm London / 11.45pm Hong Kong Alan Shepherd arrives at Woods Bagot after a crowded ride on the Bay Area Rapid Transit, which reminds him of the joys of the London Tube. He meets Wood Bagots technical director, sustainability director and CEO to discuss a new office development in Beijing. He receives an update on Zero-E meetings in China that will be attended by David Littler, group director of Buro Happold Hong Kong. 11am San Francisco / 7pm London / 2am Hong Kong Dan Phillips cycles to a talk on sustainability organised by the Guardian newspaper. 1pm San Francisco / 9pm London / 3am Hong Kong Alan Shepherd goes to architect HOKs offices to discuss a zero-carbon project in Portland, Oregon. 4pm San Francisco / midnight London / 7am Hong Kong Alan Shepherd arrives at his office, at the foot of the Bay Bridge. He works on the development of a TRNSYS model for a hybrid geothermal system design for the Bull Creek Residence in Austin, Texas. 4.30pm San Francisco / 0.30am London / 7.30am Hong Kong David Littler arrives at his office in Hong Kong. He can take one of several buses from his 11th floor apartment, and relishes not owning a car. The temperature outside is above 30C but he puts on a jumper because of the fierce air conditioning.

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LonDonGreenWichMeAnTiMe

GMT+7hoUrs

Thesubject chongqing,china

DanPhillips London,UK

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DavidLittler hongKong

6.20pm San Francisco / 2.20am London / 9.20am Hong Kong Alan Shepherd leaves his office and detours to the Oakland Boxing Gym for a workout. 8.05pm San Francisco/ 4.05am London/ 11.05am Hong Kong David Littler rings Alan Shepherd at home to discuss the Holistic Energy Assessment Tool (HEAT) he developed for the Zero-E project and Davids upcoming presentations in China with Jeff Till. David Littler spends the rest of the day preparing for the presentations. Some of these will be given at meetings with Chinese developers and the Chinese government arranged through his China-based colleague Yin Liu. Buro Happold CEO Gavin Thompson will accompany Littler on what will be his first trip to China. Midnight San Francisco / 8am London / 3pm Hong Kong David Littler sends draft Zero-E material to the London office.

1am San Francisco / 9am London / 4pm Hong Kong Dan Phillips arrives at work by bicycle. Barbara in the canteen makes him toast with marmalade and peanut butter. He takes this to a quiet room to review what David has sent him. He likes what he sees. 3am San Francisco / 11am London / 6pm Hong Kong David Littler is on his way home after a meeting on the MTR, Hong Kongs metro. His Blackberry (phones work underground in HK) details the next Zero-E gathering in London in a couple of weeks, to give the project another push forward.
TocontactAlan,DanorDavidemail zeroe@burohappold.com

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Sport
Sean Mackey, a 57-year-old Republic of Ireland football fan, talks to Jonathan Coates.
two, and at four was pictured with Jack Charlton, the manager who took us to two World Cups. Shes been a loyal supporter ever since. The key point in the formation of the club came in 1984, when Gerry Lappin put a note in the Irish Post saying hed seen lads going to games, particularly away games, again and again. Since air travel was expensive in those days, he suggested we form a club and travel together, and perhaps get a cheaper rate from the airline. So we met up at the Prince of Wales Feathers in Warren Street, off Tottenham Court Road, and the club was born. Following the team was always fun, even though in the early days we werent very good. In the seventies, before Jack came on board, I was going to away games and singing that we were the greatest team ever, and almost always losing. But the craic was tremendous. The old Lansdowne Road had unique features. Id seen various stadia around the world some worse and some a lot better. The view of the DART railway line and the rest of Dublin that you had from the upper stand was fantastic, and its in such a lovely, leafy, semi-suburban setting. Wed catch the DART from Tara Street in central Dublin and then wait at the level crossing. You always had to stop there to let trains pass and a huge crowd would gather, but it wasnt like your average football crowd at Ireland games, everyone is in tremendous form so its a very benign and friendly

upporting Ireland has been a constant feature of my adult life a pilgrimage, if you like. Growing up in an Irish family in London, there was never any doubt as to our national allegiance, and Ive been travelling to cheer on the Boys in Green since 1972. Dublins Lansdowne Road stadium was dear to me, because of its history and charm and its wonderful, convivial atmosphere. Now the site has a new spiritual home for Irish football and rugby, and its spectacular. I visited the Aviva Stadium for the first time in August, for the opening international against Argentina, and its a huge improvement everywhere that the rickety old ground was lacking. Im proud to say I was a co-founder of the Republic of Ireland Soccer Supporters Club (London). Around 1972 I started going with an old friend to as many games as I could afford. My parents are from Pallasgreen in County Limerick; as a child I didnt know what summer was like in London, because I was always at my grandfathers farm. As a young man, Id get to every competitive game at home and would hand-pick two or three away games in every qualifying campaign. My wife Carmel, who is originally from Clogher in County Tyrone, joined the club just before we married in 1989, and our daughter Roisin became a member in 1991 when she was 30 days old. She went to her first international in Denmark at the age of

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LeftMackeysticket fortheopeninggame atthenewAviva stadiuminAugust CentreMackey andhisdaughter Roisintakethe escalatorupfrom theDARTrailway tothenewstadium RightComfortable atlastforthe firsttimeMackey hasaseatthatcan accommodatehis 6ft2inframe

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Sport

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Chris GasCoiGne

RightOnesideof thestadiumswoops downtorespectthe scaleofthenearby housingBelowThe newstadiumhasa capacityof50,000

atmosphere, and children arent intimidated. I was on the DART the first time I saw the new stadium, travelling to the Argentina match. Id been on the Football Association of Ireland website to have a look at the virtual tour, but nothing prepares you for the sight. It really is wonderful. Now theres an underpass when you get off the train, and when you get inside the ground, one stand remains lower than the other three. Thats because they werent allowed to build above the neighbouring houses, but you can still get that magnificent view of Dublin if youre high up in one of the other stands. As always at Ireland games, the banter was wonderful outside the ground. Then I walked in and saw the facilities they were a huge improvement on those at the old ground, which were pretty basic. The toilets there couldnt really accommodate the numbers at high-pressure times, and it was a scramble. The big difference, though, is the tremendous amount of space. The old ground had everything atmospherically, but it was near the bottom end of the scale in terms of comfort and facilities. Im 6ft 2in and to actually have leg room at a game is amazing. I smiled when I saw the escalator outside the ground leading up to the main stand. It seemed symbolic of the change in attitude towards spectators. Im also an Arsenal supporter and have found that wherever you are at The Emirates

stadium, you have a very good view. Its great when the designers get to start with a blank page they can ensure everyone will get a decent view. Sitting inside the Aviva, it felt like all 50,000 spectators had been taken care of. Even though I go to most home games, I havent signed up for one of the new 10-year tickets. That would separate us from the club members Im used to sitting with and singing with. But there is another option, which Ive asked my wife to consider, because she suffers from multiple sclerosis and doesnt get to as many games as Roisin and I. The Irish FA has come up with a phenomenal number of disabled berths, and I could go as her carer. The only hitch of course is again that wed be separated from the crowd we know and atmosphere is everything. The noise in the old Lansdowne Road was renowned, and I could detect it coming back on the opening night, but I think it will be twice as loud again for competitive games. Then youll hear the old Lansdowne Roar come back to life.
BuroHappoldsstadiateamhasdeliveredanenviablecollectionofstadiums includingtheEmiratesstadium,theO2 (DublinandLondon)andtheLiverpool ArenaandConventioncentre.Allsports/ stadiaenquiriesshouldbesenttoPaul Westbury,groupdirectorinBath,email paul.westbury@burohappold.com

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Other lives
Engineer Zac Braun is an artist at heart.

ve been doing art since I was a kid, but it started blossoming into something more than a hobby at college. I took a lot of art courses to offset the rigours of the engineering curriculum. I got pulled into a lot of process-oriented art, where you set strict parameters on how to apply the medium, so you cant control the output 100 per cent. For instance, I did one project where I used a typewriter with a bad ribbon. I had an idea of how the letters would appear on the page, and how theyd layer over each other, but I had no control over the actual result. I tried not to have something that had a deep meaning to me. I had friends give me 1,000 random words and I typed them across each other. It was always my goal to have a dual career. I love the engineering job but I dont feel complete unless I am working on my art on the side. I go to my studio pretty well every weekend, and several times during the week, although it takes a lot of motivation to go to the studio after work. When youre working all day your brain gets very tired, but when you are passionate about something, you put in the extra effort, so it consumes a lot of my time. I do manage to have a social life as well, but it tends to be limited to the weekend. Engineering is all about having a set way of looking at certain problems. Materials have certain boundaries which

Patterns

FarleftWrinkle. Paperandinkon panel,24inby48in LeftThenew typography.Ink onpaper,31.5in by27.5inBelow VHSwall.Studio installation,VHS tape,50inby144in

Itwasalways mygoaltohave adualcareer

many architects try to push. They want to manipulate the materials and their properties to make fabulous buildings. This is where I think having a creative outlook to engineering is very beneficial. You can do simple engineering where you follow the rules to a T but you can also make the material do something different, look at it from a different perspective. That really helps you as an engineer. I see a close similarity to the way I have gone in my art. Its a logical thing but outside the box. Working with architects who have crazy ideas makes me feel Im doing something fantastic. Id have a totally different outlook if I were just designing square buildings. The benefits of working with a company that has a creative reputation is the great influence it has on the creativity I can employ with my job. Ive been lucky enough to work on projects designed by Tadao Ando, and by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Now Im starting to use materials in my art in ways that they are not usually employed. I put them together in such quantities that it takes the viewer a while to realise what the piece is made of. At the moment

Im putting together a large installation a wall of old VHS video tape. I make a whole wall from this very thin tape. It gets a very beautiful amorphous feel. It is reflective, your movement moves it. Ive gotten exhibitions through knowing people in the art scene, and applying to be part of group shows. Its a goal to get picked up by a gallery and to sell work regularly. In theory Id love to be able to support myself full time as an artist, but Id miss the rigours of engineering. I love my job as an engineer. If I never made it as an artist I would be happy.
ZacBraunistakingpartinagroupshow, BlackandWhiteattheLanaSantorelli GalleryinNewYorkuntil4December.

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Buro Happold
Buildings Environment and Infrastructure Consulting

From our very first project we have used our intricate knowledge of the industry to push the boundaries and achieve more. It is this commitment that sets us apart, that adds value, that makes us award winning. We apply the same level of complex thought and specialist expertise to every project we work on. Our people define what we do. We invest in them in the same way that they invest in us; by providing opportunities to learn, to research, to develop. Our way of design is to draw on every talent, to consider every approach, to strive to progress; but to always use our proven methodologies to get results. After 35 years in the industry we have never lost our desire to be challenged, our passion for creativity and our sense of adventure. We know that building a place with a future involves creating strong communities that enable economies to thrive, engaging with societys big issues and enriching peoples lives. We are at the forefront of low energy design: we deliver projects that have less carbon emissions and are more sustainable, we deliver projects that do not cost the earth. Our expert teams of engineers and consultants know how to get the best out of the worlds precious land and resources to provide for a growing population. We are leading the way in shaping a new future.

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Aviation Neil Squibbs E: neil.squibbs@burohappold.com Cultural Stephen Jolly E: stephen.jolly@burohappold.com Hospitality Paul Rogers E: paul.rogers@burohappold.com Scientific Andy Parker E: andy.parker@burohappold.com Civic and Local Government Stephen Jolly E: stephen.jolly@burohappold.com Education Mike Entwisle E: mike.entwisle@burohappold.com Rail Damien Kerkhof E: damien.kerkhof@burohappold.com Sport, Leisure and Event Paul Westbury E: paul.westbury@burohappold.com Commercial Property: Nick Nelson E: nick.nelson@burohappold.com Healthcare Andy Parker E: andy.parker@burohappold.com Urban Development and Planning Andrew Comer E: andrew.comer@burohappold.com

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www.burohappold.com

Patterns Issue 15 Autumn/Winter 2010

In association with

Buro Happold