Honorary Fellowship Address. Energy-Efficient Design: a Holistic Approach

Glasgow Station Old Roof Douglas Birkett, a retired member; has written from West Yorkshire in response to Alexander Aitken’s letter - Verulam, 15 September 1998: During the 1950s I was site engineer for a bridge & construction CO. supervising many ‘rolling-in’ of new railway bridges, necessitated by deck corrosion, abutment failure or road widening. A fair amount of stations work came our way too, and the ‘arch’ Mr Aiken writes about is typical of the ‘Victorian licence’ in the 1800s.

This paper describes the demolition of a six-storey ofice building, constructed in 1959-60, which had been damaged during the June 1996 Manchester bomb attack. The office spanned over a retail unit, and the six-storey structure was carried on a series of long-span post-tensioned, prestressed concrete beams. These beams had been stressed in stages during their original construction, to balance the dead load of the supported structure above, and the prestressing cables had then been grouted up in ducts (on a curved profile). J.M. Roberts

Winner of the Institution's annual Kenneth Severn Award, Rena Vogelzang, answers President Brian Uy's essay question on structural efficiency, embodied carbon and maintaining public safety.