Lean yet resilient - designing for the future

Natasha Watson explains how structural engineers can produce designs that make efficient use of material to reduce their environmental impact.

Engineers must resist pressure to build environmentally unsustainable schemes if we want to be judged well by future generations, says 2020 Gold Medal winner and former Institution Vice-President, Mike Cook.

To design more sustainable buildings, big decisions need to be made early in the design process. Could laying out the structure to a 300mm planning grid reduce embodied carbon, enable the circular economy and still retain the uniqueness of design, asks David Treacy.