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SKETCHING FOR ENGINEERS

AND ARCHITECTS
Using real working drawings from a fifty-year career, Ron Slade shows how drawing remains at the
heart of the design process in the everyday working life of engineers and architects. The book
explains simple techniques that can be learnt and used to enhance any professional’s natural ability.
Using over 180 categorised examples, it demonstrates that drawing remains the fastest, clearest and
most effective means of design communication. Unlike many other books on drawing in the
construction industry, this book is ‘engineer led’ and science oriented, but effectively shows that there
is a close affinity between the working methods of architects and engineers.

Ron Slade is Structural Director at WSP | PB Group. Ron received his B.Sc. First Class Honours in
Civil Engineering at City University, London and became a chartered member of the Institution of
Structural Engineers in 1971 when he was awarded the Institution’s A. E. Wynn prize. He was first
appointed as a director in 1982.
 ‘Good engineers think, design and communicate through their sketches. A thoughtfully hand-drawn
sketch offers a wonderfully efficient and immediately satisfying way for expressing the core concepts
of a design. In fact, many problems and solutions do not reveal themselves until drawings are made
from different viewpoints. The very act of drawing can help clarify the fabrication sequence and
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constructability of a complex design. Ron’s wonderful sketches are a delight to the eye and the mind.
I can think of no better recommendation to my undergraduate and postgraduate structural engineers
than that they obtain a copy and cherish this delightful book.’
—Roger Crouch, Professor and Dean, School of Mathematics, Computer
Science and Engineering, City University, London, UK

‘Busy with 21st century technology, we run the risk of losing our mother-tongue: Sketching. Ron
Slade’s book Sketching for Engineers and Architects is a must-have for all aspiring design and
construction leaders in the building industry. This book is a treasure chest overflowing with creative
engineering sketches and easy-to-understand drawing concepts. We are inspired and patiently
guided to set aside our computers more often and pick up our pencils to organize, explore and
communicate our ideas.’
—Gregory Brooks, Senior Lecturer, Architectural Engineering,
The University of Texas at Austin, USA

‘In a world of 3D modelling, the skill of interpretation through drawing is being lost. CAD has given us
the ability to model buildings virtually, but can never replace the skill of engineers like Ron in being
able to truly understand the challenges through free-hand construction sketches showing the process
from fabrication through to construction and in doing so, developing innovative solutions. His sketches
remind us of the importance of embracing technology whilst recognizing the role traditional methods
can play in successful engineering.’
—Peter Miller, Sales Associate Director, Severfield, UK

‘In this age of digital imaging, 3D modelling and all manner of computer-aided drafting I believe that
the art or skill of sketching is as valuable and effective a means of communicating an idea as any
modern communication media. Sketching is a crucial tool in the kit of anyone who is engaged in the
design or engineering process and should rank alongside IT in the education and development of
young aspirant designers.’
—Peter Emerson, Laing O’Rourke, UK
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SKETCHING FOR ENGINEERS

AND ARCHITECTS

Ron Slade
ROUTLEDGE

Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group

LONDON AND NEW YORK

 First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2016 Ron Slade
The right of Ron Slade to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Slade, Ron, author.
Title: Sketching for engineers and architects / Ron Slade.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015044453| ISBN 9781138925403 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315683775 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Architectural drawing—Technique. | Freehand technical
sketching—Technique.
Classification: LCC NA2708 .S58 2016 | DDC 720.28/4—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015044453

ISBN: 978-1-138-92540-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-68377-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Arial
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
 CONTENTS
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Foreword by Sir Terry Farrell ix

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

PART 2: DRAWING AND SKETCHING 3

2.1 Drawing and its historical context 3

2.2 Why sketch in an age of computer generated images? 7

2.3 Easy and effective techniques 14

True freehand 14
Guided freehand 15

2.4 Axonometric projection 26

An example 26
A second example 28
Draughtsmanship 31
Bridging two worlds – pencil sketch and the tablet computer 31

2.5 Thinking on paper 37

Design and sketching 37
Design and the built environment 37
Ideas, structural form and materials 41
Lightweight versus ‘normal’ structures 43

2.6 The use of hand sketches in practice 43

Developing ideas and concepts 43
Design references 43
Design development 44

v
 Illustration and clarity 44
Beyond sketching? 44

PART 3: SKETCHBOOK 47
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Introduction 47
Building types 49

3.1 Long span structures 49

3.2 High rise 62

Design criteria 62

3.3 Low- and mid-rise 95

3.4 Bridges 118

3.5 Airports 133

3.6 Railway stations and build-over projects 141

3.7 Ports and marine 158

3.8 Stadia 161

3.9 Existing buildings 167

3.10 Lightweight structures 188

3.11 Unusual building types 197

3.12 Biological references 202

3.13 Detail 217

3.14 Master planning 213

vi
 3.15 Basements and tunnels 215
Basements 215
Tunnels 216
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3.16 Sustainable structures 240

Construction materials 240
Groundwork 240
Superstructure 240

PART 4: EPILOGUE 251

Bibliography and acknowledgements 253

Index 254

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 FOREWORD
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I was delighted to be asked to add a foreword to Ron Slade’s breadth, encompassing a wider view of construction, and the
book as I have long been an admirer of his engineering prowess, processes of assembly and actual on- and off-site organisation.
particularly as expressed in his exemplary drawings. Like me, he
is a person who feels most comfortable expressing himself A further trait of Ron’s is his consistency of approach that I and
visually, but the great strength of his drawings and his approach so many architects such as Michael Hopkins, Renzo Piano, SOM,
to visual language is that it is rarely the drawing in itself that is Foster + Partners, KPF, my former partner Nick Grimshaw and
the driver. It is the drawing as an act of communication, of others have continuously relied on over many decades and on
thought processes and solutions to problems that is the primary many notable projects. And this consistency, integrity and
value. So it is drawing as a language tool, as part of the process reliability is borne out right from the start of his career by never
of ‘problem-solving’ that answers the need to explore and changing jobs – he has forever been with WSP | PB (and its
describe answers to the very practical and pragmatic demands merged partners Kenchington Little) throughout a long career that
that architects and engineers address on all construction projects. has seen such vast, sweeping changes in our industry – not least
I particularly enjoy Ron’s work when it embraces time-related being growth and size. Kenchington Little when he joined was
sequences, as it’s often not the final answer that is paramount, around 100 employees and WSP | PB is now 31,000 – one of the
but how you get there, how to lead up to and assemble; the largest organisations of its kind in the world.
process of constructing the actual solution can often be every bit
as important as the very solution itself. What makes this book important today is that it maintains and
promotes faith in the basics that have and will stay consistent in
This book, in an age of increasing reliance on computer based spite of all around changing in our ever busier and more complex
drawing, is a very timely reminder of the crucial ongoing world. Hand drawing, the ability to communicate concepts and
importance of the immediacy and spontaneous communication of complex processes visually, is an art, a skill that can be
hand drawing. But what comes over again and again is Ron’s developed, but some, like Ron, are touched with genius in their
inherent modesty and his desire to pass on his skills generously attainment of a higher order of achievement. He, like his best
to young architects and engineers. He comes from several students, is at core an enthusiast for whom his profession is more
generations of passing on skills, as grandfather and great than a job. For young people embarking on a wide range of
grandfather were stonemasons – a trade whose skill sets often careers in the construction industry this is a welcome primer that
led to the very first architects and engineers; and his father, a advocates and explains the ever continuing value of hand drawing
builder who no doubt imbued the young Ron with yet further in designing and putting up buildings.
Sir Terry Farrell
Autumn 2014

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 PART 1: INTRODUCTION
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Looking back over fifty years spent working in a consulting However, despite the advances in computer technology and the
engineer’s office, the changes that have affected day-to-day exchange of electronic data, simple hand sketching and drawing
practice are amazing. Our ability to understand materials and the still has its role to play in fast and effective communication – to
behaviour and performance of complex structures has increased. get a thought on paper is often a first step in a design process.
Engineers no longer rely on slide rules and log tables but on Pencils have not disappeared from the office. Consulting
sophisticated analysis software. The basis of design has moved engineering or engineering in general can never become a totally
from a simple allowable stress approach to limit state design, an electronic profession populated by analysts and modellers.
approach where criteria are set such that within acceptable
probability, a structure will not reach a limit state in which it fails Good design and successful buildings owe much to the effective
or is in some way unserviceable. This was a profound and far communication in particular between engineers and architects.
reaching change in design procedures. Organisations also Both professions need people who are good communicators.
changed and became more overtly business led and not Although this book is written from an engineer’s perspective and
surprisingly, given the advances in IT, the methods of conveying does not address the artistic quality of drawing and sketching in
design intent changed radically. The last drawing boards any depth, the basic approach, ideas and techniques are relevant
disappeared from the office 15 or 20 years ago. Now we use to both engineers and architects. Hand sketching is a practice
CAD and we exchange digital information, we produce 3D models that has always had the potential to bring the two cultures of
and we can print 3D models. engineering and architecture together.

One thing hasn’t changed. Many engineering designers are

employed by organisations that still call themselves consulting
engineers. The use of the term ‘consulting engineer’ is
appropriate as these firms continue to act in an advisory capacity
on professional matters. They employ specialists who give expert
advice and information but essential to their modus operandi is
the ability to communicate. In engineering and related industries,
this entails providing or receiving information, exchanging views
and ideas with a wide range of people including clients, designers
in other disciplines, contractors and skilled building workers.

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 PART 2: DRAWING AND SKETCHING
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2.1 Drawing and its historical context Egyptian art must have been handed down from master to
pupil and hardly changed for 3,000 years until the Greeks
The Cave of El Castillo paintings in northern Spain are about came into closer contact with the Egyptians. The Greeks moved
40,000 years old and are probably the oldest in Europe. In things on, tackled foreshortening for instance, and all later
Australia and Indonesia, cave paintings of a similar age have civilisations learnt from the Greeks, especially after the ‘Great
been found depicting long extinct fauna. The most common Awakening’ when science, art and literature made great strides
images are of large animals (bison, horses, aurochs and deer), forward.
tracings of human hands and abstract patterns and symbols.
Art experts believe that the paintings and drawings are not just The aesthetic quality of drawings owes much to the designer’s
images, they are not simple pictorial representations of an animal appreciation of proportion and geometry and does not just
or a human being or a shape – they are embellished and happen by accident. Rules for building in particular, came from
enhanced to convey a more complex or deeper message or to the Ancients. The English The Constitutions of Masonry, written
satisfy some aesthetic imperative. in the fourteenth century, opens with the words: ‘Here begin
the Constitutions of the art of Geometry according to Euclid.’
Art historians speculate on the reasons primitive people made Later we are told that Euclid taught the art of masonry through
drawings but most were almost certainly made for magical, geometry to the Egyptians. These skills were apparently passed
superstitious or religious reasons. Whatever the reason, it is to the captive Israelites and eventually through David and
clear that there has always been a belief in the power of picture Solomon to King Charles the Second of France. From there,
making, the power of images. With regard to the development according to the Constitutions, they were taken through St Alban
of drawing techniques, most experts agree that its history, at least to King Athelstan of England, whose son became a master of
in some parts of the world, can be more easily traced back to masonry, and founded the professional organisation of masonry
the ancient Egyptians rather than the Primitives. The Egyptians builders and architects. An earlier document entitled The Old
developed a long lasting style that was not art for art’s sake, not Book of Charges gives a similar account of how the geometrical
beautification but image making for functional reasons designed art of Euclid was passed from Egypt to England. Medieval
to preserve likenesses, life styles, status and hierarchies and to masons clearly understood the science of geometry used in
give guidance in the afterlife. Perfect clarity was the objective. architectural design and construction which came from its
The ideas of foreshortening and more lifelike representations inventor, Euclid. Although the geometry used by medieval
were left to later ages. architects was traditionally ascribed to Euclid and his postulates,

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FIGURE 2.1
El Castillo cave paintings in northern Spain
Source: ‘Art and Design, the Guardian’.

4
 the architects and masons would have had no direct knowledge and more people were sketching ‘as a kind of quick verbal
of Euclid’s works apart from example and craft skills handed information’ and that in the 1700s, ‘the real drawing craze
down during their apprenticeships. spreads from small numbers of enthusiasts to the new middle
classes’ and that some of this continues ‘for basic practical
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The fifteenth century saw the beginnings of the Renaissance and reasons’.
the rediscovery of classical art and the new role of the artist as a
professional. This led to an expansion in the concept of drawing, Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a great deal of
and instead of being just a craft skill, drawing became a tool for effort was devoted to attempts to discover the true nature of the
investigating the natural world, and gave artists greater ability to geometry used by medieval architects. However, little true
express their own views of the world around them. Drawing geometry was discovered. In John Harvey’s words:
became a tool for design and experiment, and with the dawn of
a system to describe the three-dimensional world – linear Discussion has been obscured rather than clarified by a
perspective – the boundaries of drawing expanded enormously. vast literature concerned with a possible symbolism,
numerology (a little of which was probably intentional),
It is impossible to ignore Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) – and arithmetical and algebraic analysis. Almost the whole
painter, sculptor, musician, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, of this literature must be disregarded in seeking for the
geologist, cartographer, botanist, writer and of course architect empirical means by which the architects reached their
and engineer. His journals contain over 13,000 pages of notes remarkable results.
and drawings and the sheer quality of his sketches is beyond
question. Two thoughts for us to remember: first, he collaborated In general terms, when produced with care and thoughtfulness,
with others, physicians for example with regard to his anatomical engineering or architectural drawings are so often the best way to
drawings, very similar to the collaboration between engineers, communicate and develop ideas, thoughts, intentions, visions,
architects and other professions today; and second, his use of ambitions, commitment and even passion and belief. They
annotation, which of course separates his scientific drawings from become much more than just lines on paper and convey a
his magnificent artistic works. Leaving room for annotation is message more easily than words alone. It is also evident that well
important. thought out drawings develop an intrinsic aesthetic value of their
own which we may recognise subliminally but may not appreciate
In his A Short Book About Drawing, Andrew Marr says: ‘Drawing consciously unless we stop and look for it. They just have to feel
had always been important for architects but as science began to ‘right’. Ideograms, symbols or signs used in writing systems in
advance, it became an important skill for mathematicians, China for instance, directly represented a concept or thing, rather
anatomists, collectors of botanical rarities, designers of military than words. Although we may not understand the meaning of
fortresses, astronomers.’ He goes on to say that suddenly more some of these drawings and symbols, their aesthetic quality has

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6
FIGURE 2.2
Flying apparatus, Leonardo da Vinci
 ensured their survival from prehistoric times and through the ages 2.2 Why sketch in an age of computer generated
to the present day. Can anyone doubt the simplicity and beauty of images?
stylistic ancient Egyptian images, that they were full of meaning?
They must have given great satisfaction to the artisans who
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Figures 2.3 and 2.4 show trees around a pond, and convey the
produced them, and to countless people who have set eyes on imagined or extant scene in a perfectly clear way but without the
them since. The hand drawings of many of our leading engineers benefit of isometric or perspective drawing.
and architects are just as thoughtful and appealing. In broad
terms, whether in art, architecture or construction, and despite the These drawings have been made with great care and each has
constraints of rule makers, drawing has always been used with a been made for a purpose. They are beautiful and meaningful and
great deal of freedom for a whole range of purposes, from how to demonstrate the skill involved in image making.
build a building to the expression of personal feelings.
But why use hand sketching to record new ideas in this day and
Above all, drawing is about communication and is universal. age? The invention and popular dissemination of photography
Throughout history drawing has remained a constant reason for has had a fundamental effect on artists’ drawing. The need to
picking up a mark-making implement. It has survived the copy ‘reality’ has reduced; the camera can be used instead.
introduction of the camera and will survive the computer screen. Yet drawing still has its vital role to play as a way of thinking,
The benefits of drawing and hand sketching should not be developing ideas quickly, explaining and communicating. The
discounted or under-valued. drawing will always out-perform the photograph.

* Take for example the work of field archaeologists. Egyptologist

Mary Hartley of Macquarie University, Sydney says

Archaeologists who publish their reports have many of

the artefacts drawn by hand. We have an established
way of doing things, because we find it gives the most
informative results. The drawings are first completed
on site in pencil and later inked for publication.
Photographs are very important, but the detail seen
with the naked eye, reproduced in the drawing, can
often add important information to the final illustration.
The tiny details are very important, and the sharp black

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FIGURE 2 4
FIGURE 2.3 Rehkmire: two aspective ponds
Pond in Rekhmire Source: Drawing by Mary Hartley after N. de Garis Davies (1953), The
Source: By kind permission of Leonie Donovan. Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re at Thebes.

8
 and white of the final inked image is clear and easy to effective in illustrating pottery. We have a set way of
understand. All the details are reproduced using a drawing a pot, dividing it in half – one half indicates the
‘dotting’ technique, which produces a three dimensional detail found on the outside, and the other half indicates
effect. So by including the drawings, the inkings and the profile – something a camera cannot do. [See
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the photographs, the visual records are complete. [See Figures 2.6 and 2.7.]
Figure 2.5.] Hand pencil drawings are particularly

FIGURE 2.5
A page of shabtis according to their typology
Source: Drawing by Mary Hartley from Macquarie University’s Theban Tombs Project,
TT149, Dra Abu el Naga, Luxor.

FIGURES 2.6 AND 2.7

Drawings by Mary Hartley of pre-dynastic decorated vessel belonging to the
Museum of Ancient Cultures, Macquarie University, Sydney. 2.6: field drawing;
2.7: final inking for publication.
Source: Drawing by Mary Hartley after N. de Garis Davies (1903), The Rock Tombs of
El Amarna (London), p. 40.

9
 Mary makes another interesting point. She says ancient Egyptian
aspective or ‘flat art’ drawings found on tomb walls illustrate what
your eye actually cannot see! Sections and frontal views are often
combined and are used in conjunction with the principle of
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transparency. For example Figure 2.8 shows at the side what is

stored in the rooms. Figure 2.8 also shows how a modern
architect would draw the building from the aspective plan above.
The layout is given in plan; however, the gateways, doors and
pillared porticos are added in frontal, even if this meant turning
them at right angles to each other.

FIGURE 2.8
Amarna 1: aspective plan of palace
Source: Drawing by Mary Hartley after N. de Garis Davies (1903),
The Rock Tombs of El Amarna (London), Pl. XXXII.

10
 Botanical illustration is another interesting example. All good In Julie’s words:
botanical field guides and reference books are based on detailed
and accurate drawings and paintings and not on photographs. I feel that drawing in pencil allows the artist to depict a
The books are clearer, more helpful and informative and are variety of textures, tonal depth and small detail that it is
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better for recognition and identification. What isn’t shown is also not possible to obtain with a photograph. In order to
important; extraneous material that might exist in a photograph is complete a botanical study I use a number of grades of
eliminated – drawing noise is omitted. The illustrations are valued pencil to create an image, and it is very satisfying to see
works of art in their own right. Take for example Julie Small’s the subject ‘coming to life’. Above all, the longer you look
illustration of Streptocarpus primulifolius (Figure 2.9). Although at a subject, the more you begin to see detail that you
hers are far beyond the skills of most of us, to understand her did not initially observe and ultimately this then presents
reasons for choosing to invest in hand drawing is revealing. the challenge of how to transfer that to paper using just
a pencil.

FIGURE 2.9
Streptocarpus primulifolius
Source: Julie Small, SBA.

11
 Professor Gregory Brooks of the University of Texas gives Once the students can recognize and translate correct
another explanation of the value of sketching. He says sketching proportion and form in their sketch, they see the world
is a language which has positive effects on memory so becomes differently, and anything sketched is ingrained in their
a valuable teaching tool: memory. One of my favorite exercises is to sketch an
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object from a slide, critique it together to make

The first thing that I do with my new architectural adjustments, sketch it again, but much faster, and finally
engineering students at the university is teach them to – a day later when the students have long ‘forgotten’ that
sketch. I explain to them that design studio is in fact a sketch – I ask them to sketch the object from memory.
foreign language course. Sketching will be their They quickly sketch the object without seeing it. I then
language, which can then progress into more advanced turn on the projector and show them the slide – they
methods of visual communication, but sketching is the have all invariably drawn it correctly – the object has
fundamental and universally understood language of become part of their memory. This always has a great
design. Without the ability to sketch we are powerless to impression on them and on me.
solve and explain ideas – as designers, we are mute
unless we can sketch.

And so the first week of design studio is spent sketching. Professor Roger Crouch, Dean, School of Mathematics, Computer
We begin by sketching from slides, learning to see. An Science and Engineering, City University, London says:
amazing thing happens almost immediately with the
students: rather than merely looking at an object/image, Good engineers think, design and communicate through
they learn to truly see it. In order to sketch, they must their sketches. A thoughtfully hand-drawn sketch offers a
study the object, for they are re-constructing it. Even a wonderfully efficient and immediately satisfying way for
simple object must be examined for its shape, expressing the core concepts of a design. In fact, many
proportion. We begin by sketching very lightly, barely problems and solutions do not reveal themselves until
touching the paper, and examining the outline for correct drawings are made from different viewpoints. Therefore
proportion. Once the proportion is correct, we can three-dimensional spatial literacy and an ability to
commit with more visible line-weight. Correct proportion produce suitably scaled, proportional sketches is a much
is the key, because of course, if the initial proportion of valued skill. The very act of drawing can help clarify the
the object is incorrect, any further time spent on that fabrication sequence and constructability of a complex
sketch is a lost cause. design.

12
 These are just three areas where hand drawing has retained So why should engineers and architects sketch, why draw? There
its importance: archaeology, botanical illustration and teaching. are so many reasons:
There are many others of course, ranging from illustration,
cartoons and animation, to all areas of design whether fashion • It is a way of describing ideas – ideas have to be
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or aerospace. ‘materialised’.
• It can ‘physicalise’ a concept, it can allow building on paper.
It is clear that sketching and drawing has its place in the • It facilitates ‘thinking’ by design development on paper.
world; and it is not surprising that it is an essential tool for both • It is a means of exploring ideas.
the engineer and the architect. Anything to support the • It is a way of sharing and developing ideas.
creativity of construction is important – and to construct is to • It promotes collaborative ‘face to face’ working – sometimes
be human – construction is about building things, it is what we called ‘conversational drawing’.
are. • It can produce unparalleled clarity.
• It can be definite and confident or conceptual and ethereal.
Engineering and architecture are ‘designing arts’ and cannot • It provides a human/personal touch.
really be separated – architecture and (civil) engineering were • It can sometimes circumvent the clinical nature of computer
essentially the same discipline characterised by their use of generated images that may ultimately be misleading.
drawings, models and mathematical calculation as a means for
constructive forethought. With the proliferation of knowledge, In addition, as a kind of bonus, the process of drawing and
separate discipline streams have had to evolve, but sketching can be deeply satisfying and rewarding in itself.
engineering and architecture remain collaborative pursuits and
remain inextricably linked to other more specialised Finally, Gordon Deuce, chief engineer at Mace, has an interesting
professions. These days collaboration must include many other anecdote. He says early in his career he was advised by his lead
stakeholders, disciplines and specialists and therefore the engineer: ‘Stop calculating and draw it; if you can’t draw it, you
ability to communicate is more challenging. Sketching and can’t build it.’ Many years later he says, it still rings in his ears.
drawing is the oldest, quickest and simplest way of sharing
and developing ideas. *

13
 2.3 Easy and effective techniques sketch after another, keep them as a record if you want or if you
are using pencil, keep photocopies at various stages and then
True freehand use an eraser to redefine your intensions and outlines.
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Freehand sketching is so often the method that engineers and

architects use to capture emerging ideas. It is the quick and Young engineers in particular sometimes find it difficult to
informal way of conveying mental pictures to paper. It often works release themselves from the constraints of technical drawing,
best ‘face to face’, engineer and architect, and becomes from the tyranny of the straight line, but it is well worth
conversational drawing. It is a form of language, it is often developing true freehand skills, there is a place for fast freehand.
iterative, it promotes lateral thinking, progression and evolution. And practice is the key to learning – teachers of life drawing tell
The scribbled ideas are later developed by a process of
refinement and further iteration until a point is reached when it is
worth investing more time in sketches that are more rigorous and
more carefully thought out.

The earlier in the process you are, the more you need to focus
on broad principles and the thicker and softer your pens and
pencils need to be. Sketch quickly using the right tracing paper,
do not be afraid to make mistakes and go over and over the
design ideas until you find a clear route forward. Produce one

FIGURE 2.10 FIGURE 2.11

Rachel Rachel

14
 you to use messy charcoal and force you to draw a pose every horizontal lines, oblique, parallel and curved lines, but let’s move
two minutes. You soon become more proficient. onto the more structured sketching that will in most cases have a
longer shelf life.
To my mind it doesn’t matter how neat and tidy your early
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sketches are; after a design session you are more likely to save Guided freehand
just a few and throw the others away. Some people can set down Innate skill is not essential in the production of successful
their thoughts and make legible sketches in their notebooks sketches or drawings. Getting reasonable results is not difficult,
during design meetings – see for instance an example of John you just have to persevere and have the confidence that it will
Parker’s work in Figure 2.12 – but I prefer to summarise ideas come good in the end. Keep things simple – choose
immediately after the meeting (my notebook sketches are messy) axonometric projection rather than perspective, perspectives
in what we at WSP | PB have come to know as ‘design take longer (but if you do use perspective, use Anderson Inge’s
development notes’ (Figure 2.13). ‘cube method’ – see page 18). Isometric and axonometric
projections are simple ways to approach 3D drawings. They can
There are plenty of textbooks to show you what sketching tools to be used for sketches or to draw to a predetermined scale, and if
use, what line thickness, how to draw straight lines, vertical lines, a scale is used, every part of the drawing can be measured with

FIGURE 2.12
A page from Alex Lifschutz’s note book. (Alex is a director at Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.)

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16
FIGURE 2.13
A page from John Parker’s note book
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FIGURE 2.14
Quick sketches and minimal text summarising an option for further development (a design development note)

17
 accuracy. Unlike perspective drawing, lines in isometrics or
axonometrics do not converge. In fact they only go in three
different directions. Isometric projections use vertical lines and
lines 30 degrees to the left and right. In axonometric projections,
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the lines are vertical and lines on the plan are at 90 degrees to
each other. Axonometric projections may look distorted but can
appear much more realistic if the vertical lines are drawn to
70 per cent of true scale.

Figure 2.17 shows a page from Anderson Inge’s sketchbook

demonstrating the cube method he teaches for drawing quick
perspectives. The cube method avoids constructing from plan
drawings, and it begins with establishing a single correct cube
as a base for the building or object that is planned for the page.
Adjust the base cube, along with its vanishing points and
horizon line, until they look right to the eye. In this example, the
Arc de Triomphe has been built-up by extending the base cube
into a group of 3×3×1 cubes for the whole monument. The front
‘measuring line’ can be relied on to maintain accurate scale for
the perspective, and diagonal lines are used to extend this scale
backwards (or forwards) to give other cubes correct perspective
appearance. Once the cubes have been laid out, it is
straightforward to introduce edge profiles and surface features.
Pay special attention to the diagonal line, it is key to drawing
the similar volumes next to each other.

Both types of drawing can be produced quickly by placing gridded

paper below tracing paper. This approach ties in with the notion
that engineers and architects are practical people and do not
necessarily rely on artistic flair. Worthwhile results can be
produced by ‘constructing’ drawings and sketches. FIGURE 2.15
Axonometric and isometric

18
 Some practical tips:
• Line quality, shading, hatching and composition are hugely
important. Just go for consistent line weight and parallel line
hatching. Getting composition right is about setting things out
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on the paper and not squeezing something up into a corner.

• Learn to draw straight lines and parallel lines.
• Draw lines faintly and then ‘line in’ after checking straightness
or curvature.
• ‘Feather in’ curves – don’t expect to produce perfection in one
sweep of the pencil.
• Observe and correct mistakes (a pencil in one hand, an eraser
in the other).
• Plan your drawing first.
• Decide what to show and what to hide.
• Cut sections – sections make you think.
• Use any tricks you want – trace photos, use a light box, get
basics drawn using CAD, use the photocopier and Tippex to
develop sequence sketches ... who cares so long as the result
is good?
• Develop your own library of common objects that you can re-
scale and trace (a tower crane or a piling rig).
• Try ‘reversing out’ – even a simple sketch looks better that
way – see Figure 2.18, a rather architecturally uninspiring
design for a high bay warehouse, where the sketch shows
construction on two fronts away from laterally stabilised central
bays.

FIGURE 2.16
Two point perspective

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20
FIGURE 2.17
Anderson Inge’s Cube Method
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FIGURE 2.18
High bay warehouse

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I usually draw on tracing paper, preferably 25gsm lightweight

sketching paper with a regular 0.7mm automatic pencil using HB
leads. Much softer, thicker leads are good for less detailed, broad
outline, concept-type work. The paper feels ‘right’ to me, and yes,
it smudges a bit if you are not careful but that doesn’t really
matter. Buy the paper in a 297mm × 100m roll, much cheaper
that way, and get used to drawing and scrapping, and drawing
again and throwing away again until you get it right. Then I find
photocopying a tracing paper sketch really transforms it, gives
you an idea of what needs adjusting to give a satisfying end
result.

You will not get things right first time. It is about patience,
practice and persistence and it is about putting observations and
ideas on paper.

I cannot draw like an artist, I don’t have that sort of flair or that
kind of imagination. I can, by being doggedly persistent and when
time permits, produce reasonable images just by working and
reworking until things look right – Figures 2.19 and 2.20.

FIGURE 2.19
Tara

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FIGURE 2.20
Corazón Cinco – an illustration for a non-engineering text

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Never forget that most people like to draw or sketch, whether

doodles or something a little more demanding. One very well-
known architect was known to admit that he got into architecture
not because he was especially interested in buildings, but simply
because he wanted to find a profession where he could draw.

Another anecdote concerns a short office trip to Valencia aimed

at discovering the city and studying the works of Santiago
Calatrava. After the visit, a group of engineers from WSP | PB’s
London office put together a book of photographs and sketches
with an introductory note from the organiser that really speaks for
itself: ‘the enjoyment and inspiration that arose from sketching on
one’s own terms was a welcome surprise to many in the group.
People who didn’t know they could sketch were sketching away
just for fun.’

FIGURE 2.21
Sean by Evelina Gadzhova, engineer, WSP | PB Group

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FIGURE 2.22
Image from the Valencia sketch book

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 2.4 Axonometric projection

An example
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Axonometric projection is the easiest and least complicated

form of three-dimensional drawing. Plan and vertical
dimensions can be scaled, although if vertical dimensions are
reduced by say 70–85 per cent the resulting image looks a
little more realistic. Whether vertical dimensions are reduced
(foreshortened) or not, the resulting image gives a degree of
accuracy missing from pure freehand sketching and avoids all
the complex mathematics of true perspective. The example
here is intended to show how something can be produced
which is recognisable and reasonably accurate. It is produced
using aerial and street views available on the internet. The
steps are:

Step 1 (Figure 2.23)

• Draw a simple plan based on a street map or an aerial
photograph on gridded paper.
• Guess the elevation by looking at proportion (height versus
length). Again, draw on gridded paper and with the aid of
photographs.

Step 2 (Figure 2.24)

• Trace the plan at a 45-degree angle, or any other angle, it
doesn’t matter. Choose a convenient mid-height level.
• Position the tracing over gridded paper.
• Measure up and down from your chosen level. Use
rectilinear blocks to enclose awkward shapes like curves or
domes.
FIGURE 2.23
Axonometric: step 1

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FIGURE 2.24
Axonometric: steps 2, 3, 4 and 5

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 Step 3 (Figure 2.24)
• Complete the ‘block’ diagram and fit, in this case, the circles
into the squares where you will need to draw the dome.
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Steps 4 and 5 (Figure 2.24)

• Trace the whole thing again adding shading.

A second example
Axonometric projection again, this time to unravel a mechanical
engineer’s drawing. First print the drawing off to a scale which will
allow your sketch to fit onto, say, A4 sheets of tracing paper.

Step 1 (Figure 2.25)

• Ask questions about the conventional drawing. So often the
person drawing the plan and elevation doesn’t see the
ambiguities – that’s a good reason for drawing the 3D sketch
in the first place. If there are ambiguities, you won’t be able to
draw the complete thing, until your questions are answered.

Step 2 (Figure 2.26)

• Assuming you can get the answers to your questions, it’s often
a good idea to identify separate systems (if they exist) – colour
or shading helps, here it’s supply and return air from air
handling plant. The lower system is not shown coloured but
instead is stippled.

Step 3 (Figure 2.27)

• Draw each system separately, using a sheet of gridded paper
to draw guide lines to keep lines parallel, whether vertical or
the angled orthogonal lines used for the plan view. Use a
reference line so that the systems can be related to each FIGURE 2.25

other. Axonometric: second example step 1

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FIGURE 2.26 FIGURE 2.27

Axonometric: second example step 2 Axonometric: second example step 3

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 Step 4 (Figure 2.28) Step 5 (Figure 2.29)
• Reassemble the two systems, removing hidden lines by re- • Add supplementary information, the supporting platform,
tracing your original sketches. access stair, etc.
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FIGURE 2.28 FIGURE 2.29

Axonometric: second example step 4 Axonometric: second example step 5

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 Draughtsmanship superb tablet drawings would suggest that it is; he would say it’s
Some individuals have special talent when it comes to drawing – just another medium and equivalent to moving between charcoal
don’t be put off, just appreciate their work and recognise that and pencil or between watercolours and oils. Laurie certainly
maintains his unique style and his amazing skills are still very
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observation, composition, line quality, patience and perseverance

are important to them as they are to successful engineering or evident. It’s probably a generation thing, but I have a lingering
architectural sketching and drawing. concern that many less skilful images rely on clever hidden
software which produces special effects at the touch of a button –
Bridging two worlds – pencil sketch and the tablet they feel ephemeral to me and almost too perfect. Conversely,
computer pencil hand sketches often provide physical evidence of the
The first successful tablet computer with a multi-touch screen, the thought and effort that goes into their production; you might see
Apple iPad, was released in 2010 and since then, these devices guide lines, reworking and even corrected errors and smudges.
have become ever more sophisticated. Is it possible to transfer And I think paper is somehow more personal and tangible – for
sketching skills from paper to electronics? Laurie Chetwood’s me it’s the difference between a Kindle and a paperback.

FIGURE 2.30
Chinese landscape
Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates).

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 But let Laurie explain his views in his own words:

Like most things, being successful at something comes

from practice and the inclination to practise usually
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comes from enjoying something in the first place. Being

a successful artist is no different. Drawing skills are
available to anybody if they feel inclined to practise – it
is the desire to pick up a pencil that makes an artist.
The ideas which come from these skills are a delineator
and once in place – and with them confidence in the
outcome – it is possible for a draftsperson to use any of
the tools at his or her disposal. The choice of a particular
drafting tool will depend on the intended outcome. In this
way, I have chosen to use a touch-sensitive
computerised screen because of the many advantages
this has for my chosen outcome – fast, easily produced
images which can be quickly copied and distributed.
It is also possible to replicate most styles of drawing
from a paintbrush to a 0.1mm ink pen. There are
thousands of colours, opacities and textures available
and work can be repeated, layered and filed quickly and
efficiently. In short, the natural skill of the artist can be
enhanced in many ways and not least by using the latest
technology. There are disadvantages though. The
technology itself is an inhibiting factor – the super-
smooth screen surface leads to a lack of control. The
formality of the process itself can inhibit the artist and
reduce confidence in the outcome.

In the end, there is no substitute for the informality and

FIGURE 2.31
spontaneity of a soft pencil on paper. Urban Oasis
Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates).
*

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FIGURE 2.32
Perfumed Garden, Chelsea
Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates).

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FIGURE 2.33 FIGURE 2.34

Studies for the Butterfly House Studies for the Butterfly House
Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates). Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates).

FIGURE 2.35
Studies for the Butterfly House
Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates).
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FIGURE 2.36
Studies for the Butterfly House
Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates).

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FIGURE 2.37
Studies for the Butterfly House
Source: Laurie Chetwood (Chetwood Associates).

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 2.5 Thinking on paper conceptual thinking and often involves taking a floor plan or an
elevation or both from concept sketches and in rough freehand,
Design and sketching scribbling on where shear walls, columns, cores or transfer
structures are needed. The end result isn’t always pretty but can
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Successful dialogue between engineer and architect will be

enhanced by an understanding of the design process and is soon be turned into something convincing.
further improved by sharing and developing ideas. This is where
sketching comes into its own. Sketching almost forces a designer Design and the built environment
to crystallise ideas on paper, to think on paper, to explain and to Design in the world of construction is and always will be a
clarify. A sketch can be quick and do the work of thousands of challenge – it can be hard work, irritating and frustrating but
words. A series of sketches can be used to show how an idea more often than not it is fascinating, absorbing and interesting.
was developed or a single sketch can be used to justify an Good design is creative and, given a fair wind and with the
adopted solution or strategy. application of effort and dedication, is satisfying and rewarding.

A perfect example is the early development of the Shard, a tower The fundamental reason why it is such a challenge is because it
built in Southwark over London Bridge Station, the oldest major has to cope with the practical issues of building in a complex
railway station in London. The first meeting between developer world and must involve people from different backgrounds and
Irvine Sellar and architect Renzo Piano took place in Berlin on 30 disciplines.
May 2000. An idea of a building serving as a ‘small vertical city’
was conceived that day, a classic sketch on a napkin. It was It has long been recognised that the relationship between
taken back to the office and to London, where more sketches architect and structural or civil engineer (the engineer from now
were produced making reference to a shape that would appear as on) is one of the most important in the design of building or civil
if it was ‘generated by the movement of the tracks on the ground’, engineering projects. This is not surprising since the two
by the river of steel (the railway tracks) and by the river itself, the disciplines have really developed from a common origin, the
Thames. The project took shape by reference to the movement master builder. Experience shows that successful dialogue
and scale of these ‘rivers’ and by inspiration drawn from images between architect and engineer is an essential part of producing
of soaring spires that once were a striking part of the ancient good designs.
skyline of London.
Good design in the practical world cannot be carried out in
Another technique used by some leading engineers requires far isolation. For instance, form finding using pure mathematics
less artistic ability, and is based on experience, feel for structures, produces beautiful shapes but does not often meet the needs of
basic rules about height to width limits, span/depth ratios and practical buildings. Flat parallel and orthogonal planes of
knowledge of what is constructible. It is invaluable for early architecture based on the Cartesian box are usually easier to

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FIGURE 2.38
The Shard: scale and rivers of steel and water
Source: Renzo Piano

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FIGURE 2.39

Source: Renzo Piano

The napkin sketch and its derivative

39
 construct than architecture based on curved surfaces. It can be
argued that mathematically generated surfaces with some unique
geometric properties make them well suited for architectural use.
There is a growing appreciation of the structural potential of
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doubly curved surfaces, exploited in the 1950s and 1960s by

Candela and his thin concrete shells, for example. The underlying
area of mathematics has advanced since the advent of computers
and has significantly aided the study of minimal surfaces
(surfaces with zero mean curvature; soap film type surfaces).
However, their symmetry is often a problem. To be useful for
architecture a geometric system needs a degree of flexibility, the
ability to adapt to varied boundary conditions. It is no doubt useful
to know about these surfaces (rheotomic surfaces – from the
Greek rheo, flow, and tomos, cut or section, as in tomography),
and instances where they have been used successfully, for
example Nervi’s ‘lines of force’ in the reinforcement pattern for the
ceiling of his Gatti Wool Mill, but the opportunities to use them in
everyday life are few and far between.

There are less esoteric pointers to good design. First, there is

the old adage that form should follow function. It is difficult to
deny that a steam locomotive often looks good but still there are
superb looking machines and rather ugly ones. Another
interesting analogy is the theory surrounding the Amesbury
Archer. His skeleton was found near Stonehenge and he had
clearly suffered a severe injury to his left knee; but to
compensate, his right femur had grown in size and strength;
strength where needed – a clear but less appealing example of
form following function.

FIGURE 2.40
More evolution
Source: Renzo Piano

40
 So sketching out how something functions may lead to Galileo was aware of non-linearity of scaling and described the
efficient or aesthetically pleasing structural or building forms. square/cube law – while area increases with the square of a
This approach is closely allied to another useful strategy dimension, the volume – and hence the mass – increases as the
where reference is made to mathematical analysis rather cube of the scale. He used this observation to explain that the
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than relying on geometry or function. Here shapes and sizes limited strength of endoskeletons and exoskeletal material means
are chosen to respond to stresses and strains predicted in the size of animals cannot be scaled up indefinitely. Two-metre
the structural analysis models. Deep members are used long insects are not possible, at least on this planet.
where bending moments are high, compression members are
designed to prevent buckling, and thin strong members are There is no need to be over-sophisticated for day to day design,
used where parts of the structure are in tension only. but a working knowledge of these fundamentals of structural
engineering is important and of course should include a basic
Yet another strategy is to mimic or ‘reverse engineer’ understanding of bending moments, shear forces, the interaction
naturally occurring shapes and sizes where nature has of struts and ties and load paths. An appreciation of how tendons,
already provided efficient and beautiful designs. In On ligaments and spinal columns work, that hollow bones are strong
Growth and Form, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson refers to the and light, and that joints (connections) between structural
example of Culmann’s crane, a form inspired by the curves in members are difficult to design but critical, is an advantage and
a section of trabecular bone. Also, Mitchell trusses – certain can add to the meaningful exchange of ideas between designers
‘ideal’ structures arising through a process of topological from different disciplines.
optimisation – exhibit a characteristic arrangement of curved
lines. Ideas, structural form and materials
It is possible for designers from different disciplines to work
Physical models can also be used to explore ideas, but scale together using only sketches, even if they do not understand each
effect is a problem that has to be borne in mind – scaled up other’s technical language. However, it does of course help to
origami does not work. Linear relationships between size, know the vocabulary of each discipline involved. As far as
structural behaviour and applied loadings do not exist. For structural engineering is concerned, terms such as ‘frame’, ‘arch’,
example, corrections applied to measurements of a model in ‘beam’, ‘dome’, ‘plate’, ‘membrane’ and ‘cantilever’ are part of
a wind tunnel to determine corresponding values for a full- everyday speech and need no further explanation. Even a few
sized object must be made using the science of fluid additions, for instance about structural form, help a great deal.
mechanics. (See Figure 2.41.)

41
 Structural Form Diagram
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Tensegrity – the characteristic property of a

Cable stay(ed) – flat structure in bending stable three-dimensional structure consisting
supported from above by cables radiating of members under tension that are contiguous
downward from masts that rise above. and members under compression that are
!

isolated.
!

Catenary – a curve formed by a wire, rope, or Monocoque – a structural approach that

chain hanging freely from two points that are supports loads through an object's external
not in the same vertical line. !

skin, similar to a ping-pong ball or egg shell.

Folded plate – a thin-walled building structure

!

Funicular – a polygonal form finding structure

of the shell type. Folded plate structures
either in pure compression or pure tension,
consist of flat components, or plates, that are
supporting or carrying load at defined node
interconnected at some dihedral angle (the
points. !

angle created by two intersecting planes).

Gridshell – a structure which derives its

strength from its double curvature (in the same Geodesic – a geodesic dome is a spherical or
way that a fabric structure derives strength partial-spherical shell structure or lattice shell
from double curvature), but is constructed of a based on a network of great circles
grid or lattice. The grid can be made of any (geodesics) on the surface of a sphere.
material, but is most often wood or steel. !

Anticlastic – having opposite curvatures at a

given point; specifically: curved convexly
Diagrid – a supporting framework in a building along a longitudinal plane section and
formed with diagonally intersecting ribs. concavely along the perpendicular section –
used of a surface – opposed to synclastic.
! !

Shell – a thin shell is defined as a shell with a

Vierendeel – an open-web truss with vertical
thickness which is small compared to its other
members but without diagonals and with rigid
dimensions and in which deformations are not
joints.
large compared to thickness.
!

FIGURE 2.41
Structural form

42
 Lightweight versus ‘normal’ structures 2.6 The use of hand sketches in practice
Another differentiator worth bearing in mind when sketching ideas,
is whether a structure will be designed by regular codified rules Developing ideas and concepts
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and fits into a ‘normal’ category or whether a different approach In his Second Sketchbook, Tony Hunt says he does not feel
has to be used. Small, lightweight structures are far from normal comfortable thinking about a design problem without a pencil in
– simple use of wind, lateral and gravity loads isn’t sufficient. his hand. For engineers and architects, sketching has long since
Design of small, lightweight structures is often about notional been an essential part of the design process and problem solving.
loads, acceptable movement, dynamics, redundancy and above It is a recognised way of exploring and developing ideas that start
all, safety. Pure engineering judgement plays a bigger part, but in the head but go through the hand on a lengthy journey of
nevertheless the logic behind a design should be described and exploration, explanation and development before they are
committed to paper. embodied in reality.

A good example is the ‘Urban Oasis’ design for Chetwood It is not surprising that in the early stages of this process, the
Architects (q.v.). If the arms or petals had been designed for sketches are often no more than scribbles, many of which are
normal wind loads, even a low pressure based on a 1 in 1 year discarded and committed to the waste bin. Design is iterative and
wind speed, the supporting structure would appear heavy and very rarely a straightforward linear process.
grossly over-designed. The simple answer here was an
arrangement whereby the arms were folded up against the mast if Sketching is an effective way of explaining spatial relationships,
strong winds were forecast, out of harm’s way. Other strategies visualising complex analysis, showing how ideas have evolved
for designing ‘small and light’ structures are to make use of and demonstrating how something is going to be built.
prototyping, testing and refinement.
From a practical point of view, there is no better way to start than
finding a tracing roll and a soft pencil and downloading ideas onto
* paper in a rough and ready fashion, just to develop your own
thoughts and then help begin a visual dialogue with colleagues
and designers in related disciplines.

Design references
Structural form is not often derived from a mathematical analysis
of a shape or a surface; neither is it common for it to spring from,
for example, knowledge of biological systems found in nature.
More often than not, spatial and functional requirements take

43
 centre stage, and reference to other influences is used to develop I had a manager once whose mantra was ‘get it right first time’.
initial ideas and move the design in a particular direction. But in a I knew from that point, that he had crossed the line from being a
way, that is the nature of design; you come up with a solution designer to being a manager interested primarily in efficiency and
and check to see whether it is suitable or not by looking back and economics.
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ensuring it meets the initial brief. Shape and design of structural

members is often more closely related to reference material. The Illustration and clarity
depth of beams for instance is related to loading and span, in In engineering sketching, clarity is vitally important. Single ideas
the same way that the diameter of a branch in a tree depends on can be separated out, unnecessary detail can be stripped away
how strong the wood is, the weight that has to be carried and the and line weight and quality can be chosen to lay emphasis on the
span of the branch acting as a cantilever. key ideas that you are trying to portray. There are a number of
ways of achieving clarity which in turn deal with complexity:
Design references are nevertheless important; sometimes they
can move a concept forward, sometimes they can be used as a • Assembly drawings: showing how elements fit together, rather
comparator, and sometimes they are valuable as retrospective like the diagrams beloved by model makers or flat-pack
rationalisation. Many concept sketches have been drawn by very furniture manufacturers;
famous designers after buildings have been built. • Sequence sketches: step by step illustrations of how
something is built against a time line;
Design development • Cutaway drawings: the best examples and most influential as
Designs do change for very good reason, for instance when other far as I was concerned were the double page drawings in the
disciplines join the team with their own particular requirements or Eagle – a comic long since absent from the newsagents.
when, say, contractors look at buildability and how a structure or
building can be put together in a safe and economic way. In fact, Beyond sketching?
change often happens as you draw, as you develop ideas and In my experience you can’t beat physical models; somehow they
test them on paper. In a complex world, don’t expect to get things are still superior to the very best computer generated images;
right first time! they are tangible. As a digression, physical models can also be
used to test structural behaviour as well as how something is put
Recording and explaining this type of design development can together. Bill Addis’s fascinating paper ‘Toys That Save Millions:
help show the design process has been thorough and rigorous. A History of Using Physical Models in Structural Design’,
Saving the sketches which go along with this sort of design published in the Structural Engineer in April 2013, describes the
development can show, for instance, that safety has been given benefits but as he points out, it is not correct to assume that the
due consideration. They will act as an audit trail through an often behaviour of a model test can be scaled up linearly to full size.
very complex and convoluted process. There are two types of structural phenomena or behaviour –

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FIGURE 2.42
Hand-drawn Eagle cutaway

45
 those that can be scaled up linearly, such as the linear There are mathematical techniques based on dimensionless
dimensions of a structure, the shape of a hanging chain of numbers that can be used, but it is not possible to make a single
weights or a membrane, and of funicular arches, vaults and scale-model structure that represents the full-size structure and its
domes; and the stability of masonry compression structures, behaviour in every respect.
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including arches, vaults and domes – and those that cannot, such
as the mass of a structure, the strength and stiffness of a beam, Coming back to sketching and drawing, most physical models
or the buckling load of a column or thin shell. start off with a sketch and then a drawing.

Addis says: • Exploded diagrams: show an assembly taken apart;

• Separating ideas: perhaps using copies of the same sketch to
This observation explains why masonry structures were show different aspects of the design (load paths, transfers,
able to develop so spectacularly, long before any areas of overlapping structure, loadings, areas of high stress,
scientific or mathematical understanding of structural access routes, air paths and so on);
behaviour. A model arch, vault or dome can be reliably • Storyboards and cartoons: just a visual way of explaining a
used to predict the behaviour of a similar, full-sized design or a strategy or a thought process.
structure.
The techniques can be used equally well for new-build projects
Galileo mentions the non-linearity of scaling (the and for understanding how existing buildings are put together and
square/cube law): area increases with the square of the how they work.
scale factor, the volume and hence the mass, increases
as the cube of the scale. He used this observation to *
explain that the limited strength of bone material means
the size of animals cannot be scaled up indefinitely.

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 PART 3: SKETCHBOOK
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3.0 INTRODUCTION

The following pages show examples of how hand sketches are team have decided to go, and it is good and reassuring to show
put to various construction-related uses – they are taken from you have followed a train of thought.
work on bid submissions and from various
engineering/architectural design stages ranging from concept to Some of the sketches were produced to summarise a proposal at
construction and beyond and were not drawn specifically for this a particular stage of the design development. They are again
book. Most of the sketches are constructed using simple useful, even as an audit trail, to show how a concept, often
axonometric projection and all were produced to illustrate necessarily simplistic, has been retained, developed or, with good
engineering or combined engineering and architectural principles reason, has been lost altogether.
or objectives. All aim to show a personal touch and a level of
human involvement which avoids some of the pitfalls of overly The sketches that make up Figure 3.0 tell a story. The left hand
clinical, unfeeling or over-complicated CAD imagery. If the drawing was produced in 1970 for a contractor working on the
sketches have anything in common, it is that they are attempts at redevelopment of Fort Regent in Jersey who was rightly very
putting ideas on paper with as much clarity as possible. They are proud of his newly acquired demolition machinery. I think it was
intended to communicate, to assist in sharing and exploring then that I realised that civil engineering plant are great fun to
thoughts and ideas. draw. The sketch on the right, from forty-five years later, is part of
a design development note still based on hand sketching, but this
Few if any of the sketches are from design workshops; I find time produced for a major scheme to reinvigorate the leisure

S KE TCH BOOK
these are usually scribbles that are the first manifestation of ideas facilities at the Fort.
and too abstract to be of much value in themselves. The best
approach is to take these scribbles away, and draw cartoons that
trace the emergence of a design or approach. Examples are
shown on pages 56, 60, 61, 67, 98, 106, 127, 139, 163, 190,
205, 241 and 242. Perhaps it is retrospective justification or
rationalisation but it is design development, the way you and your

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48
FIGURE 3.0
Fort Regent, Jersey
 Building types 3.1 LONG SPAN STRUCTURES
Because the sketches were made primarily for proposals,
competitive bids or in connection with the various work stages of The development of these buildings started in the nineteenth
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real projects, they were often drawn with more than a single century with the advent of the railways, which generated the need
objective in mind. The sketches are therefore best grouped for long span enclosures at a time when the basis of building
according to building type rather than for specific purpose, and technology was advancing from the use of cast iron to wrought
each is provided with a description of why they were produced in iron and then to steel. Steel, with its high strength to weight ratio,
the first place. Note the number of sketches that illustrate was and still is the ideal material for the construction of long span
basement construction in urban areas. This is indicative of just lightweight structures. Train sheds in the nineteenth century grew
how difficult works in the ground can be in terms of engineering from Brunel’s Paddington Station with a main span of 30m to
design, site logistics, economics and buildability. Barlow and Ordish’s St Pancras Station with a span of 74m.
Exhibition halls followed suit, from Paxton’s Great Exhibition hall
* in 1851 (later re-erected at Crystal Palace) to the Galerie des
Machines for the 1889 Paris Exhibition by Contamin and Dutert
with a span of 114m.

In the early twentieth century the major technological advances

changed from land to air, starting with the development of the
airship. The need to house these huge machines led to the
construction of economical, long span, large volume sheds – the
largest was the Goodyear Airdock at Akron, Ohio, USA, opened
in l929, with a parabolic three-pinned arch structure spanning
99m.

S KE TCH BOOK
Larger heavier than air aircraft have also forced the development
of clear-span hangars – when our practice worked on a scheme
for a hangar for the first 747s, we christened it a ‘glove hangar’
because it was designed with a special housing for the tail fin.

So when is long span long span? It depends on function but

warehouses, train sheds, sports stadia and even supermarkets
have all qualified in the past. The structural form tends to be

49
 varied in buildings; less so in bridges – long span building In wind dominated long span designs, wind load reversal,
structures often span in two directions while bridges on the whole asymmetrical or patch loading from snow or wind, needs to be
are linear. Common types of long span building structures are considered carefully and so does the effect of inevitably large
listed below: deflections on, for example, suspended services or hangar doors.
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Wind related environmental effects such as pitch microclimate

• Various beam types – single span and continuous spans and spectator comfort in stadia design and external microclimate
• Portals around large buildings all require careful consideration from an
• Arches early stage.
• Domes
• Masted structures
• Two-way spanning structures
• Space decks
• Cable nets
• Membranes
• Umbrellas
• Shells
• Span shortening back-stayed cantilevers
• Air supported structures.

Although steel is by far the most widely used material, long spans
have been built using concrete, steel/timber composites, timber,
and PTFE. Achieving a cost effective design for a large span roof
often involves lightweight structures, making these roofs highly
sensitive to wind and snow loading. In order for sophisticated 3D
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structural modelling to deliver efficient structural design, accurate

loading scenarios are required for wind that account for complex
fluid–structure interactions including wind driven dynamic
effects.

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 FIGURE 3.1/1
NATO headquarters
building. A competition
sketch for a long span,
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lightweight rainscreen
roof over a set of free
standing buildings for
NATO. The concept,
never fully supported by
serious analysis and
calculation, was based
on perimeter ‘span
shortening’ cantilevers.
They supported an inner
tension ring beam which
in turn supported a
geodesic dome with its
central compression
ring. Asymmetric wind
and snow loading would
have been difficult to
deal with and
constructing the
conventional buildings
under the roof would
have led to craneage
difficulties.

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 FIGURE 3.1/2
The Science Museum, Wroughton, Swindon. Here the design progressed from an option
based on a clear span arch to a number of options using propped or cable assisted spans.
This approach was viable since the layout of the museum could easily accommodate internal
supports without compromising exhibit or storage space. The design moved away from heroic
structure towards smaller spans, which in turn led to much improved structural efficiency and
opened up design possibilities with regard to supporting areas of green roof, sub-division of
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the structure into transportable elements and a visually interesting structural arrangement.
Reduced spans with smaller span/depth ratios were also more suitable for the use of hybrid
timber/steel trusses.
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FIGURE 3.1/3
The Science Museum, Wroughton, Swindon. Funding was never achieved and the scheme was
abandoned. This was a great shame because the preferred option in steel and timber would have
provided an attractive structure and a somewhat unusual solution in the UK which has no great
tradition in long span timber buildings. Further design development might have led to the
introduction of natural light and an optimised structure using steel to carry tensile loads and timber
to deal with the compressive loads. The whole approach could have produced a building with a
highly sustainable pedigree.

53
 FIGURE 3.1/4
Euro-Building. Part of a design study for a large, minimum cost warehouse based on steel portal
frames (a well understood branch of structural engineering often carried out by specialists). The
construction sequence, whether the frame can be erected using rubber tyred plant tracking over the
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newly constructed ground slab, and speed of erection are factors that have to be taken into account
by the designers.
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FIGURE 3.1/5
Conference centre, Tripoli, Libya. A proposal for a conference centre which was planned for a
prominent site in Tripoli, Libya, by Zaha Hadid Architects. This grand design was designed to
provide several venues all under the same roof. In its early stages of design development, the
curvilinear roof structure was based on parallel primary trussed arches supported on inter-
connecting secondary steel trusses forming a diagrid. Lateral thrusts were resisted by a concrete
perimeter skirt tied from side to side by internal structure. The roof covering consisted of insulated
gunite on deep profile metal decking.
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 FIGURE 3.1/6
Cambridge Regional College, phase 2. One of Powell & Moya’s final schemes, this design developed from a grand gestured
masted structure to a much more subtle one. Instead of a very extravagant central mast, paired masts were arranged between
classroom blocks with tie-downs positioned either side of central circulation corridors. This has the effect of giving just a hint in the
external appearance of what might be happening below the roof planes. The system gave spans that could be achieved using glulam
beams over flexible workshop space, supported by cable assisted glulam cantilevers supported by the twin masts. The two
dimensional concept was replicated longitudinally but the back-to-back structure is not inter-dependent, and therefore the building
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bays could be offset to suit site constraints.

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 FIGURE 3.1/7
Exhibition centre. An exhibition centre in the Middle East, one of the largest of its kind with a 73,000 m2 indoor event space. Its
success is thought to have stimulated local development. This scheme was designed to deliver more indoor area by creating an
arena between existing buildings. Site access and erection methodologies using mobile cranes were the main considerations in
developing a fairly pragmatic design solution.
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FIGURE 3.1/8
Sustainable power
generation, India. P4P
developed an innovative
scheme to construct
photovoltaic arrays over
irrigation canals in north-
west India. The idea
was based on
lightweight, efficient
cable structures,
supporting PV panels
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over the canals, which

would both reduce
evaporation and
minimise land take and
thereby deliver a truly
sustainable design. How
to build the structures
was the biggest
challenge.

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FIGURE 3.1/9
Sustainable power
generation, India. Twin
mobile cranes on
connected barges made
use of available
machinery and

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generated some very
unusual sequence
sketches. Design
challenges revolved
around achieving robust
and reliable ground
anchors in a whole
range of different
geological conditions.

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FIGURE 3.1/10
Retail store, Manchester. The primary aim of this scheme was to design a retail building with a column-free interior under a
lightweight roof. The efficiency of the cable stay system relied on the way the masts were inclined, the backstay arrangement, the
cable profile being not too shallow and whether the wind uplift loads were carried by counter-poised cables or wind trusses. Working
with Chetwood Architects, the final proposal was based on a hidden wind truss and angled backstays.

60
 FIGURE 3.1/11
J. Sainsbury, Camden
Town, London. Early
proposals for J.
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Sainsbury at Camden
Town were considered
too ordinary for the
planners so Nicholas
Grimshaw was
commissioned to
produce a more radical
design. These sketches
are a retrospective of
white board sessions
with the architectural
team and show the
development of ideas
from two storey
massing, positioning the
upper level
accommodation over the
columns, portalising the
structure, to an
articulated system with
back-stayed cantilever
supports carrying an
internal lightweight roof.
Sketch reproduced by
kind permission of

S KE TCH BOOK
Sainsbury’s
Supermarkets Ltd.

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 3.2 HIGH RISE

In recent decades, the planet has urbanised on an unprecedented realm treatments and assessing capacity for pedestrians, public
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scale. We need to create cities that can cope with these transport and traffic now contribute to balanced streetscapes, in
demographic changes and accommodate the inevitable pressure terms of movement and the psychological perception of tall
on transport, energy, water and living spaces. In an age when buildings.
more than half the world’s population lives in cities, there is more
demand than ever for space. Tall buildings offer the most efficient The concept of the ‘vertical city’ is gaining acceptance, resulting
use of land; building up, rather than out, must be part of the in more mixed-use tall buildings in recent years. Renzo Piano
solution. It is part of the responsibility of engineers to design the referred to the Shard as a vertical city. He recognised that tall
structure of tall buildings so that they meet the various needs of buildings need to deliver places that people enjoy for living,
the urban population in a flexible and responsible way. leisure and shopping, as well as for working. The wider economic,
Consequently, the challenges for the engineer are numerous. social and environmental benefits of tall buildings set in good
public realm is beyond question. A well-positioned tall building
One of the key objectives of building tall in historic cities is offering such benefits can have a regenerative effect on its
keeping streetscapes permeable and delicate. Tall buildings surroundings.
require large cores and huge columns to take lateral and gravity
forces, but they also must respect people and public spaces at So, apart from how a tall building fits into the grain and fabric
street level. There is a history in architectural development of not of a city, and the scale of structure at street level, what else is
paying sufficient attention to the interface of tall buildings and life different about the design of a true tall building? There are
at ground level. Now it is generally accepted by the best several issues that are particularly important for the structural
designers that the effect at street level is equally as important as engineer:
the impact on the skyline, and is critical to integration into the
culture and lifeblood of a city.
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Design criteria
In the past, street design has not been a priority for all • Efficiency:
stakeholders – the net result is that tall buildings have been • Viability usually depends on efficiency, which can in part be
planted on sites without due regard for their surroundings. By measured by calculating the building’s ‘net to gross’ area –
engaging in a different approach, through an evolving and in other words, efficiency depends on the ratio of useable
collaborative process with professional advisors, designers and floor area to the gross floor area which includes the core
more enlightened key stakeholders, a robust and respectful result (vertical transportation and risers), space for plant and so
can be achieved. Analysing different street typologies and public on. In a tall building the space taken for vertical

62
 transportation and risers increases with height, as does the Countless other design factors have to be dealt with, including
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influence of the lateral system needed to support horizontal (to name just a few):
loads.
• Movement: • Aesthetics
• Horizontal movement under lateral loads (sway). The • Impact on the cityscape
overturning effect increases as sway increases. Excessive • Rights of light
sway can also lead to damage of façades and internal • Fire strategy
finishes. • Lifting strategy
• Acceleration (this is what you feel when a tall building • Façade design
oscillates). • Façade cleaning
• Differential axial movement in vertical members due to the • Plant space and location
use of different materials (say a concrete core and a steel • Integration of services
frame) or due to different strains caused by non-uniform • Buildability
stresses in separate members carrying gravity loads. • Timescale
• Gravity and lateral loads: • Maintenance
• The sheer scale of structure needed to safely transmit • Cost.
gravity loads to the foundation and to resist wind or seismic
loads must be taken into account. In general, the structure plays a more important part in the
• Floor-to-floor height – saving a few millimetres on every storey conceptual design of towers than it perhaps does in other building
could mean an additional floor becomes possible within a types. An understanding of possible structural solutions, how a tall
given stack (overall height). building is going to meet the ground and how it is going to be
• Robustness – protection against disproportionate collapse due built is essential in the formative design stages of a project.

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to localised damage.
• Protection against the effects of an extreme event.

63
 FIGURE 3.2/1
The Shard at London Bridge. Early research by the architectural team from the Renzo Piano Building Workshop included viewing
the urban landscape from the top of Southwark Towers. RPBW’s architects were struck by the view of a river of water (the Thames)
and a river of steel (the railway tracks). The project then began to take shape, by reference to the movement and scale of these
‘rivers’, by the inspiration of seventeenth-century landscapes, and through a belief that the idea of a tall, mixed-use tower was an
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idea fully compatible with urban regeneration and living in the city.
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FIGURE 3.2/2
The Shard at London Bridge. Programme is always important and this sketch shows a ‘top down’ sequence where the main core
and the substructure are being constructed simultaneously. First the perimeter basement wall is built followed by the core
substructure. The ground level slab is then constructed and, with the walls now propped by the ground slab, excavation takes place
below. This process is repeated until the lowest raft slab is reached and meanwhile, the core construction is underway from ground
level upwards. Note that this proposal pre-dated any by contractors and their advisors who joined the team at later stages.

65
 FIGURE 3.2/3
The Shard at London
Bridge. Below ground
constraints and
boundary conditions
were investigated in
detail. The Jubilee Line
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tunnels run very close to

the northwest corner of
the site, vent shafts are
close by and a disused
lift shaft and associated
tunnels crossed the site
boundary at the
southwest corner. On
the northern and eastern
boundaries the interface
with the substructure
arches of London Bridge
Station had to be
understood. In addition,
piles from earlier
buildings across the site
and sensitive
infrastructure in the road
and pavements to the
south all added to the
complexity.
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 FIGURE 3.2/4
The Shard at London Bridge. From left to right, the earliest design for the lateral stability system was based on an all-steel framed
building with a specially stiffened core. This evolved into a system that engaged the entire structure but with the need for a tuned
mass damper at high level. Steel outriggers were added at plant level, connected to sizeable internal columns. Eventually, the upper
part of the building was changed to concrete and following careful analysis of the distribution of mass, stiffness and damping within
the building, all the normal design criteria could be achieved by the addition of a simple hat truss but with no need for a tuned mass
damper at the top.
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FIGURE 3.2/5
The Shard at London Bridge. A ‘mixed structure’ was developed for the ‘mixed use’ Shard, with steel in the lower (office) levels
and concrete for the hotel and the residences at the top; and it made good sense to revert to steel for the spire. Many column
arrangements were investigated, always with the aim of minimising the number of internal columns and, where possible, landing
these columns on core walls at levels where lifts dropped off. Key features of the structural design were captured on this sketch.

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FIGURE 3.2/6
The Shard at London Bridge. Façade access is especially challenging on an asymmetrical tall building like the Shard. Vertical rope
lengths for cleaning cradles are restricted by mandatory codes and therefore BMUs (Building Maintenance Units) must be located at
more than one level, and are usually housed in areas reserved for plant rooms. The BMUs themselves are complicated pieces of
machinery and have to be stowed away out of sight when not actually in use. As described later, the machine at the top of the spire
was also designed to assist in the dismantling of the final construction tower crane.

69
 FIGURE 3.2/7
The Shard at London Bridge. Like most tall buildings, the core of the Shard is multi-functional. It not only provides the key element
of the lateral stability system but carries gravity loads, accommodates vertical circulation in the form of lifts and stairs and provides
risers for mechanical and electrical services. Not surprisingly, a great deal of effort is required to find the most efficient arrangement;
a compact core provides a good net-to-gross ratio for the floor plates. Quick and easy exploded axonometrics were used to explore
the options and to study in particular set-back levels where lifts drop off and the core can reduce in size. Other key details were
developed using axonometrics, including the spire, perimeter edge details and the form of the corner winter gardens. (The bottom
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right view shows the exposed structure in the underside of a winter garden.)
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 FIGURE 3.2/8
The Shard at London Bridge. The building footprint covers the entire site and the area is
surrounded by one of the busiest railway stations in London, a bus station and busy, narrow
streets. Craneage strategies were developed with the pre-construction advisor, Brookfield
Multiplex, and due consideration was given to procedures where cranes could be used to lift
each other from one level to the next to serve the work fronts, and then reversing the
sequence to bring the cranes down after the structure and cladding were complete.
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 FIGURE 3.2/9
The Shard at London Bridge. These sequence sketches are a record of the actual
craneage strategy used to construct the Shard. Several ideas developed during the initial
design stages were adopted by contractors: cranes were lifted by each other to higher
levels (the taper of the building meant that simple vertical extending masts could not be
tied back safely to permanent structure at upper levels), a crane was built off a cantilever
bracket, the window cleaning permanent crane at the top of the spire was used to
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dismantle the highest construction crane. So many people in London had asked ‘How will
they get the top crane down?’ One important innovation by the contractors (a first at least
for the UK), was the use of a central crane that was lifted with the slip form equipment
used to cast the concrete core.
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 FIGURE 3.2/10
The Shard at London Bridge. A retrospective
sketch produced, with some artistic licence, to
show that there is more to the Shard than its
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above-ground presence.

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 FIGURE 3.2/11
Pinwheel, Beirut,
Lebanon. A quick ‘HB’
pencil drawing works
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better in some
circumstances to convey
a single, simple
message – here that
cladding follows closely
behind the structure.
Consistent ‘wobbly-line’
quality is important and
is best achieved by
over-drawing very faint
accurately set out guide
lines – a not very
sophisticated technique
known as ‘guided
freehand’. This sketch
was part of a
construction sequence
for RPBW’s Pinwheel/
SOLIDERE scheme in
Beirut.
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 FIGURE 3.2/12
Al Burj. The foundation to the one-kilometre-high Al Burj was constructed when the recession started and put an end to work on site. It would have
been the tallest building in the world and consisted of four discrete elements linked by sky-lobbies at three intermediate levels and at the top. The
sub-division of the tower was a major factor with regard to aerodynamic performance and was also the basis of an important safety feature –
transfer from one part of the building affected by an event to another unaffected part would be possible through the sky lobbies.
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 FIGURE 3.2/13
Project in Dubai with KPF. Proposals included cranes lifted
up into position by each other, a crane located on a
cantilevered bracket and a crane mounted on a slipform, all
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strategies used later on the Shard.

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 FIGURE 3.2/14
Project in Dubai with KPF. This is an axonometric of the building under
construction; it also shows the podium structure. The upper level of the
podium structure was to be constructed using structural steel and based on
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prefabricated three-dimensional columns. Segments of the flared heads

were to be arranged around the columns, tilted up and connected to each
other and then lifted vertically into place. The crane could therefore work in
relatively confined spaces close to the column under construction. Lifting the
column heads up the central cores by means of jacks (strand jacks)
positioned at the top of the columns might also have been a possibility.

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 FIGURE 3.2/15
Bank headquarters, Middle East. Sometimes simple sketches are the most effective – limited use of colour would help and basic
knowledge of tower crane type, scale and positioning provides a degree of credibility. Not all schemes are as easy as this one to
describe visually, but for buildability and build sequencing it is always worth experimenting with two dimensional diagrams before
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investing time in anything more complicated.

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FIGURE 3.2/16
Strata, London. Strata is a very distinctive residential tower on the London skyline. The core was originally conceived as triangular
on plan but eventually evolved into a more conventional rectangular configuration but assisted in terms of the lateral stability system
by outrigger walls as shown here. Simple one point vertical perspective and axonometric core drawings were used at the formative
stages of the project.

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FIGURE 3.2/17
Twin towers, Kuwait. Vertical single point perspectives are surprisingly easy to do and good enough to summarise the basics of
tower design. Details provide information on unusual aspects such as pre-cast slab edges and adjustable tilted shuttering for columns
and tapered table formwork.

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FIGURE 3.2/18
Columbus Tower, West India Quay. Columbus Tower was the name given to a scheme to be built over the Crossrail running
tunnels at the western end of West India Quay in London’s Docklands. The architect explored various massing options designed to
accommodate a number of combinations of commercial, residential and retail space. Each proposal had to deal with the foundation
constraints imposed by the tunnel alignments, tunnel exclusion zones and the existing, protected dock walls. In addition all the
proposals were developed to include a viable lateral system, fundamental to the design of tall buildings – most here are based on
shear walls on the major axis and out-riggered core walls on the minor axis.
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FIGURE 3.2/19
13–14 Appold Street, London. Appold Street is a world-class mixed use development located near Liverpool Street Station in the
London Borough of Hackney. The building comprises forty-five storeys over a three-level basement on a non-rectilinear, relatively
small footprint. A protected view corridor crosses the site and to a certain extent dictates the massing of the building. Mid-height steel
trusses are designed to support columns in the upper level hotel floors so that the lower commercial floors can be column-free. The
trusses also work as outriggers in conjunction with the core to provide a robust lateral stability system. The building is of necessity
highly complex and versions of the sketch on the right, showing the transfer/outrigger system, were marked up to illustrate for
example the use of different materials, how the stairs negotiate these complex levels and how the trusses are anchored back to the
core. Sketches reproduced by kind permission of Masterworks Developments.
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FIGURE 3.2/20
High-rise modular. Cold formed light gauge modular construction consisting of factory produced modules had been used for some
time in low rise projects, especially for hotels and student accommodation. These sketches were part of a study to develop a high-
rise system based on modular units but with alternative lateral stability systems. Upper left relies on slip formed reinforced concrete
cores designed as the primary stability elements and with the floor plates providing horizontal diaphragm action. Bottom left shows a
different system where the lateral loads are carried by hot-rolled steel shear frames and the cores are constructed from lightweight
panels. Detailing, especially at junctions, was the key to success of this project.
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 FIGURE 3.2/21
Proposed development, Leeds. These sketches are the simplest
possible type of single point perspective used here to compare
the proposals for a development in Leeds to the iconic Board of
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Trade Building and its extension in Chicago. Colour would add a

bit of life to the drawing but the message is about awareness of
exemplar buildings, massing and slenderness of the tower rather
than detailed engineering.
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 FIGURE 3.2/22
Proposed development, Newcastle. A scheme for a high-rise in
Newcastle loosely based on the Shard but taking the steel framing
further up the building. The big difference here was the even more
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severe constraints in the ground requiring the lower storeys to span

across major rail infrastructure. The whole design was rather like a
marriage between the Shard and the Eiffel Tower but the proportions
were never quite as elegant as the Shard and the base constraints
meant that there was less opportunity to move away from a
symmetrical four-sided pyramid.

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 FIGURE 3.2/23
Twisting Tower, Dublin. Another victim of the 2007/8 recession, the Twisting Tower on the
Dublin waterfront would have been an imposing building. Here the main design issue was
how to fit the various duplex apartment layouts together. This was first solved as if the stack
was vertical, and then creating the spiral by stepping the walls gradually. Gravity loads were
carried on sloping perimeter columns
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 FIGURE 3.2/24
Hotel, Doha. Designer and engineer have to work closely together to produce practical and buildable solutions for initial concepts
that are in some ways sculptural – the functionality of the building and then the structure have to be fitted into the original design, as
per this futuristic scheme by Heatherwick Studio for the Grand Hotel in Doha.
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FIGURE 3.2/25
Bastion House, London Wall, London. Plans to redevelop Bastion House in the City of London based on a partial rebuild never
progressed beyond concept stage. Sketches such as these were used to explain the complexities of the scheme, especially with
regard to the feasibility of constructing new foundations required to support a new frame built over and around the existing structure.

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FIGURE 3.2/26
Proposed development, Liverpool. This was a design competition to redevelop an important site not too far from the waterfront and
some of Liverpool’s iconic buildings. Simple axonometric sketches show the stepped façades of the first construction phase and the
massing for the second phase atrium and tower.

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 FIGURE 3.2/27
Colechurch House. The
site for Colechurch
House near the southern
abutment of London
Bridge has all the usual
inner city constraints
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plus significant level

differences between
parallel streets. The
point of this sketch was
to show how the
proposed buildings and
the existing No. 1
London Bridge could be
interlinked at street level.
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 FIGURE 3.2/28
Milton Court, Moor Lane, City of
London. Milton Court, a major
development in the City of London,
contains a world class concert hall, a
teaching theatre and a residential tower.
Spatial requirements for the various uses
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were fitted together rather like a three

dimensional puzzle on this highly
constrained site. This cutaway section
shows the teaching theatre which is
positioned directly below the thirty-six
storey residential tower and shows the
relationship between the tower core,
shear walls and transfer structure
carrying load across the theatre itself.

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 FIGURE 3.2/29
Milton Court, Moor Lane, City of London. Sequence sketches
were produced for Milton Court to show different design solutions
adopted to take account of various site perimeter conditions. A
secant wall was used where gravity loads from the new development
are high and a king post embedded wall was used on the western
boundary where loads are much lower. The southwest was
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particularly difficult due to the existence of complex buried services.

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 FIGURE 3.2/30
Leadenhall Triangle, Billiter Street, London. The City of London is
particularly complex, with crowded buildings separated by narrow
lanes and alleyways. Understanding the site context is important
during the initial planning stages, and here at Leadenhall Triangle
the development proposals are heavily influenced by boundary
conditions and the existence of a listed building in a rather
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inconvenient position facing Billiter Street.

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 FIGURE 3.2/31
New Jersey, USA. This
was a scheme that
never developed beyond
the first simplistic idea of
stacking blocks one
above the other. Each
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cantilever wing would

have been built out from
the central core using
the full depth of the
elevation to provide
strength and stiffness.
The core alone would
carry lateral loads.
Extreme engineering for
a rather ambitious
architectural concept.
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 3.3 LOW- AND MID-RISE

Low- and mid-rise is really a catch-all category and probably Sketching on a supermarket project is often needed to explain a
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covers 90 per cent of buildings in most places, ranging from new proposed construction sequence to a vast array of interested
build to refurbishment, from 5 or 6 storey offices, to residential parties ranging from clients to designers, programmers and
blocks, art galleries and supermarkets. Nevertheless, they bring contractors. Just now and again, someone will propose a flagship
many of the same issues and challenges that apply to larger, store or a radical design that will need special attention and
taller or more specialised buildings. Sometimes they are less provide great opportunities to do some fun sketches.
reliant on grand engineering solutions and more on careful, crisp
detailing. Good clear, clean detailing isn’t easy to achieve; Sketching on refurbishment or alteration projects is different. Here
simplicity and neat solutions take time to develop and require a it may be important to pick out and illustrate particular areas only
great deal of interdisciplinary cooperation and effort. Many low- or and leave other parts in sketchy or broad outline. It is often as
mid-rise buildings have become landmarks or are considered important to decide what not to show as it is to show the
exceptional pieces of design. Whether a project achieves this important features. Cutaway illustrations come into their own on
status or not, there is still a lot of satisfaction to be had in refurbishment and alteration projects.
delivering a well-thought-out end product.
Hand sketching also lends itself to communication on domestic
Take supermarkets for instance, at first sight an uninspiring scale projects, because it is quick to do and easy for non-
building type. But the whole sector has its special challenges and technical clients to understand. This applies to rear extensions
is very competitive so there is a need to build economical and and to palaces for Russian oligarchs alike.
efficient structures. The pressure often focuses on designing a
simple, lightweight structure while minimising the number of Low- and mid-rise buildings may not have the instantaneous
columns, particularly in the sales area. Sustainability objectives attraction of other categories, but every single construction project
based on the use of natural ventilation and natural light, on the will have its own challenges and opportunities.

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use of recycled materials and reduced embodied energy are
becoming normal practice. Shorter and shorter construction
programmes are also driving the buildability aspects of the design
approach. Over and above all of this, architects find these
projects equally challenging and will fight hard to make their mark
and do something that hasn’t been done before.

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FIGURE 3.3/1
J. Sainsbury, Greenwich, London. Sainsbury’s millennium store at Greenwich won fourteen awards for sustainable design. The
main features were: natural light, natural ventilation, use of recycled materials, ground source heating and cooling, and the use of
combined heat and power plant. The structure was based on ‘reasonable’ spans allowing the design of efficient structure further
reducing embodied energy. Sketch reproduced by kind permission of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.

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FIGURE 3.3/2
J. Sainsbury, Greenwich, London. The raised floor was designed to draw fresh air from outside through perimeter earth
embankments into the sales area, where stack effect causes it to rise towards ventilation in the apexes of the north-light roof voids.
Rather traditional north-light roof configuration allowed maximum penetration of good quality natural light. However, it has to be
admitted that the ‘tilt-up’ method of casting perimeter wall panels on the ground (top right) and rotating them into place (a popular
North American and Australian technique) never happened and the wind turbines were no more than tokenism. Sketch reproduced by
kind permission of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.

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FIGURE 3.3/3
Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s at Hedge End, Hampshire. Something special had to be
designed to act as a focal point and announce the entrances to the Marks & Spencer and
Sainsbury’s stores at Hedge End. Many forms were examined but the final choice rested on the
perceived need for height rather than on any structural logic. Sketch reproduced by kind permission
of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.

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FIGURE 3.3/4
J. Sainsbury, the Dome Roundabout, Watford. Another Sainsbury supermarket – these sketches
showed ideas to streamline construction and shorten build duration but the real challenge was to
maintain the simple, clean elegant lines of the building. Crisp, clear detailing to match the overall
simplicity isn’t achieved easily and takes an inordinate amount of effort from the whole design team.
Sketch reproduced by kind permission of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.

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FIGURE 3.3/5
Savacentre Superstore, Beckton Triangle, London. Savacentre for Sainsbury’s at Beckton was
designed to be economic. The scheme was based on reasonably spaced columns on a regular grid
supporting continuous lightweight steel trusses. Ground conditions were poor but suitable for driven piles
which were used to support the frame and the ground slab. From an engineering point of view, the
unclad structure looked fantastic: it was a real shame to hide it behind ceilings and roofing. Sketch
reproduced by kind permission of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.
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FIGURE 3.3/6
J. Sainsbury, Camden Town, London. In the mid-1980s this was a controversial design and even now
divides opinion. The main building was set to match the surrounding streetscape in height and grain but
there any reference to historical context ended. It was without question a very different ‘high-tech’
approach to supermarket design: exposed and expressed structure and a clear span providing column
free space for future flexibility. It followed the London tradition of placing new architecture alongside
older styles. Sketch reproduced by kind permission of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.
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 FIGURE 3.3/7
J. Sainsbury, Camden
Town, London. The
design of Nicholas
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Grimshaw’s unique
supermarket at Camden
Town is based on two-
storey back-stayed
perimeter structure
supporting an internal
simply supported roof
truss. These hand
drawings just preceded
widespread use of CAD
and are ‘guided
freehand’ sketches (key
lines drawn faintly using
a drawing board and set
squares). They show
how the tapered girders
were put together and
the erection sequence.
Sketch reproduced by
kind permission of
Sainsbury’s
Supermarkets Ltd.
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 FIGURE 3.3/8
The Barry Rooms, the National Gallery, London. Old roofs over a central group of galleries known as the Barry Rooms were replaced as part of
a major refurbishment project at the National Gallery. New clear spanning structure was designed to allow free travel of cleaning gantries used to
provide safe access to the lay-light glass immediately above the galleries. The cutaway drawing shows the rotating gantry suspended from structure
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spanning over the central dome.

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 FIGURE 3.3/9
The National Portrait Gallery, London. This is a construction sequence sketch for a neat little scheme
to infill a courtyard between the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery. The infill was an
extension to the National Portrait Gallery and consequently the boundary only of the National Gallery is
shown. Colour was used to separate proposed construction from existing structure.
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 FIGURE 3.3/10
Arts building, Manchester. The form of this proposal by RHWL Arts Team for the Manchester First Street arts
building (subsequently called ‘Home’) is based on interconnecting boxes. Complexity is concentrated at the
front of the building in the foyer area, and here the steel framing is arranged to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Externally the massing is clean and simple and doesn’t reveal anything about how the building is structured.
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FIGURE 3.3/11
BRIT School for the Performing Arts, London. From the outset, the design intent was to produce an overtly dramatic building in
character with its intended use. Scheme proposals developed from a concept where long roof spans were designed as propped
cantilevers either side of a rigid central theatre block. The resulting structural arrangement therefore reflected a classic bending
moment diagram for back-to-back propped cantilevers.

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FIGURE 3.3/12
Cantilever scheme, Northgate, London. This diagrid scheme for the Northgate site cantilevered 27 metres into the air rights
space over the railway at the junction of Norton Folgate and Worship Street. It might have qualified as ‘extreme engineering’ and
would have been very difficult to build. The exploded view on the right was used to demonstrate the key structural systems and
components. Perhaps surprisingly, control of torsional drift (lateral twisting displacement under wind loading) proved to be the
greatest problem.
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 FIGURE 3.3/13
London School of Economics, Bankside, London. The staggered truss system, shown bottom right, is an ingenious way of
designing a base structure that provides a number of attractive structural features: reasonably large column-free floor areas, flat
soffits, efficient use of steel in storey-high trusses and inherent lateral stability. The central corridor, passing through vierendeel bays,
makes the concept particularly appropriate for hotel or student accommodation layouts. At the LSE’s Bankside building, the concept
was further developed in an over-build scheme which cantilevered at each end above existing structure that was deemed incapable
of accepting additional load.
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FIGURE 3.3/14
China competition. The challenge in some design competitions is to propose something different, something that has not been done
before. Here the focus was on the main entrance to a relatively small building that in terms of height and massing presented few
opportunities. Ideas ranged from unnecessary cantilevered floors, to giant arched lobbies to a rather bizarre suite of executive offices
and meeting rooms suspended from high level designed to resemble a massive Chinese lantern.

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FIGURE 3.3/15
The Wellcome Trust headquarters, Euston Road, London. At the first design team meeting, the architect said it would take five
years to design and build a worthy headquarters building for the Wellcome Trust and he wasn’t far wrong. The building really consists
of two parallel blocks either side of an internal street – inside it is impressive, set off by carefully detailed steel features and high
quality finishes. Drawing and developing the expressed structural details brings architect and engineer together with a common aim of
producing a building to be proud of.
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 FIGURE 3.3/16
Building 5, the Shell Centre redevelopment. Before committing to more conventional CAD drawings, RIBA stage C concept design
is summarised here using hand drawn sketches of key features. This design is for Building 5 at the Shell redevelopment site on
London’s South Bank. An axonometric of the more unusual part of the design is intended to add interest and understanding to an
otherwise routine structural scheme.
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 FIGURE 3.3/17
Parklands Textiles, Annesley Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire.
Earthmoving is a bit uninspiring but has to be dealt with. The
Parklands Textiles factory in the Midlands was built on spread
footings partly founded on cut areas and partly on compacted
fill material. Sketches were used to explain the strategy and to
impress on the contractors the importance of complying with the
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compaction specifications for the filled area of the site.

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 FIGURE 3.3/18
UCL scheme, London.
A simple axonometric
showing existing
buildings on a site in
Central London and their
relationship to London
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Underground tunnels.

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 FIGURE 3.3/19
UCL scheme, London.
The same drawing but
altered to show potential
for redevelopment or
change of use.
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FIGURE 3.3/20
Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, London. Different schemes were considered for redeveloping the Royal Brompton
Hospital’s main site in London. Some included demolition of the main building with only the façades of ancillary buildings retained,
others looked at relatively minor interventions within the main building, keeping it in use, but totally rebuilding the ancillary buildings
behind the retained façades. The second option, of course, would always be problematic in terms of avoiding disruption to the day-to-
day running of a busy hospital.
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 FIGURE 3.3/21
Royal Brompton Hospital, South Parade, London. Drawn using aerial views available on the web and street plans, it is possible to
capture a fair amount of detail. However, there are always hidden features and a site visit is essential. Working just with aerial views
it is often difficult to judge heights and level changes, and of course aerial views will tell you nothing about existing basements and
below ground infrastructure.
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 FIGURE 3.3/22
Threadneedle Street,
London. Façade design
requires input from many
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disciplines, not least

from construction
engineers who have to
consider transport,
logistics and buildability.
With the renewed
interest in the economic
and sustainability
credentials of pre-cast
concrete, the system
illustrated here was
proposed for the
Threadneedle Street
project with Eric Parry
Architects but eventually
abandoned in favour of
a different aesthetic.

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 3.4 BRIDGES

Bridge design is recognised as a specialised and rather at pattern loads but at traction, braking and lateral forces. In
addition, the buildability of a bridge, often in difficult locations
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glamorous area within structural and civil engineering.

across chasms, roads, railways or water, should influence which
Over the years there has been much debate about the role of the design is to be adopted. Long term maintenance, the replacement
various professions in the design of a bridge. Many believe that of bearings and protection against the elements must all be given
bridge design should be led by the engineer and that the architect due consideration.
should play a secondary, beautifying role. Some believe a bridge
designed to be efficient and economic will have an inherent The leading bridge design codes of practice are complex. For
aesthetic quality without input from architects at all, and others instance, the current edition of the Eurocodes covering bridge
believe engineers need help from architects to choose and design runs to over 530 pages, has 38 sections, 165 sub-sections
develop an idea from a range of possibilities. and 31 appendices. The complexity inherent in bridge design and
analysis has led to the development of specialist design
In a way concept design is straightforward because, some would techniques, advanced modelling and complex analytical
argue, there are only seven basic bridge forms: the beam, the software.
truss, the arch, the suspension, the cantilever, the portal frame
and the cable-stay; but of course basic forms can be combined Concept sketching of bridge design is often especially rewarding
and hybrids can be developed. Spans can be lifted or retracted to because the basic forms are simple and easy to portray. There is
allow the passage of ships, for instance, and different materials also the question of the build sequence to consider, and perhaps
can be used leading to yet more options or sub-types. there is a need to look at moving elements of a swing or lifting
bridge. These all create a rich area for exciting and interesting
Bridge ideas in my experience are best developed beyond sets of drawings.
concept stage with engineer and architect working side by side,
but the responsibility for knowing what is achievable and practical
must lie firmly with the engineer. There is no doubt that the skill
of specialist design engineers is essential. This is because load
patterns on a bridge deck are complex, wind and seismic
loadings are critically important and dynamic behaviour and other
factors such as design for movement, safety and economics must
be taken into account. Fatigue is a factor, particularly for road and
rail bridges where engineers spend a lot of time looking not only

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FIGURE 3.4/1
Hungerford Bridge design competition. The Hungerford Bridge design competition was organised to improve cross-river
connectivity and to replace dilapidated and inadequate walkways on both sides of the Charing Cross railway bridge. This bridge, by
Sir John Hawkshaw, for the South Eastern Railway, replaced an earlier suspension footbridge by I. K. Brunel. The footbridge chains
were removed for use on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol. Hawkshaw’s rather industrial design consists of nine wrought-iron
trusses supported on cast-iron cylinders and on the two arched brick river-piers constructed for Brunel’s suspension bridge. Working
with architect Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, our early designs were based on clip-on trusses designed to match the rhythm of the
Hawkshaw trusses.
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 FIGURE 3.4/2
Hungerford Bridge design competition. Later competition
designs moved away from references to the Hawkshaw
trusses towards designs based on pylons, a theme used
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extensively in the 1951 Festival of Britain for the ‘Skylon’ and

flag staff features.
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FIGURE 3.4/3
Hungerford Bridge design competition. More design studies concentrated on the southern Brunel pier which still stands in the river
(since the construction of the Victoria Embankment by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the northern pier is no longer surrounded by water).
Brunel’s southern pier was seen as a location that could be exploited as a viewing point for tourists making use of a convenient
existing passageway through the pier from one side of the railway bridge to the other. An idea to use secondary diagonal foot bridges
connecting the South Bank to the Brunel pier emerged to promote the concept of a circular tourist walk from Parliament, over
Westminster Bridge, along the South Bank, across a diagonal bridge onto the upstream main pedestrian bridge to Victoria
Embankment and then back to the Houses of Parliament.

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 FIGURE 3.4/4
Hungerford Bridge design competition. Combinations and variants of ideas were tested: pylons, covered
walkways; one walkway only covered for ‘winter use’; the tourist route and a floating extension to the pier acting
as a landing stage for people using river boats – all these ideas were examined and evaluated. Cost, however,
had to be kept in check, so some ideas were abandoned and others, like the diagonal secondary bridges, left as
a possibility for future generations. More fundamentally, there was no logical justification for a super-tall set of
pylons centred on the southern pier and so this particular element was removed from the design.
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 FIGURE 3.4/5
The Golden Jubilee Bridges, Hungerford Bridge, London. Several erection methods were studied in an effort
to find the most practical and economic construction strategy. This version was based on pre-cast sections of the
bridge being brought to site by barge and then lifted onto temporary works towers. At the time the bridge decks
were tapered (on plan) with the widest part in the middle of the river. An architectural change led to a constant
width walkway which saved cost, and this in turn led to a methodology change whereby the deck was cast on
shore and continuously jacked from one bank to the other.
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 FIGURE 3.4/6
The Golden Jubilee
Bridges, Hungerford
Bridge, London. The
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original competition
schemes were based on
designs where the new
pedestrian bridges (one
either side of
Hawkshaw’s bridge)
were supported off the
railway bridge itself,
rather like the old
walkways had been. But
it soon became apparent
that the existing
caissons were not in
good condition and had
become quite vulnerable
to ship impact. The
outcome was a design
that did not rely on
existing structure and
that had new
foundations in the river,
comprising cutwater
structures that would in
fact protect the caissons.
The sketch is not so
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different to the as-built

structures.

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FIGURE 3.4/7
The Golden Jubilee Bridges, Hungerford Bridge, London. This is the detail at the top of the Hungerford Bridges’ pylons –
although a conventional, if old fashioned, scale drawing and not strictly speaking a hand sketch, it was based on set out dimensions
and concept sketches. Just getting various components to fit together in an organised way can be very challenging.
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 FIGURE 3.4/8
Waterloo East Link Bridge, Waterloo Station, London. The high level
pedestrian link bridge between Waterloo Main Station and Waterloo East
was constructed over the route of an early rail link that once crossed
Waterloo Road. The old rail bridge is still in place and was used for
temporary support during the erection of the new structure. A photograph
taken from the top of a tall building adjacent to site was used as the
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background for this sketch.

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FIGURE 3.4/9
Millennium Bridge design competition. Another design completion with Chetwood Architects, this time for what is now the
Millennium Bridge between St Paul’s Cathedral on the north bank of the Thames and Tate Modern on the South Bank. Unlike the
winning design, we took the pragmatic approach of providing the minimum acceptable central span and used the side spans to assist
the middle span either by cantilever action or by a cable stay system. Splayed structure is used to maintain views of St Paul’s from
the south and the inclination of St Paul’s sight lines generate an interesting degree of asymmetry.
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FIGURE 3.4/10
Stockton Pedestrian Bridge competition. This design was developed with Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and was inspired by the
architecture of industry and by the form of cranes in particular. The concept was to use muscular primary structure consisting of twin
cantilever arms but softened aesthetically by slender cables, sway stabilizers and even floating appendages. Getting the proportioning
and spatial arrangement of the various components correct was important both visually and from an engineering point of view. Poorly
proportioned arrangements lead to inefficiency. For example, if the angle between the cable and the deck is too acute, then the
cables are ineffective.
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 FIGURE 3.4/11
Stockton Pedestrian Bridge competition – erection sequence. (1) Marine piling, (2) Cofferdam construction for the foundation of
the main piers, (3) Slip forming the piers. The piers support the cantilevers but also house stairs and lifts. (4) Erection of strand-jack
gantry, (5) Cantilever arms assembled on the construction platform, (6) Cantilever arms lifted into place using strand-jack gantry.
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 FIGURE 3.4/12
Stockton Pedestrian Bridge competition – erection sequence. (7) Single cantilever arm in place, (8) Second cantilever arm in
place, (9) First bridge span lifted into position from barge, (10) Second bridge span lifted into position from barge, (11) Third bridge
span floated into position.
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 FIGURE 3.4/13
Pedestrian bridge, University of Northumbria, Newcastle. Sometimes the first simple ideas are the best. This pedestrian bridge
connecting different parts of the university campus changed little from the scheme shown on the initial concept sketch to the built
structure. The deck was constructed on the bank parallel to the road and rotated into position. (The secondary span to the right lost
its pylon and is now just a beam spanning a railway.)
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 FIGURE 3.4/14
Bedford Pedestrian
Bridge design
competition. Inspiration
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doesn’t often come from

the competency of the
ground strata, but here
different rock on either
side of a small river led
to the adoption of an
asymmetrical solution.
The resulting rather
modest design, capable
of full off-site
prefabrication, was
developed with
Chetwood Architects and
the design was
eventually runner-up to
the competition winner,
Santiago Calatrava. The
left-hand bank supports
a minor load, while the
right-hand structure and
its foundation carries by
far the greater part of
the weight of the bridge.
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 3.5 AIRPORTS

Airports are emotional places, for some people the gateway to

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exciting parts of the world, for others not only points of arrival and
encounter but also of departure and separation. They certainly get
a lot of attention from all sectors of the community and are so
often the focus of national pride and a showcase for futuristic
design. International terminal buildings tend to be on a
monumental scale, where architects and planners attempt to
develop a sense of grandeur. Meeting spatial demands and the
creation of a sense of space are crucial objectives, and of course
designers turn to ethereal concepts such as lightness and
movement.

However, we still seem to be grappling with the challenges of

airport design – passenger flows, security, baggage handling,
infrastructure connections, retail and myriad other elements, but
also the environmental impact of these ‘cities within cities’. In a
way, structural engineering may seem very secondary to these
wider and very important issues.

There is of course, the less glamorous side of airport design:

control towers, hangars, cargo facilities, car parks, extensions to
existing facilities, all bring their special requirements.

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 FIGURE 3.5/1
The HET Project at Heathrow Airport, London. Rebuilding a major terminus at one of the world’s busiest airports requires intense
and detailed planning. Master-planning is really the first step and it relies on high level understanding of existing buildings, existing
infrastructure and how the terminus operates within the airport as a whole. The main sketch provides a broad picture of one of the
important constraints, underground infrastructure, and the construction sequence diagrams on the right are from a report showing
how the new building might be built to replace the existing facilities incrementally while keeping the terminus operational.
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 FIGURE 3.5/2
Generic airport, USA. Master-planning for an idealised generic provincial airport could only be meaningful in North America or
possibly the Far East. The idea was to develop a layout that could be expanded by adding satellites and then mirrored to cope with
increased passenger flows when a second runway became necessary. Key factors were orientation to suit prevailing wind directions,
existence of local rail and road infrastructure and planning to always allow uninhibited access for construction traffic during a
construction process that could take many years.
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FIGURE 3.5/3
Airport scheme, Middle East. Trees and tree-like structures are often the inspiration for airport roofs. Here the challenge was to
develop a proposal based on the concept sketch (top right) into a viable tree element that could be replicated and interconnected to
provide lateral stability and long perimeter cantilevers.

136
 FIGURE 3.5/4
Airport scheme, Middle East. Only mobile cranes could be used here to erect the roof structure of an extension to a Middle Eastern
airport because of height and working time restrictions. The roof structure is a cable stiffened beam designed for wind reversal loads
and portalised with perimeter columns. The beam and columns work together to form a frame (or portal) capable of resisting gravity
and lateral loads. The roof panel sections are assembled at ground level and lifted by cranes working in tandem during engineering
hours.
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 FIGURE 3.5/5
Airport scheme, Middle East. The design progression moves from fixed bearings for the arches, to
interconnecting primary arches, secondary catenary beams and tertiary anti-clastic cable nets. These are
quick sketches to initiate the design process which starts with a concept tested by simple hand calculation,
possible even on a structure as complex as this, but followed rapidly by more rigorous analysis.
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 FIGURE 3.5/6
Northern European airport extension. High level walkways and people-movers give
lots of opportunity for combined architectural and structural expression. Here the
approach was to find a dynamic two-dimensional solution at the main column positions
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and then to look at the linear nature of the walkway. The idea developed into a three-
dimensional composition and not surprisingly a tree form emerged.

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FIGURE 3.5/7
Car park, South Terminal, London Gatwick Airport, West Sussex. Construction within transport hubs is always challenging. Re-
organising Gatwick’s South Terminal car park and building between the car park and the railway needed careful planning to keep
disruption of vehicle and people movement to a minimum. Four of sixteen phasing diagrams, all based on a common background,
are shown here and were developed with the benefit of input from contractor planning experts.

140
 3.6 RAILWAY STATIONS AND BUILD-OVER
PROJECTS
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Any construction work near or over operating railways or roads, • Crash decks (protection from damage by falling objects during
or alterations to stations or other associated infrastructure the course of construction).
buildings, is going to be tough. Quite rightly, the top priority for • Safety, especially with regard to piling or craneage beside the
the regulatory authorities is to run a transport system and to run it railway or road. (Very definite rules exist about how and when
safely. Not surprisingly therefore, design engineers are often it can be carried out.)
faced with complex approval processes which can sometimes • Relatively unusual structures such as embankments, cuttings,
seem highly bureaucratic. This includes the often lengthy masonry arches, over-bridges and under-bridges.
‘Approval in Principle’ (AIP) or Conceptual Design Statement • Launching, jacking and sliding techniques (to deal with
(CDS) process, where the whole design approach and erection physical constraints beside operational roads or railways).
methodology strategy has to be spelt out in unambiguous detail. • Restricted times when construction activities can be carried out
(often limited to ‘engineering hours’ in the middle of the night
In addition, there are unusual physical challenges to deal with, when the transport is shut down).
emanating from such things as: • Ground movement (all new construction has the potential
to cause ground movement and this of course can affect
• Very high impact loads (from derailments or errant road assets).
vehicles).
• Complex rolling load patterns (axle loads in specific On the positive side, existing structure is often well built and
arrangement travelling across a structure). robust and in the UK at least, there’s a good chance of finding
• Long spans. records of existing structures although they may not have the
• Specific dimensional constraints including dynamic envelopes. status of ‘as-built’ drawings.
(Rail vehicles have very tightly controlled envelopes dependent

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on dynamic behaviour, track curvature and so on.) Planning, programming, clarity and build sequence are especially
• Sight lines. important, and so is the need to communicate with technical and
• Asset protection. (The regulatory authority’s duty is to ensure non-technical people at different levels. Clear sketches and
their infrastructure is not adversely affected by construction drawings greatly enhance text or narrative.
works.)
• Acoustic and vibration isolation.
• Maintenance (bridge bearings for instance).

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FIGURE 3.6/1
Site at Norton Folgate, London. These sketches represent our earliest involvement with this highly constrained site at Norton
Folgate just north of Liverpool Street Station in London. The KPF scheme for a ‘build over’ project was located above six busy
railway lines running through an existing cutting. Space between the tracks for support and foundations was extremely restricted and
the railway downtime virtually non-existent. This led to the exploration of unusual construction techniques based on headings for
access and foundations consisting of hand dug caissons.

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 FIGURE 3.6/2
Deck over railway cutting, Norton Folgate, London. Decking over the railway cutting at Norton Folgate proved to be a very difficult
design challenge due to the many site constraints. Depth of new structure was limited on the underside by rail requirements and on
the top surface by sight lines to the new development. Locations for new foundations were virtually non-existent and building over an
operating railway is never easy. The undulating surface in the right hand sketches owed much to the architect’s recently completed
extension to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.
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 FIGURE 3.6/3
Mass transit system, Hong Kong. Mass transit systems are on a vast scale and the overall construction strategies are usually
visualised at the very earliest stages using computer generated animation. These sketches were produced 25 years ago as part of a
bid process but look a bit old fashioned and dated now.
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FIGURE 3.6/4
Mass transit station, Thailand. Linear build processes are not too difficult to draw, especially where primary and secondary
elements are repetitive. The plan for this station was to build a box for the rail lines (and station) elevated over local traffic, construct
the primary transverse elements using in-situ concrete and then to use a travelling gantry system to launch pre-cast elements at high
level for the expressway. Although not built in this form, the techniques shown here, compressed in terms of timing, are not
uncommon in the design and construction of mass transport systems.

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FIGURE 3.6/5
Canning Town Station, Jubilee Line Extension, Canning Town, London. A key feature of the design for Canning Town Station,
reconstructed as part of the Jubilee Line Extension project (q.v.), was the use of vee columns to support the Docklands Light Railway
(DLR) platform boxes from the Jubilee Line (JL) platform level. The vee columns were designed to replicate the slope of the
escalators with the extremities of the vees tied together to control spreading. Here the vee structures are shown disembodied, in
simple cross-section and in perspective.

146
 FIGURE 3.6/6
Canning Town Station, Jubilee Line Extension, Canning Town, London. Canning Town Station was redeveloped as part of the
Jubilee Line Extension (JLE) project. It is now an interchange station between the Jubilee Line, Docklands Light Railway and the
overground railway. Apart from managing existing rail services from temporary to permanent alignments, the project was greatly
complicated by the presence of overhead power lines making the use of significant craneage impossible. Consequently the JLE
platform structure was constructed from pre-cast segments delivered to a position clear of the power lines and slid into position using
jacking systems. The segments were then effectively glued and stressed together.
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FIGURE 3.6/7
Birmingham New Street Station. Sketches for the first design stage of the ambitious scheme to redevelop Birmingham’s New Street
Station. Train sheds provide amazing opportunities for engineers and architects – some of our most inspiring buildings are railway
stations; who cannot fail to be impressed by Paddington, Temple Meads, York, Lime Street, Waverley or the old and new King’s
Cross? But somehow Birmingham New Street missed out and now there was a chance to produce something cathedral-like based on
the drama of arrivals and departures, on activity, the movement of the trains and the sweep of the tracks.

148
 FIGURE 3.6/8
Farringdon Crossrail
Station, London. One
of a series of three-point
perspective sketches
based on aerial
photography. This
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particular sketch was

produced to give an
overview of the inter-
relationship between
existing major transport
infrastructure and the
proposed Crossrail
tunnels and possible
work-sites and site
logistics.

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 FIGURE 3.6/9
Crossrail over site building, Bond Street Station, Hanover Square, London. The very first sketches are shown on the left hand
side where the angle of view, what to show and what not to show are the most important considerations. Representation of massing
over and beside the station box, together with basic information about how the box was to be constructed, formed the next steps in
gaining a macro-scale understanding of the whole project.
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 FIGURE 3.6/10
Station box, Crossrail, Paddington, London. These are sketches produced after thinking through the basic construction sequence.
Best to get to this stage and rough something out before investing lots of time drawing something more precise.
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 FIGURE 3.6/11
Station box, Crossrail, Paddington, London. Great opportunities
presented themselves at Crossrail’s Paddington Station by following to
some extent the brilliant scheme developed at London Underground’s
Westminster station where props between the diaphragm walls are an
integral part of the engineering and architectural solution. This approach
is fully compatible with top-down construction, and if implemented could
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have been combined with a dramatic longitudinal roof light between

lanes of traffic, allowing natural light to filter down to the platforms.
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FIGURE 3.6/12
Paddington Station redevelopment. Massing of a proposed major development has to be seen in context to get a good impression
of the impact on a particular locality. These are just two of a number of studies drawn quickly over a common background. The
sketches can be annotated easily to show above-ground and below-ground infrastructure and to show the first ideas relating to
pedestrian movement and the permeability of the various new-build options.

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FIGURE 3.6/13
Paddington Station, London. Paddington Station is one of the most important transport hubs in London. Mainline routes, Heathrow
Express, London Underground’s District, Circle and Bakerloo lines are all here and Crossrail will arrive soon. Not surprisingly
developers have long paid attention to the area and its increased passenger flows, especially as the Royal Mail building adjacent to
the main station was available for redevelopment. This scheme shown above is one of the more ambitious and shows the mainline
station being completely remodelled behind retained façades – it also shows the disused Mail Rail underground postal railway tunnels
which need to be taken into account in any redevelopment.

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FIGURE 3.6/14
Span 4 refurbishment, Paddington Station, London. The core of the station is I. K. Brunel’s magnificent three-span arch roof on
slender iron columns. However, in the early part of the twentieth century the station was extended, most notably by the addition of a
grand fourth span to the roof structure. In recent times, span 4 had been neglected and was in much need of refurbishment to
ensure it no longer appeared as a poor relation to Brunel’s spans. These sketches of span 4 show work sites and working platforms
positioned above the busy platforms and concourse.

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FIGURE 3.6/15
Staff accommodation, Waterloo Station, London. The
flat deck for staff accommodation over platforms 1–10 at
Waterloo is essentially an orthogonal grillage of continuous
beams. In other words, the beams are designed with
structural continuity in each direction. This, together with
tree structures set at relatively close centres and
positioned on the centre lines of the platforms, provides a
robust structure suitable for the rail environment.

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FIGURE 3.6/16
Rail build-over scheme. Air rights over operating railways are extremely valuable, if only we could figure out a way of constructing
useable space without stopping the trains for days on end. These sequence sketches formed part of an in-depth study showing how
prefabricated elements could be slid into position from a single launch site. The slide time in each cycle is short and could take place
during ‘engineering hours’ which are available on most routes.

157
 3.7 PORTS AND MARINE

It is always a welcome change to be able to draw or sketch

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something to do with ships and the sea, but the opportunities

often belong to civil rather than structural engineers or architects.
There is a new language to learn: jetties, wharves, breakwaters
and cut-waters, dolphins and canting brows, and of course new
machinery and techniques to understand and illustrate. To
develop any useful ideas it is good to know what can be achieved
using dredging techniques, or how cofferdams are constructed
and how marine piles can be driven from barges or spud barges
– a great bit of specialist terminology: a jack-up barge, a spud
barge has four legs (called spud poles) that telescope to the river
bed and provide a wharf and usually have a deployable ramp with
side rails.

Structural engineers and architects are most likely to come into

contact with our marine and civil cousins where land meets water.
We are then all dealing with moorings and fenders, with berthing
loads and ship impact loads and with closely allied structures
such as dockside logistics facilities, cranes and floating amenities.

When it comes to offshore structures, dock, harbour and sea

walls, then these are often of a different scale and the realm of
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the specialist engineers and naval architects.

158
 FIGURE 3.7/1
Ferry terminus,
Hamburg. This sketch
shows a single bay of a
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ferry terminus once

proposed for the Port of
Hamburg. It was an
ambitious scheme with
Wil Alsop – this version
was never developed
beyond the early
concept stage, and was
based on a central
structure consisting of
two jump-formed shells
connected by pre-cast
concrete vierendeel
beams. This
configuration gave
almost unlimited
opportunities for link
bridges, escalators and
walkways within the
longitudinal core itself
while allowing a degree
of spatial transparency.
Between the core and
the outer envelope, floor
beams were designed

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with top and bottom
slabs taking balanced
push pull loads through
the vierendeel beams.
Structure within the
outer envelope would
have been used to
provide deflection control
and effectively turn the
cantilevers into much
more efficient propped
cantilevers.

159
 FIGURE 3.7/2
Power station, the Philippines. In the early 1990s, the economy of the Philippines was apparently being held back by an ageing
national grid and as a consequence the World Bank suggested that the government attract monetary interest by approving a build-
own-transfer scheme for power project developments. The result was this power station, now one of the largest coal power plants in
the Philippines. The sketch is part of a marine works construction sequence.
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 3.8 STADIA

In some ways, stadia are like airport terminus buildings: they are the design, by respecting its neighbours, taking account of
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meant to be impressive and awe-inspiring. Once just a collection existing stands and their heritage value, and perhaps, in terms of
of cantilevered canopies or glorified sheds, they are now so often constructability, taking advantage of the much under-used River
an integral part of the brand and prestige of a sporting venue. Thames.
Sports stadia of unprecedented complexity and scale are being
built, incorporating landmark architecture and innovative structural
engineering.

Effective design of large span structures with complex external

envelopes is often dictating lightweight structural forms, making
these roofs highly sensitive to loading from wind and snow. In
order for sophisticated 3D structural modelling to deliver efficient
structural design, accurate loading scenarios are required for wind
that account for complex fluid–structure interactions, including
wind driven dynamic effects. Wind related environmental impact
also affects pitch microclimate, spectator comfort and external
microclimate and all require careful consideration from an early
stage in design.

But the real fun comes early on, when everyone is searching for
the right solution or for something unique, a new way of
producing a dramatic design or just something that is different.

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It is easy to sketch ideas but hard to take all the inevitable
constraints into account. Fulham Football Club’s ground at
Stevenage Road beside the Thames in London is typical of an
ongoing design challenge. Not only is the stadium beside the
river, but it is surrounded by residential properties and narrow
streets, and is without doubt in a highly sensitive area from a
planning point of view. At least, its context might eventually inform

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FIGURE 3.8/1
Lansdowne Road, Dublin. Searching for something new in the design of stadia is not easy. Two of these sketch proposals for the
Lansdowne Road competition were based on the conventional hockey stick approach and one on triangulated arches positioned
above the canopy and spanning the length of the pitch. The fourth design, bottom right, was a little more inventive, and borrowed
technology from cable stayed bridge designs.

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FIGURE 3.8/2
Stadium competition, Casablanca, Morocco. This competition design was
based on shell-like canopies, one on each side of a rectangular sports
arena, and constructed as free-standing structures. A way of structuring
each canopy was developed by studying the surface of any one of the
canopies, by cutting slices in various directions, and deciding whether the
interconnection of the cut lines could suggest a viable, constructible system
of load sharing frames.

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FIGURE 3.8/3
Fulham Football Club, Craven Cottage, London. The land-side area around Fulham Football Club’s ground at Craven Cottage is
residential and the streets are narrow. The River Thames is therefore the best way of delivering large prefabricated elements to site
for the redevelopment of the Riverside Stand. Sketch reproduced by kind permission of Fulham Football Club.

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FIGURE 3.8/4
Fulham Football Club, Craven Cottage, London. Another early scheme,
this time with bifurcated hockey stick cantilevers. The shape of the node,
generated by the position of the vomitory (access to the terrace seating), is
the key component. It is hand drawn and superimposed on a two-
dimensional CAD drawing to illustrate its fabrication from single curvature
welded steel plates with size and weight designed to suit road transport.
Sketch reproduced by kind permission of Fulham Football Club.
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FIGURE 3.8/5
Fulham Football Club, Craven Cottage, London. An updated scheme for
the Riverside Stand at Fulham based on delivery of prefabricated elements
lifted onto trestles, connected to form the truss, lifted to height using strand
jack towers, and then winched into position along gantry rails – an unusual
sequence and great fun to draw. Sketch reproduced by kind permission of
Fulham Football Club.

166
 3.9 EXISTING BUILDINGS

Existing buildings, and especially historic buildings, are great to It is well worth searching for archival material – search by the
engineer’s or architect’s name, try biographical dictionaries,
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sketch, just because at the end of it, and with a fair wind, you
have an image that sums up your interpretation of what you online databases, libraries and specialist societies.
see. If nothing more, producing the sketch is satisfying in its
own right and you get the same sort of pleasure that an artist Even if you have found good base material, you still have to
gets from drawing or painting. There’s also the opportunity to decide what to show and what not to show: is your objective to
add a bit of character to the building rather than drawing it with describe broad outline, how the building stands up, which walls
the cold precision we often have to use. contribute to stability, or is it a particular part or special details
that you are interested in? Then you have to plan how to
But in terms of engineering and architecture, we mustn’t lose illustrate your findings; cutaway drawings are very persuasive
sight of why we draw and sketch in the first place. Often it’s to and sections are invaluable – engineers and architects should
gain an understanding of a particular building or structure. always draw sections.
Here it is good to mentally edit the information available. Show
broad outline – not too much detail, trace load paths, explain
movement that may have occurred (arrows are useful – what
would we have done if arrows had not been invented?).
There’s the opportunity to show context, adjoining buildings
and roads, basements and tunnels if they exist, and of course
geology.

Gathering information can be difficult. Walking the site and

photography helps and so do web-based aerial and street

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views, but you can’t beat construction drawings or as-built
drawings. There’s an important difference: construction
drawings are more commonly available but may not represent
the as-built building so must always be used with a degree of
caution.

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 FIGURE 3.9/1
Royal College of Music, London. Alterations and additions
to existing buildings present their own special challenges with
respect to gaining rapid understanding of scale and
complexity of a proposed project. This is especially true of
schemes involving older buildings where form and layout do
not follow a simple pattern. Drawings available at bid stage
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are sometimes inadequate and the best approach is often to

make use of aerial photographs and then use colour or
shading to pick out the areas to be refurbished or infilled.
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FIGURE 3.9/2
Kew Palace, Kew Gardens, London. Cutaway drawings help to get a feel of how a complex building has been put together –
drawing and understanding go together; you have to find answers to questions before you can draw it. The roof at Kew Palace is
particularly complex and of course no drawings existed showing how it worked structurally. Eventually, east–west timbers and
north–south timbers were shown on separate drawings for the sake of clarity. (East–west only shown here.)

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 FIGURE 3.9/3
Kew Palace, Kew
Gardens, London.
Photography in a dark
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roof space leaves a lot

to be desired. So often
missed detail and
shadows mean a return
visit is inevitable. If time
permits it’s so much
better to at least
supplement photographs
with on-site sketches.
However, the over-riding
memory of drawing
these timber junction
details at Kew in mid-
winter was the intense
cold and numb fingers.
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FIGURE 3.9/4
St John’s Concert Hall, Smith Square, London. St John’s Concert Hall is an interesting building restored and re-roofed after the
Second World War but showing signs of distress due to ground movement. There was no need for this drawing to be precise in
every detail; it was produced to illustrate historic interventions (the ‘new’ roof) and macro-scale movements.

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 FIGURE 3.9/5
The Jewel House, the Tower of London, London. Some older buildings are just nice to draw and somehow deserve a less precise
line style. This sketch of the Jewel House at the Tower of London, drawn from simple plans and elevations, was produced as part of
a bidding process to illustrate the team’s understanding of the scope of works to be undertaken during a major renovation project.
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FIGURE 3.9/6
The King’s Library, the British Museum, London. Victorian engineer John Rastrick was responsible for 40 and 50ft spanning cast
girders used in the main floor structure of the gallery at the Museum known formerly as the King’s Library. These beautiful castings,
sadly completely hidden within the floor construction, can only be viewed by intrepid surveyors (and engineers) crawling through
dusty floor voids. They must have been a splendid sight travelling down the canals on barges from the Midlands.

173
 FIGURE 3.9/7
The King’s Library, the British Museum, London. Change of use from library to gallery space suitable for the display of heavy
objects, meant that the original cast iron beams could no longer be relied upon. The sketch shows supplementary trusses positioned
either side of the casting. The arrangement was designed to be ‘reversible’ – in other words, the original structure was left unaltered
so that at some future date, the supplementary trusses could be removed or replaced if necessary without damaging the original
fabric.
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174
 FIGURE 3.9/8
Kinnaird House, Pall
Mall East, London.
2D sections were used
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to show the main

features of the existing
building and the rebuild
proposals – sometimes
the simplest is the best.
Drawing sections like
this is a natural way of
excluding unnecessary
and confusing detail.

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175
 FIGURE 3.9/9
Kinnaird House, Pall
Mall East, London.
Almost the perfect
project for façade
retention, an island site,
four sided, almost
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square on plan and

pavement space
available for external
restraint frames. The
frames could be
supplemented by
minimal internal braces
positioned below the
corner turrets. The only
issue was whether to
retain the mansards and
chimney stacks. A
decision was made to
dismantle and rebuild,
which is often the
outcome on projects of
this nature and scale.
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176
 FIGURE 3.9/10
King William Street, London. The façades at King William Street did not lend themselves to simple retention systems. Limited load
bearing capacity at pavement level precluded the use of a fully cantilevered external system. Instead, internal temporary works towers
were proposed which are difficult to build while the existing structure is in place. They are difficult to build around and are awkward to
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dismantle after the new frame is erected.

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FIGURE 3.9/11
Battersea Power Station, London. This image is a trace but
unwanted detail is omitted. It was drawn in connection with Terry
Farrell’s wonderful idea to preserve the remaining parts of Battersea
Power Station as a ruin albeit surrounded by modern regeneration.
Instead of turning the landmark building into some kind of
amusement park it would have become a romantic industrial version
of, say, Fountains Abbey or Glastonbury Abbey.

178
 FIGURE 3.9/12
Harrods, Knightsbridge, London. Secant piled lift shafts were constructed in a light-well of the Harrods main building to take freight
lifts well below ground. This was part of a scheme to link the main building to storage and loading bays in the redeveloped site at
Knightsbridge Crown Court east of Basil Street via a new tunnel. Extensive piling works were needed to support alterations to the
light-well and the main building.
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FIGURE 3.9/13
55–57 Great
Marlborough Street,
London. 55–57 Great
Marlborough Street is
another of those urban
sites that suffer from all
kinds of constraints –
confined space, interface
with adjoining buildings,
party wall issues, new-
build height constraints,
possible archaeological
remains, Crossrail
running directly under
the site, an existing sub-
station, next to a leading
sound recording studio –
the list seems endless.
Drawing the site after
demolition is a good
start (after deciding
which view to use and
which buildings not to
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draw ‘for clarity’). Then

thinking through a
notional build sequence
gives everyone involved
a better idea of the
challenges ahead.

180
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FIGURE 3.9/14
Newfoundland, Canary
Wharf, London. An
unusual constraint in
London Docklands is the
existence of the old
Victorian dock walls
known affectionately as
the banana walls. The
banana walls are on the
statutory list of buildings
of special architectural
or historic interest and
are classified as Grade
1 and cannot be
demolished, extended,
or altered without special
permission from the
planning authorities.
Here a primary load is
diverted to a group of
piles clear of the wall
and beyond the London
Underground’s Jubilee

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Line exclusion zone.

181
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FIGURE 3.9/15
Carmelite, Victoria Embankment, London. The refurbishment of the Carmelite building on London’s Victoria Embankment was a
complex ‘cut and carve’ project – the building was re-clad, new accommodation provided at roof level and cores and staircases were
re-configured. It’s a good plan sometimes to use the same base drawing to produce a series of sketches, each showing a particular
aspect of the works. The left hand sketch shows the location of existing stairs and the right hand sketch shows temporary weather
protection to particular areas of the roof and the façade.

182
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FIGURE 3.9/16
Turville Park Estate, London. Turville House is a handsome building in a beautiful setting. Major renovation and refurbishment
needed to be carried out with a great deal of care and sensitivity. But it was the kind of project that was a joy to work on and
producing explanatory drawings beyond the conventional was just a way of demonstrating commitment to a rewarding project and a
wonderful client.

183
 FIGURE 3.9/17
Tree Walk, Battersea
Park, London. This is a
long forgotten project
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constructed for the 1951

Festival of Britain and in
a way is emulated by
the much more recent
tree walk at Kew
Gardens. The Battersea
Park walkway,
dismantled many years
ago, was designed as a
series of trussed bridges
slung from the trees
rather than from
separate columns;
branches and trunks
were checked
individually as structural
cantilevers.
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184
 FIGURE 3.9/18
Fort Regent. Getting to know basic civil engineering plant is important. They are often great pieces of machinery to draw in their own
right, but having an idea of the shape and size of excavators, piling rigs, mobile cranes and tower cranes is a first step towards
knowing what is practical and buildable. The sketch on the left was drawn on site during the construction of the Fort Regent leisure
centre in 1970; the sketches on the right are part of a bid document for a contract to refurbish the Fort.
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185
 FIGURE 3.9/19
Piccadilly Estate, Piccadilly, London. Some projects, especially refurbishment or ‘cut and carve’ projects, are so complex you just
have to learn your way around by drawing, and in some cases, like here at the Piccadilly Estate in London, by using ‘cut-through’
sections. By drawing, you find out what you don’t know and then look for more detail or organise additional surveys. Another
technique is to draw individual parts of an assembly of buildings and break down the proposals into bite-size pieces.
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186
 FIGURE 3.9/20
Stanmore Court, St James’s Street, London. Cut and carve refurbishment projects are challenging because engineers have to
understand the existing building, the proposed alterations and temporary works needed to get from one to the other. At Stanmore
Court temporary bracing in different forms was necessary to hold retained parts of the structure in place while major internal walls
were demolished. Working closely with contractors to develop systems and sequences is essential.
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S KE TCH BOOK
187
 3.10 LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURES

Think of unusual structural forms such as monocoques, shells,

For the average structural engineer involved in the day-to-day
space frames, membranes and tension structures, share your
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design of buildings, lightweight structures are something of a

assumptions with others, sketch ‘impressions’, but keep practical
challenge. They are easy to draw – ethereal, delicate, floating
design in mind.
objects often with no visible means of support. But design isn’t so
easy and although we might use nature as our inspiration, it only
takes us so far. For instance, trees can be beautiful lightweight
things, but we all know they can flex hugely or even blow over in
high winds.

In addition we are often working with unfamiliar material with

different strength/weight relationships such as aluminium, fabrics,
timber or even carbon fibre.

So how do we go about producing sketches that are going to

lead to something that can be constructed in the real world?
On one hand it’s easy to draw something that just doesn’t work,
and on the other hand it’s easy to design an object which is so
obviously over-structured.

One good way is to look around you. Get a feel for existing
lightweight structure: lamp posts, bus shelters, canopies, tents,
awnings, railway gantries, pylons, road signs, exhibition stands,
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temporary stages, tables, chairs, stairs and so on. Many of these

designs will have gone through a number of trial and error
iterations or physical testing, so learn from the work that others
have done.

188
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FIGURE 3.10/1
Albert Pier, Jersey. A tiny scheme for an information centre on Albert Pier, Jersey – a number of concept ideas conveyed on quick
2D sketches, but these sketches are not spontaneous, they are not drawn from an architectural standpoint but they are the end result
of lots of preliminary thoughts and scribbles on how things might fit together. Key features are lightweight structure, expressed
stability system, off-site fabrication, sun screen/rain screen PTFE tensile roof and a defined fire protection strategy. The thumbnail
sketch shows the overall visual impact the project might have on its surroundings.
189
 FIGURE 3.10/2
Urban Oasis. Laurie Chetwood’s Urban Oasis is a mobile sculpture designed to demonstrate some of the principles of sustainability.
It is mobile in the sense that it has motorised arms and it is demountable and transportable. The exhibit provides a platform to
demonstrate the use of PVs (photo-voltaics), rainwater harvesting, wind generated electrical power and the use of fuel cells.
Structural design was based on a five-way cable-supported mast and on folding arms, supporting petals covered with PVs, deploying
in calm, sunny conditions but retracting out of harm’s way in high winds.
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190
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FIGURE 3.10/3
Urban Oasis. Urban Oasis was designed as a stiffened mast tied down
to kentledge by a separate array of cables. The architecture is very
much in keeping with other works by Laurie Chetwood, including his
Butterfly House and the Perfumed Garden, all of which are based on
lightweight structures. In fact the mast here was reused in the Perfumed
Garden (q.v.) and both it and Urban Oasis were centrepieces in gold
medal winning gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show.

191
 FIGURE 3.10/4
Spine designs. Two designs based loosely on biological references to spines, vertebrae, transverse processes and ligaments and
resolved into struts and tendons. The canopy to the upper left was a design for a shopping mall, while the stair lower left is a
staircase design for an architect’s office in Central London. The stair was constructed as a pair of trussed beams and the beams
themselves are aluminium yacht masts.
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192
 FIGURE 3.10/5
Covered arcade for Sainbury’s at Richmond. The quest for something different usually means looking at seemingly endless
options, and sometimes this is not very rewarding when a design doesn’t emerge through logical progression. Best to record the
ongoing search with a series of simple two-dimensional elevations and sections.
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193
 FIGURE 3.10/6
Perfumed Garden, Chelsea
Flower Show, London. Laurie
Chetwood’s perfume-themed
garden at the Chelsea Flower
Show was another gold medal
winning design, awarded for
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the garden of course not the

structure. The centrepiece was
built around the mast recycled
from his earlier exhibit but this
time wrapped in cables
supporting PTFE fabric spirals.
The sketch summarises the
design principles where struts
from the mast and the cables
provide outlines for the spirals
and fine adjustment to the
spirals is achieved using
adjustable ties onto the
cables.
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194
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FIGURE 3.10/7
Christmas Tree Project, Merchant Square, Paddington Basin, London. Not everyone’s idea of a Christmas tree, but this
unconventional design was chosen by a developer to adorn his construction site at Merchant Square. The concept relied on
suspending a tree-shaped tensile structure from an upper floor of a partially completed building. A number of options were developed
for the base of the tree; all had to take account of the fact that lightweight structures are potentially susceptible to wind damage.

195
 FIGURE 3.10/8
Petrol filling station, Sainsbury’s, Watford. Only a petrol filling station but the design team aim was
simplicity and simplicity is not achieved without a great deal of effort. Here after much to-ing and fro-ing
between architect and engineer, the repetitive nature of the final touching canopies scheme is illustrated
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by a single point perspective. Sketch reproduced by kind permission of Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd.
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196
 3.11 UNUSUAL BUILDING TYPES

It is difficult to define unusual building types but just occasionally

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you come across something that doesn’t fit into an easily

recognised category. The aquarium at Silvertown, an observation
tower in Dubai, a mosque in Abu Dhabi and signage supports at
a well-known bookshop in London are all projects which for me
have been different and ‘one offs’.

The best example I have come across is the proposed ‘Biota!’

world class aquarium at Silvertown in Tower Hamlets which sadly
was one of the first victims of the 2007/8 economic downturn. We
were designing curvilinear tanks with 300mm thick polycarbonate
windows, air supported polyethylene pillows and hybrid
timber/steel gridshell roofs, all with a biodiversity and
‘conservation of the seas’ theme in mind – what a shame it was
never built, at least not yet!

It is, however, next to impossible to come to any general

conclusion with regard to conceptualising or sketching relevant
structures – just enjoy the difference.

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197
 FIGURE 3.11/1
Observation tower,
Middle East. A very
distinctive and beautiful
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proposal for an
observation tower in the
Middle East which,
sadly, was never
developed beyond the
initial concept ideas. The
design was based on a
slip-formed circular core
with an outer metal clad
steel skeleton –
slenderness would have
been a major design
issue and the tower
would have required
some form of damper to
control wind induced
oscillation.
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198
 FIGURE 3.11/2
Mosque, Middle East. The concept for the
structure of the mosque was unusual if not
unique. Permanent columns are erected
and braced to form a central stable tower.
Perimeter curved members are then
positioned around the tower and infilled with
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secondary steels and rebar mesh ready for

the application of sprayed concrete. Once
complete, the membrane action of the shell
surface provides the stability and bracing to
the internal columns.

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199
 FIGURE 3.11/3
DS3, Canary Wharf, London. A column in this building and structure above had to be lifted vertically by 250mm. First the structure
above was supported on a temporary ‘A’ frame, concrete around the base of the column was broken out and then a hydraulic jack
could be inserted. The existing structure below the jack was strengthened to resist forces that would be generated by the lifting
process. This cutaway drawing was used in a report explaining the modus operandi.
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FIGURE 3.11/4
Green park over Westway, London. The ancient borough of Paddington has long been cut in two by the A40 Westway. Sir Terry
Farrell’s bold scheme to reconnect Paddington Green on the north side of the highway with Paddington Basin on the south, involved
the construction of a lengthy pedestrianised green bridge over six lanes of roadway. The engineering solution was based on a series
of arched bridges, assembled on a platform built over a slip road. Each bridge would then be lifted into position during a temporary
road closure, and then slid to its final resting place along parallel runways built either side of the highway.

201
 3.12 BIOLOGICAL REFERENCES

In engineering and architecture, a structure is a ‘body or

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assemblage of bodies in space to form a system capable of

supporting loads’. This simple definition applies equally well to
physical structures in the natural world of trees, skeletons,
anthills, beaver dams and salt domes. In biology, structures exist
at all levels of organisation, ranging hierarchically from the atomic
and molecular to the cellular, tissue, organ, organismic,
population and ecosystem level.

Therefore it is not surprising that engineers and architects have

used references to the natural world for inspiration and in some
cases for retrospective justification.

But as per physical models, scale effect presents a sometimes

insurmountable problem. Linear relationships between size,
structural behaviour and applied loadings do not exist and
therefore it is impossible to scale up, say, the structure of a
flower head and expect it to work as a helicopter landing pad.

On the other hand, there are useful analogies that can be used to
build a design solution. Struts and ties versus spinal columns and
tendons, light but strong tubular structures, diaphragms and
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shells, natural arches and domes, cable nets and spider webs,
and so on.

Quick sketches of reference material are often convincing, even if

retrospective, and certainly give the design process an added
dimension.

202
 FIGURE 3.12/1
Royal Albert Bridge,
Saltash, Cornwall.
Someone, some time
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ago, made an interesting

comparison between the
workings of the Royal
Albert Bridge at Saltash
and the diplodocus.
The diplodocus is the
longest if not the biggest
sauropod known from a
complete skeleton and
for such a huge beast, it
is reasonable to assume
that compression in its
arched spine was
counterbalanced by
tension in its underbelly,
just like the interaction
between Brunel’s arch
and the suspension
system. Brunel died
before the diplodocus
skeletons were
discovered, so sadly
there is no possibility
that Mr Brunel ever
noted a similarity.

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203
 FIGURE 3.12/2
Ebbsfleet design
competition. Inspired by
Mark Wallinger’s proposal
for a colossal sculpture at
Ebbsfleet, designed to be
taller than the Angel of the
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North, this sketch was a

first pass at how such a
highly visible piece of
public art could be
constructed. The middle of
a real horse is supported
from the spine and
underbelly sinews rather
like the diplodocus (q.v.)
but this structure would be
built upwards, so the
primary frame is a
portalised truss positioned
at the lowest possible level.
It provides a stability
system and a springing
level for the upper part of
the body including the head
and neck cantilever. The
legs are cylindrical pylons
on piled foundations;
secondary and tertiary
framing form the biological
surface which is clad with
wax moulded panels fixed
from scaffolding towers or
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mobile platforms.

204
 FIGURE 3.12/3
Staff accommodation,
Waterloo Station,
London. Post-
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rationalised perhaps, but

this was a way of
showing how the column
structures support the
staff accommodation raft
at Waterloo Station
(q.v.).

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FIGURE 3.12/4
London Gateway Bridge. Nothing more than a dressed up single span plate girder ‘U frame’ bridge. (A ‘U frame’ bridge is a
reference to the cross-section of the structure where cantilever action from the bridge deck provides sufficient restraint to the
otherwise unrestrained top flanges of the parapet beams.) Thin steel banner sheets are held in place by struts pointing away from the
road. The inspiration for the cluster of shapes at each abutment comes from the awns and glumes of a typical grass flower.

206
 3.13 DETAIL

Detail design is perhaps less exciting than whole building design

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or master planning work but is often the key to successfully

building out a project. More often than not, 2D plans and
elevations of detail are produced as essential standard practice
but 3D sketches are a helpful addition because they provide
almost instantaneous appreciation and understanding. It has to be
said, however, that 3D images are usually not good enough on
their own – and, in any case, are drawn when the design has
been developed from 2D drawings.

In structural engineering, detail is particularly important with

regard to the design of connections. Connections are critical in
terms of transferring load from one member to another, especially
where joining members may be made from different materials
working at different allowable or ultimate stress limitations. In
addition, connections may have to allow for rotation or provide
different degrees of freedom with regard to movement. It is a well
known fact that getting load from one structural member to
another is not always easy.

Sketching detail helps produce practical solutions and helps show

how things fit together. It is a way of solving problems as well as

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an essential way of developing and communicating solutions.
Architects and designers love connections and quite often
embellish and express them in their compositions rather than
have them hidden away.

207
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FIGURE 3.13/1
Northgate, London. There are many ways of putting major steelwork connections together but in the UK this is quite often left to the
fabricator. However, at Northgate, where major steelwork was to be on view at highly visible junctions between struts and columns,
aesthetic quality and constructability had to be studied from the beginning by the architect and engineer working together.

208
 FIGURE 3.13/2
1 Blackfriars Road,
London. Hybrid
structural frames
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consisting of part
reinforced concrete and
part structural steel are
not common in high-rise
construction in the UK.
Sometimes however,
structural steel is
introduced in the lower
storeys of a largely
concrete residential
tower, to deal with
transfer spans over
lobby areas or to suit
column shapes and
sizes at ground level.
When hybrid structures
of this type are
proposed, special
attention must be given
to the interface between
the two frame types,
especially with regard to
buildability and local
bearing stress.

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209
 FIGURE 3.13/3
The Wellcome Trust HQ, Euston Road, London. The
southern entrance to the Euston Road Undergound station
is located in the northwest corner of the Wellcome Trust’s
headquarters building. Keeping access and egress to the
railway open throughout the construction period involved
switching people from the old route to a temporary route
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and then back to the original albeit slightly widened and

reconfigured route. This sketch shows the temporary stair
and how it was positioned in relation to piling and pile cap
works required to support the new building.
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210
 FIGURE 3.13/4
European HQ,
Brentford, London. A
scheme for a European
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headquarters at
Brentford was developed
by Terry Farrell &
Partners. It was based
on a concrete frame with
thin slab edges to allow
maximum natural light
into the floors.
Nowadays most unitised
cladding systems are
fixed using manipulators
working off the
completed slabs and not
cassette systems which
take too much crane
hook time. The site was
eventually developed for
Glaxo Smith Kline.

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FIGURE 3.13/5
Norton Folgate, London. Perhaps the sight of congested services exposed in a trial pit is not the most inspiring thing from an
engineering or a sketching point of view, but it is really surprising how a sketch like this can bring greater clarity than photography.
Shadows are removed and the line weight is chosen to separate the important from the unimportant. The right hand sketch is the
same location and is part of a study to plan an escape stair from the railway to street level. One great advantage of an orthogonal
sketch like this over a perspective, is that it can be (and is) drawn to scale, both in plan and vertically.

212
 3.14 MASTER PLANNING

Master planning work ranges from the large-scale urban design of Contributing to the master planning process is about rationalising
information, explaining historical data and helping to describe new
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cities through to the more detailed master planning of complex

individual sites, although usually it is the big picture stuff which strategies for long term aspirations. It is often as much to do with
takes account of sustainable and humane environments and is ‘what not to sketch’ rather than ‘what to sketch’ – there is a
respectful of the climate, context and history of the site. danger of showing too much detail and losing the overall
message.
In the United States it is known as comprehensive planning, a
term employed by land use planners to describe a process that
determines community goals and aspirations in relation to
community development. The outcome of comprehensive planning
is the ‘comprehensive plan’, which dictates public policy in terms
of transportation, utilities, land use, recreation, and housing.
Comprehensive plans typically encompass large geographical
areas, a broad range of topics, and cover a long-term time
horizon.

In Canada, comprehensive planning is generally known as

strategic planning or visioning. It is usually accompanied by public
consultation. When cities and municipalities engage in
comprehensive planning the resulting document is known as an
official community plan.

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In London, Sir Terry Farrell is one of the best known master
planning architects, with a deep knowledge of the city and a
persuasive analytical approach whether based on industrial
development along the tributaries of the Thames, thoroughfares
through London or the effect that Victorian railways and canals
had on the development of the conurbation.

213
 FIGURE 3.14/1
Ludgate and Sampson House. This is no more than an early stage overview showing the scale of the development on London’s
South Bank: the massing and the impact the railway would have on demolition, logistics, vibration isolation, phasing, interface with
the railway, adjacent construction sites etc. It was produced as a base sketch to be separately annotated to explain the engineering
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approach to many of these issues.

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 3.15 BASEMENTS AND TUNNELS

Basements • Contiguous piled walls: Reinforced piles constructed adjacent

to each other – usually only suitable where ground water is not
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Basement construction on unconfined sites is relatively

straightforward. Given reasonably good geotechnical conditions a big problem.
and no groundwater, adequate perimeter space and provided the • Diaphragm walls: Panels cast in a trench first held open by
basement is no more than one or two levels deep, the solution using thixotropic material (bentonite) introduced into the trench
will nearly always involve ‘open-cut’. The sides of the excavation as excavation proceeds. Reinforcement cages are lowered
are battered back, the foundation and substructure built and then through the bentonite which is then displaced by pumping
the perimeter is backfilled against newly constructed retaining concrete, via tremie tubes, to the base of the panel.
walls. But in the city centre, things are rarely that easy – • King post walls: Here steel posts are forced into the wet
construction is much more challenging on a heavily constrained concrete of newly formed piles. The piles and king posts
urban site where perimeter access from outside of the site is are installed at 4 or 5m centres and then reinforced concrete
impossible but where every square inch of developable land is infill walls are cast ‘top-down’ between the king posts as
valuable. excavation proceeds.

To illustrate suitable methodologies and to draw possible These walls, which may eventually become part of the basement
construction sequences it is important to have a basic box, will not always be capable of acting as true cantilevers over
understanding of available techniques and limitations of plant. the depth of the basement and will require some form of
Nearly all sites in non-rock geology will employ some sort of temporary propping as the excavation is taken deeper. Propping
embedded wall solution. An embedded wall is a wall constructed sequences are therefore important. For very deep basements, the
so that to one extent or another it can act as a cantilever. Types permanent structure is often built ‘top-down’ to provide lateral
include: support to the perimeter walls.

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• Sheet pile walls: Interlocking steel sheet pile walls are driven Top-down construction takes place from ground level downwards,
into the ground, or more commonly in urban environments, rather than excavation to the bottom of the basement and working
hydraulically pressed or jacked into the ground to avoid up. At The Place, 500 × 500mm steel columns were lowered or
unnecessary noise and vibration. ‘plunged’ from ground level through empty pile bores into freshly
• Secant piled walls: Unreinforced female piles are constructed poured concrete. The ground level slab was then cast on grade.
at given centres and then harder reinforced (and deeper) piles Once it had gained strength the slab was capable of propping the
are constructed between, and cut into, the female piles to give perimeter embedded walls and could be supported on the plunge
a continuous ‘leak proof’ wall. columns, allowing excavation to commence below the slab.

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 Space requirements for plant, how closely it can operate against
a vertical boundary, access to site and acceptable propping
arrangements must all be taken into account.
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Tunnels
Tunnel construction is even more specialised than basement
construction – in general, methodologies rely on ground type and
tunnel depth. Some very sophisticated techniques are used for
shallow tunnelling and use a combination of jacking ‘pipes’ ahead
of the tunnel face and grouting.
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FIGURE 3.15/1
Over-site development, Oxford Street, London. Over-site developments on the Crossrail route provided challenges and
opportunities in equal measure. This cut-away section showed a proposed development over the western ticket hall of Crossrail’s
station at Tottenham Court Road. Understanding where the various tunnels would be constructed was vital with regard to founding
the new building and predicting ground movement that might affect either the building if it were built first or the tunnels if they were
constructed first.

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 FIGURE 3.15/2
Minories development, London.
London’s Underground system runs partly
in deep tunnels and partly in near-surface
tunnels. This project is positioned over a
junction between near-surface running
tunnels of the Circle and Metropolitan
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lines, the District Line and a disused

tunnel, and not surprisingly, there are very
few locations where foundations can be
constructed. Once established, the
challenge is then how to transfer major
loads to these points without degrading
the lettable space. Steel framing, nearly
always the best choice for commercial
buildings, lends itself to the use of inclined
columns which in fact add drama and
character to the treatment of the
elevations.
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 FIGURE 3.15/3
Kingsgate House, Victoria Street, London. Masonry tunnels are very susceptible to damage caused by ground movement. Here a
deep basement is to be constructed beside the Circle and District line’s cut-and-cover tunnel running parallel to Victoria Street in
London. Although some ground movement is inevitable, construction sequence must be designed to limit movement to the absolute
minimum. This sequence, which could have been drawn as a series of two-dimensional diagrams, is far more legible when shown as
a number of axonometric slices.
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 FIGURE 3.15/4
Kingsgate House, Victoria Street, London. Axonometric drawings show the top-down sequence. Stage 1 is a steel grillage
constructed on steel columns plunged into a group of piles. Excavation and the B1 slab are complete (stage 2) followed by
construction of the lift pits (stage 3) and then all the intricate detail of the B1, M and ground level slabs complete with base isolation
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is complete by stage 4.
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 FIGURE 3.15/5
The Shell Centre Redevelopment, London. Built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank is
scheduled for redevelopment. The big picture depicted here shows the ‘U’ shaped horseshoe building being demolished but with the
tower retained. The basement box or bathtub will also be retained. A new raft is constructed on top of the existing lowest slab and
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the two structures together will be capable of supporting many of the loads from the new buildings – the need for new piling is
therefore minimised.

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 FIGURE 3.15/6
The Place at London Bridge. In some ways, this building by Renzo Piano Building Workshop was far more challenging than its
neighbour the Shard. Initial studies quickly showed complexities below ground – running tunnels, escalator declines, vent shafts and
escape stairs reduced the available space for foundations to about 50 per cent of the area of a typical upper level floor plate. In the
early days, the concept of inclined structure, preset cores designed to resist permanent out-of-balance loads from the building’s
asymmetry, emerged as the preferred structural solution and in fact was adopted as a key strategy in the final design.
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 FIGURE 3.15/7
Harrods, Knightsbridge, London. Bottom left shows the overview of the project to link Harrods to a newly acquired building east of
Basil Street, the former Knightsbridge Crown Court. Knightsbridge Crown Court was redeveloped with a seven-level deep basement
behind retained façades and then connected to the main building by lifts and a 5m diameter tunnel. Bottom right shows a grab used
to excavate the basement ‘top-down’. Top left shows the Crown Court building in more detail and top right is part of many studies to
demonstrate buildability on this highly constrained and complex site.
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FIGURE 3.15/8
Royal Mail Building, Rathbone Place, London. The drawing on the right shows the
basement of the old Royal Mail Building in Rathbone Place, London and the now
disused Royal Mail Mail Rail station and tunnels. New development must preserve the
station and the tunnels but the upper basement itself is to be reconfigured. Spaced
apart layers shown on the left, is the clearest way of providing an instant picture of the
new proposals.
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 FIGURE 3.15/9
199 Knightsbridge, London. Working around flying shores is difficult but on a relatively narrow site where new construction is
founded on a raft, there is little alternative. Omitting the flying shores by using cantilevered embedded perimeter walls would be
uneconomic and top-down construction for a two- or three-level basement, which requires a piled foundation instead of a raft, would
also not be economic. This sketch was part of a construction sequence.
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FIGURE 3.15/10
Centurion House, Lower Thames Street, London. Monument Place is built on the site of the northern abutment of the first Roman
crossing of the Thames, details of which were revealed by archaeological excavations carried out prior to the construction of a 1960s
building. It was important that redevelopment in 2010–13 caused as little disturbance as possible to the archaeology and
consequently only the core is founded on new piles. The rest of the building is supported on reused substructure and piles from the
1960s building.
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FIGURE 3.15/11
The Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London. Basement construction in urban areas is always challenging, especially
below an existing building and even more so under a listed nationally important art gallery. Symmetry of the existing building and of
the new works meant that cutaway sequence drawings were easily produced and provided a reasonably complete picture of the
proposed methodology.

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FIGURE 3.15/12
Wigmore Street, London. For the sake of clarity it is sometimes best just to show only the ground level footprints of adjacent
buildings, especially on landlocked sites such as this development on Wigmore Street. Logistics, site access, party wall issues and
the general effect on neighbours are then more easily investigated. Separate sketches can be developed quickly showing surrounding
basements and underground infrastructure.

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 FIGURE 3.15/13
Riverwalk, London. Riverwalk is a high-end residential development at Millbank near Vauxhall Bridge. It consists of two curvilinear
buildings constructed over a common basement. Complex structural slabs deal with the transfer of loads from columns positioned in
the superstructures to suit the layout of the apartments, to acceptable positions in the below-ground car park. There are in fact two
transfer slabs, one at ground level and another over the car ramp.
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FIGURE 3.15/14
Riverwalk, London. To understand the design principles behind the Riverwalk slabs it was necessary to first draw the lower transfer
(bottom left) using different weight shading to show various structural thicknesses, and then draw the level 1 car park ramp transfer
separately (bottom right). Details could then be explained, for instance the addition of a raised slab to form a balcony and a raised
slab to form an air plenum (shaded, top left) – the same diagram was used to show non-structural functionality (top right).

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 FIGURE 3.15/15
Riverwalk, London. Riverwalk is right beside the Thames and the lowest parts of the basement are below high tide level.
Groundwater is hydraulically linked to the river and therefore the design of a high quality perimeter secant wall was essential to keep
the excavation dry and safe. Controlling deflection of the wall using knee braces and flying shores was part of the strategy and is
represented here using a straightforward axonometric sketch.
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 FIGURE 3.15/16
Bulgari Hotel, Knightsbridge, London. The Bulgari Hotel was the first development in the UK to use a combination of piles and
basement walls to provide ground source heating and cooling. Water is circulated through a system of embedded pipework and the
proximity of the pipework to the sub-soils, which are at a near constant temperature throughout the year, either cools the circulating
water in summer or warms it in winter.
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FIGURE 3.15/17
Bulgari Hotel, Knightsbridge, London. The principles of top-down construction are best explained using sketches, especially if the
sequence is unusual. Normally steel columns are ‘plunged’ into newly concreted piles, then the ground floor is cast, it props the
perimeter basement walls, excavation is carried out below the floor and the sequence is repeated level by level for the lower floors.
At the Bulgari, large column-free areas were required so transfer structure had to be built into some of the floor structures, allowing a
number of the top-down columns to be cut out after performing their temporary function.

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FIGURE 3.15/18
Atlantic House, Holborn, London. Work in the ground at Atlantic House proved to be incredibly difficult due to the presence of
heavy foundations from earlier buildings. The Shoe Lane and Charterhouse perimeters had to be propped during foundation and
substructure construction, whereas the Holborn Viaduct and Farringdon Street perimeters were largely self-supporting. Another factor
that slowed the project significantly was the discovery of significant Roman remains.

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FIGURE 3.15/19
Principal Place. Large diameter augered piles were constructed close to the existing tunnel as part of the foundation for the
residential tower at Principal Place, London. Their precise position was dictated by the existing tunnel and an adjacent corridor that is
allocated for future railway lines. The methodology for getting these piles in the ground involved hand dug pits to remove
obstructions, construction of a piling platform for the 180-tonne rig, itself supported on small diameter piles, and a very specific
sequence for digging the pits and constructing the piles. A series of axonometric sketches was produced together with two-
dimensional diagrams to interrogate the spatial fit and to illustrate the basic concept.

235
 FIGURE 3.15/20
Principal Place. The sketch on the left was produced to show a proposal for tackling a particularly tricky corner of the site at
Principal Place in London, but standing a piling rig on a road near a railway is always difficult to organise and agree with the rail and
highways authorities. A completely different strategy was devised with the contractor to retain the road using a gravity block instead
of embedded contiguous piles. The ‘plan B’ sketches on the right were developed in the site office using tracing paper over a single
photograph – far easier and quicker than using CAD.
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 FIGURE 3.15/21
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland. Shallow tunnelling is a difficult process but has to be considered when open cut
techniques are precluded by the presence of vital services and the need to keep traffic flowing. Conventional two-dimensional
sections and axonometric sketches were used to show the engineering involved in Terry Farrell’s scheme to link Edinburgh’s western
gardens to the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy.
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FIGURE 3.15/22
Morley House, London. Holborn Viaduct in London really is a viaduct and not just a bridge over Farringdon Street – the approach
roads are constructed on multi-level arches. It means the road beside this site is self-supporting and doesn’t require extensive
propping or shoring. A portion of the viaduct makes a satisfying piece of three-dimensional geometry and drawing it is almost
irresistible.

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 FIGURE 3.15/23
Admiralty Arch, London. Admiralty Arch may be a very familiar building but it has some surprises in store – first, the shape, difficult
to read from the well-known Trafalgar Square or Mall picture-postcard views, and second the existence of complicated below-ground
infrastructure. The old Fleet Line tunnels, still in use as sidings for training purposes and occasionally for filming, are quite shallow
and are directly below the road. In fact, right here, they are joined together by a large diameter cross-over tunnel. Prime Investors
Capital Ltd is planning to turn the disused building into a luxury hotel by constructing new basements fore and aft of the Arch.
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 3.16 SUSTAINABLE STRUCTURES

Sustainable design of buildings can have a significant effect on • Geothermal heat pumps
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construction and running costs as well as having a positive • Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS).
environmental impact. In-use energy costs can be reduced by up
to 75 per cent. Sustainability is now part of the normal design Superstructure
process and sometimes has a major influence on the architectural • Retain existing structures
and structural form of a building. When it does, architects and • Optimise floor loadings
engineers develop concepts in close collaboration by exchanging • Relax deflection and vibration limits
ideas. Sketching becomes an essential and rewarding part of the • Lean construction
design process. Whether design is driven by sustainability • Composite columns (concrete-cased sections, concrete-filled
principles or not, it is worth remembering the basic strategies that tubes)
engineers can employ: • Fabric thermal storage
• Thermally broken balconies
Construction materials • Life cycle costing.
• Cement replacement (ggbs and/or pfa)
• Recycled concrete as aggregate
• High strength concrete
• Self-compacting concrete
• Reinforcement couplers
• Pre-stressed concrete
• High strength steel
• Responsibly resourced materials.
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Groundwork
• Minimise spoil taken off site
• On-site decontamination
• Avoid piling
• Re-use existing foundations
• Displacement auger piling
• Energy piles: cooling/heating fluid circulates through pipes cast
in piles

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FIGURE 3.16/1
Biota! Silvertown Quays Aquarium. Solutions for the ‘biome’ roofs ranged from simplistic ‘beam and post’ arrangements stabilised
by a combination of roof bracing and perimeter shear frames, to structures based on portal frame variants. The frames were used to
span the width of the building while stability shear frames were built into the long elevations. Analyses of the different portal frame
options were shared with the architect in a search for aesthetically pleasing and efficient structure. The horizontal members of the
portals developed into two-dimensional and then three-dimensional trusses which might in turn, have influenced the design of the
elevations.

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 FIGURE 3.16/2
Biota! Silvertown Quays Aquarium. The general massing of the building was largely dictated by the shape of the site, and by the
exhibit designers whose overriding objective was to create a logical, informative and entertaining route for visitors through the
displays. Plan shape was chosen to tie in with local landscape features including the Thames Barrier Park but apart from this, much
of the conventional architectural design was focussed on the naturally lit upper levels of the building, the ‘biome’ roofs. Many options
were explored for the structures, some tree-like and others based on more ambitious biological forms.
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 FIGURE 3.16/3
Biota! Silvertown Quays Aquarium. One of the more interesting proposals for the roof trusses for the biomes consisted of a regular
Warren truss constructed using a combination of materials – Glulam for the compression members and steel for the tension
members. Detailing of visual connections was partially developed and geometry and setting out of the truss internal members
selected to ensure the more heavily loaded compression members near the supports were the shortest and best able to cope with
local buckling. The design was predicated on there being sufficient dead load to counteract wind uplift loadings.
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FIGURE 3.16/4
Biota! Silvertown Quays Aquarium. The final proposal for the biome roofs owed little to earlier design studies; if anything the
design had reverted to the very first ‘beam and post’ concept. The over-grid of beams supported a chaotic arrangement of triangular
ETFE cushions. Nodes of this super-lightweight envelope were to be held in position by thin tubular members designed for snow and
wind uplift loads.

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 FIGURE 3.16/5
Shallow foundation option 1 of 2, Middle East. This foundation was for a
Middle Eastern sustainable, mixed-use development designed to be friendly
to pedestrians, cyclists and the environment in general. It has terracotta
walls decorated with arabesque patterns modelled on ancient cities and is
designed with short, narrow streets arranged to create a cooling, flushing
effect. Foundation options were studied to find the simplest, most efficient
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solution based on stabilising existing soils rather than piling to rock-head.

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 FIGURE 3.16/6
Shallow foundation option 2 of 2, Middle East. A cellular raft option was developed as a robust but flexible structure capable of
supporting heavy on-grid column loads and lighter off-grid loads. It was engineered to spread loads to improved natural ground and
to accommodate a network of service trenches. The aim was to construct a foundation that would accommodate future change and
minimise cost, volume of concrete and embodied carbon.
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 FIGURE 3.16/7
Penarth. Ideas for a green seaside resort at Penarth, South Wales – just a rough
sketch trying to capture a number of ideas.
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 FIGURE 3.16/8
Bulgari Hotel, Knightsbridge, London. Structural engineers don’t often get an excuse to draw wildlife but green and brown roofs
have an impact on loadings and it’s good to show we are at least aware of other things like the need for bat boxes and swift nesting
boxes.
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 FIGURE 3.16/9
Carbon-neutral warehouse. A major logistics company discovered that they could not build in Continental Europe without proposing
credible carbon-neutral designs for their major distribution centres. The typical bay shown here was a response to those difficulties
based on naturally lit interiors (through ETFE cushions), green roofs, pre-cast hyperclastic concrete roof units, pre-cast dock leveller
units and cladding, and ‘sensible spans’ to provide an efficient and lean structure. This was all backed up by plans that included
responsible sourcing of materials and free draining roads and hardstandings.
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FIGURE 3.16/10
Temporary visitor centre, Hong Kong. This pavilion structure was designed as part of a project to promote innovation in residential
development in Hong Kong. The pavilion exhibited two apartment ‘building blocks’ or modules intended for use in the sustainable
construction of multi-storey residential towers. The INTEGER organisation was commissioned to design an exhibition which would not
only demonstrate sustainability but would also explain how new ideas could be used to raise the quality of the built environment.
Sustainability principles were adopted to design and construct the pavilion, including off-site prefabrication, the use of recycled
materials, stack effect and natural ventilation. The pavilion was built on the waterfront in Hong Kong at Tamar, and true to the
aspirations of the design team, was dismantled and reused on a site in Beijing.

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 PART 4
EPILOGUE
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It is clear that sketching and drawing have played a major part in it is still an essential communication skill which will help them to
socio-economic and scientific development from the earliest times, get more out of their day to day lives. It is no accident that
probably even before the days when we protected ourselves from sketching and drawing survives in many walks of life, but it is
wild animals, our enemies and the weather in dark and cold worth reminding ourselves, in an age of computers, that the
caves. Over the few thousand years since those primitive days, simplest way of sketching, using pencil and paper, has its place
we have learnt new skills and invented new techniques but the in our frenetic engineering and architectural world.
value of transferring an image from our heads to a physical
surface or developing an idea by reworking it in front of our eyes, Happily throughout my career, some things have not changed:
is still immense. despite all the frustrations involved in making things happen,
there has always been great satisfaction gained from getting
Spencer Frederick Gore (1878–1914) sums it up as follows: ‘By worthwhile projects built. An essential part of the process of
drawing, man has extended his ability to see and comprehend building things is to communicate with others: no one person
what he sees’. designs or builds a building, we are always part of a team. Being
part of a team is the best and most motivating experience of all,
And there’s the famous ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ and communicating with team members is therefore vitally
quotation. This phrase emerged in the USA in the early part of important. Sketching is often the best way of communicating.
the twentieth century. Its introduction is widely attributed to
Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece commending the Drawing and sketching is a means of developing concepts and
effectiveness of graphics in advertising with the title ‘One Look Is thinking through strategies and details. Problems are solved en
Worth a Thousand Words’, in Printer’s Ink of December 1921. route and construction is understood. It is an iterative process
Barnard claimed the source of the phrase to be oriental by adding that takes time, persistence and patience but the end result is
the text ‘so said a famous Japanese philosopher, and he was worth the effort. As an important bonus, producing a sketch can
right’. in itself be treated as a project, and with the right amount of
diligence, the end result will be highly satisfying even though it
In recent years, it has been a disappointment to walk around the may not be a work of art.
design office, once known as the drawing office, and find it
difficult to spot a pencil, let alone a drawing board. But all is not We can all improve our skills and abilities with a little bit of effort
lost, people like to draw and sketch and are easily convinced that and perseverance. For design related to the built environment

251
 there can be few better ways to communicate than by sketching, So, besides being a delight early design sketches,
and we are all capable of sketching, whether we have artistic sometimes very rough, are my way of imparting overall
talent or not. concepts and details to other members of the design
team for discussion and modification.
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In some ways Part 3 is a record of my engineering career starting

in the 1960s through to the early years of the twenty-first century, Despite the almost universal use today of CAD
from the time when engineers and architects were beginning to (Computer-Aided Drawing), which always gives the
use calculators to an era where almost everyone uses impression of a finite final solution, I strongly believe that
sophisticated computer magic, and I hope it demonstrates that during the initial phase of any design, hand-drawn
hand sketching has played a big part in it. It also reflects my sketches are still the best form of communication.
career, the last fifteen years of which have been focused on high (Preface to Tony Hunt’s Second Sketchbook)
rise, whereas for me, projects in other sectors such as marine
developments have been very few and far between. Sketching always will be an essential part of engineering and
architecture. Just believe as John Ruskin did: ‘The art of drawing
Admittedly there is more to developing a successful career in which is of more real importance to the human race than that of
engineering or architecture than sketching – but how do we judge writing ... should be taught to every child just as writing is’.
a successful career? It must be about achieving goals, by working
with others in a team; it is about the practical realisation of ideas,
concepts and dreams. Sketching will play its part.

Tony Hunt has put it more eloquently:

As a young engineer I discovered that describing a

structural concept or detail wasn’t very effective
unless illustrated with a sketch to explain my ideas.
My mind has the ideas, but they only become ‘real’
through the medium of sketching, since mental ideas,
as yet, cannot be transmitted to others. And anyway,
the act of drawing what the mind ‘sees’ generates a
design or detail, good or not so good, which
immediately leads to alternatives.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Amarna 1, Modern Architect’s Interpretation of Aspective Plan – permission of Tara Andrews, Gary Boustead, Evelina Gadzhova,
Drawing by Mary Hartley after N. de Garis Davies, The Rock John Parker, Alex Lifschutz, Robert Wiesner, Laurie Chetwood,
Tombs of El Amarna. London, 1903, p. 40. Anderson Inge and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
Amarna 1, Aspective Plan of Palace – Drawing by Mary Hartley
after N. de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna. Sketches in Part 3 All of the sketches are taken from work at
London, 1903, pl. XXXII. various engineering/architectural design stages ranging from bid
Tony Hunt, Tony Hunt’s Second Sketchbook. Oxford: Architectural to concept, construction and beyond and were not drawn
Press, 2003. specifically for this book. They are reproduced by kind permission
Andrew Marr, A Short Book About Drawing. London: Quadrille, of WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff and by kind permission of many of
2013. WSP | PB’s clients, various institutions and fellow professionals in
Photograph of pond in Rekh-mi-re by Leonie Donovan. the world of construction, and include: Chetwood Associates;
Rehkmire, Two Aspective Ponds – Drawing by Mary Hartley after Zaha Hadid Architects; Cambridge Regional College; The Brit
N. de Garis Davies, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re at Thebes. School; Foster + Partners; Sellar Property Group; Mark Weintraub
Vol. 1. New York, 1953, pl. LXXIX. Architects; Masterworks Developments; Heatherwick Studio; KPF
D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form. New York: Architects; Renzo Piano Building Workshop; Solidere; Farrell
Dover, 1992 (reprint of revised edition of 1942; first published Architects; Heron Land Developments; Ronson Capital Partners;
1917). Sainsbury Supermarkets Ltd; Mace Group; Knightdragon; RHWL
Architects; the Wellcome Trust; University College London;
Hammerson plc; Westminster City Council; Will Alsop; St George
I am particularly grateful to Sir Terry Farrell, Professor Gregory plc; Liftscutz Davidson Sandilands; Gatwick Airport Ltd; Network
Brooks of the University of Texas, Mary Hartley, Laurie Rail; Fulham Football Club; Royal College of Music; Historic
Chetwood, Nina Chislett, Nicola Evans, John Duke and Royal Palaces; Howard de Walden Management Ltd; The
colleagues at WSP | PB and to Routledge editors Fran Ford and National Gallery; Canary Wharf Contractors Ltd; Quadrant
Grace Harrison for their encouragement and support during the Estates; Harrods; Treasury and Resources Department | Jersey
preparation of this book. Property Holdings; Beetham; the Serpentine Gallery; Prime
Development; Brookfield Property Partners; Great Portland
Sketches in Part 2 In addition to acknowledgements provided Estates; Prime Investors; Lady Sainsbury; Royal Mail Group; TH
with particular sketches, other sketches are reproduced by kind Real Estate; P4P.

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 INDEX
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Page numbers in italics refer to figures.

3D sketches, 17, 28, 207 axonometric projection, 17–8, 47, 70, 89, 111, 113, 231, 235;
3D structural modeling, 50, 161 steps, 26, 26, 27, 28

acceleration, 63 banana walls, 181

Addis, Bill, 44, 46 bank headquarters, Middle East, 78
Admiralty Arch, London, 239 barges, 158
aerial photography, 149 Barnard, Frederick R., 251
airports, 133, 134–40; master-planning, 134, 135; walkways, Barry Rooms, the National Gallery, London, 103
139 basements and tunnels, 49, 215–6, 217–39
Albert Pier, Jersey, 189 Bastion House, London Wall, London, 88
Alsop, Wil, 159 Battersea Power Station, London, 178
Amesbury Archer, 40 Bazalgette, Sir Joseph, 121
analysis software, 1 Bedford Pedestrian Bridge design competition, 132
Appold Street, London, 82 biological references, 202, 203–6, 242
Approval in Principle (AIP) process, 141 Biota! Silvertown Quays Aquarium, 241–4
Arc de Triomphe sketch, 18, 20 Birmingham New Street Station, 148
archaeology, 8, 9, 9, 10 Blackfriars Road, London, 209
architecture, 13, 118 Bond Street Station, Hanover Square, London, 150
architecture of industry, 128 botanical illustration, 11, 11
archival material, 167 boundary conditions, 40, 66, 92, 93
Arts building, Manchester, 104 bridges, 118, 119–32, 201, 206, 238
aspective drawings, 8, 9, 9, 10 BRIT School for the Performing Arts, London, 106
assembly drawings, 44, 46 Brooks, Gregory, 12
Athelstan, King, 3 Brunel, I. K., 49, 119, 121, 155, 203
Atlantic House, Holborn, London, 234 buildability, 44, 78, 95
 Building 5, the Shell Centre redevelopment, 111 Colechurch House, London, 90
building types, 49 Columbus Tower, West India Quay, 81
built environment, 37, 40–2 columns, 61, 62, 67–8, 77, 80, 82, 86, 95, 100, 199, 200
Bulgari Hotel, Knightsbridge, London, 232, 233, 248 communication, 7, 12, 251
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Al Burj (Dubai), 75, 76, 77 compaction, 112

Butterfly House (Chetwood), 34, 35, 36 competitions, 109
composition, 19
cable stay system, 60, 118, 127, 162 comprehensive planning, 213. See also master planning
Cambridge Regional College, phase 2, 56 computer-aided design (CAD), 1, 19, 47, 102, 111, 144, 165, 252
Candela, 40 Conceptual Design Statement (CDS) process, 141
Canning Town Station, Jubilee Line Extension, Canning Town, Conference centre, Tripoli, Libya sketch, 55
London, 146, 147 The Constitutions of Masonry, 3
cantilever, 44, 50, 51, 56, 61, 72, 76, 94, 106, 107, 206; bridges, consulting engineers, 1
128, 129, 130 contiguous piled walls, 215
cantilever scheme, Northgate, London, 107 ‘conversational drawing,’ 13
carbon-neutral designs, 246, 249 craneage, 51, 57, 58, 59, 70, 128, 137, 185, 211
Carmelite, Victoria Embankment, London, 182 creativity, 13, 37
Cartesian box, 40 Crossrail, 81, 149–52, 154, 180, 217
Cave of El Castillo, 3, 4 Crouch, Roger, 12
cave paintings, 3, 4 cube method, 17, 18, 20, 21
Centurion House, Lower Thames Street, London, 226 curved surfaces, 40
Chetwood, Laurie, 31, 31–2, 32, 192; Butterfly House, 34, 35, 36; ‘cut and carve’ projects, 182, 186, 187
Perfumed Garden, 33, 191, 194; Urban Oasis, 190, 191, 194 cutaway drawings, 44, 45, 91, 95, 103, 167, 169, 200, 227
Chetwood Architects, 43, 60, 127, 132
China competition, 109 design development, 44, 138
Chinese landscape, 31 design development notes, 17
Christmas Tree Project, Merchant Square, Paddington Basin, design meetings, 17, 37, 61
London, 195 design process, 37
civil engineering plant, 47, 185 design references, 43–4
cladding, 71, 74, 182, 198, 211, 249 designing arts, 13
clarity, 3, 13, 44, 47, 141 detail, 7, 207, 208
classical art, 3, 5 Deuce, Gordon, 13

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 dialogue between architect and engineer, 37 Fleet Line tunnels, 239
diaphragm walls, 152, 215 floor-to-floor height, 63
diaphragms, 83 flying shores, 225, 231
dimensionless numbers, 46 foreshortening, 26
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Diplodocus, 203 form follows function, 40

‘dotting’ technique, 9 Fort Regent (Jersey), 47, 48, 185
draughtsmanship, 31 foundations, 75, 81, 88, 92, 234, 235; piled, 204, 225
DS3, Canary Wharf, London, 200 freehand, 14, 14; guided, 17–9, 74, 102
Fulham Football Club, Craven Cottage, London, 161, 164–6
Eagle, 44, 45 functional requirements, 43–4
earthmoving, 112
Egyptians, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 Galileo, 41, 46
engineering, 1, 12, 13, 118 Gatwick Airport, West Sussex, 140
England, 3 geometry, 5
environmental impact, 133 Golden Jubilee Bridges, Hungerford Bridge, London, 123–5
Euclid, 3, 5 Goodyear Airdock (Akron, Ohio, USA), 60
Euro-Building sketch, 54 Gore, Spencer Frederick, 251
European HQ, Brentford, London, 211 Grand Hotel, Doha, 87
exhibition centre (Middle East), 57 gravity loads, 43, 62, 63, 86
exhibition halls, 49 ‘Great Awakening,’ 3
existing buildings, 167, 168–86, 227 55–57 Great Marlborough Street, London, 180
exploded diagrams, 46 Greeks, 3
extreme engineering, 94, 107 green park over Westway, London, 201
extreme events, 63, 156 gridded paper, 18, 26, 26, 28
Grimshaw, Nicholas, 61, 102
fabrication sequence, 12 guided freehand, 17–9, 74, 102
facades, 69, 117, 176, 177
‘face to face’ working, 13, 14 hand, structure, 205
Farrell, Terry, 178, 201, 211, 213, 213, 237 hangars, 49
Farringdon Crossrail Station, London, 149 Hankshaw, Sir John, 119,124
Ferry terminus, Hamburg, 159 Harrods, Knightsbridge, London, 179, 223
fighter jet sketch, 23 Hartley, Mary, 7, 9, 9

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 Harvey, John, 5 lateral stability system, 67, 70, 79, 83, 136
hatching, 19 Leadenhall Triangle, Billiter Street, London, 93
Heatherwick Studio, 87 Leeds, proposed development, 84
HET Project at Heathrow Airport, London, 134 Leonardo da Vinci, 5, 6
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high rise, 62–3; sketches, 64–94 library of common objects, 19

historical context, 3–7 Lifschutz, Alex, 17
horse, structure of, 204 Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, 119, 128
Hungerford Bridge design competition, 119–22 lightweight structures, 43, 188, 189–96
Hunt, Tony, 43, 252 limit state design, 1
hybrid structures, 209 line weight, 12, 19, 44
linear perspective, 5
ideas, structural form and materials, 41 linear relationships, 41, 202
Inge, Anderson, 17, 18, 20 Liverpool, proposed development, 89
isometric projections, 17–8 London Bridge, 90
London Bridge Station, 37
J. Sainsbury, Camden Town, London, 61, 101, 102 London Docklands, 181
J. Sainsbury, Greenwich, London, 96, 97 London Gateway Bridge, 206
J. Sainsbury, the Dome Roundabout, Watford, 99 London School of Economics, Bankside, London, 108
J. Sainsbury at Richmond, 193 long span structures, 49–50, 51
Jewel House, the Tower of London, London, 172 low- and mid-rise, 95; sketches, 96–117
Ludgate and Sampson House, 214
Kew Palace, Kew Gardens, London, 169, 170
king post walls, 215 Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s at Hedge End, Hampshire, 98
King William Street, London, 177 Marr, Andrew, 5
King’s Library, the British Museum, London, 173, 174 masonry, 3, 46, 141, 219
Kingsgate House, Victoria Street, London, 219 master builder, 37
Kinnaird House, Pall Mall East, London, 175, 176 master planning, 134, 135, 213, 214
Knightsbridge Crown Court, 223 materials and tools, 14, 22, 32, 74
199 Knightsbridge, London, 225 mathematics, 40–1
memory, 12
Lansdowne Road, Dublin, 162 Millennium Bridge design competition, 127
lateral loads, 43, 55, 62, 63, 83, 94 Milton Court, Moor Lane, City of London, 91, 92

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 minimal surfaces, 40 passenger flows, 133, 135, 153, 154
Minories development, London, 218 pedestrian bridge, University of Northumbria, Newcastle, 131
Mitchell trusses, 41 Penarth, South Wales, 247
mixed structure and functions, 68, 70 Perfumed Garden (Chetwood), 33, 191, 194
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modular construction, 83 perspective, 17; single point, 84; three-point, 149; true, 26;
Morley House, London, 238 vertical, 79, 80
mosque, Middle East, 199 petrol filling station, Sainsbury’s, Watford, 196
movement considerations, 43, 62, 63 Philippines, 160
Multiplex, 71 photocopying, 14, 19, 22
photographs, 7, 9, 24
National Portrait Gallery, London, 104 physical models, 41, 44, 46, 202
NATO sketch, 51 Piano, Renzo, 37, 38, 39, 40
naturally occurring shapes, 41, 136, 188, 202, 203–6, 242 Piccadilly Estate, Piccadilly, London, 186
Nervi, Pier Luigi, 40 piled foundation, 204, 215, 220, 225, 226, 232, 233, 235
New Jersey, USA, proposed development, 94 Pinwheel, Beirut, Lebanon, 74
Newcastle, proposed development, 85 port and marine engineering, 158, 159–60
Newfoundland, Canary Wharf, London, 181 portraits, 22, 24
Northgate, London, 208 power stations, 160, 178
Norton Folgate, London, 142, 212 Principal Place, London, 235, 236
notebooks, 15, 16, 17 Printer’s Ink, 251
proportion, 12
observation tower, Middle East, 198
The Old Book of Charges, 3 quick sketches, 14, 14, 15
On Growth and Form (Thompson), 41
‘One Look Is Worth a Thousand Words’ (Barnard), 251 railway stations and build-over projects, 49, 141, 142–57., 210
outriggers, 67, 82 Rastrick, John, 173
over-site development, Oxford Street, London, 217 reasons for sketching, 13
refurbishment or alteration projects, 95, 103, 113–6, 168, 173
Paddington Station, 151–4 Rekhmire ponds, 8
Parker, John, 15, 17 Renaissance, 5
Parklands Textiles, Annesley Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, 64, 74, 222
112 retail store, Manchester, 60

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 reverse engineering, 41 spine designs, 192
‘reversing out,’ 19 square/cube law, 41, 46
rheotomic surfaces, 40 St John’s Concert Hall, Smith Square, London, 171
RHWL Arts Team, 105 stadia, 161, 162–6
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Riverwalk, London, 229–31 Stadium competition, Casablanca, Morocco, 163

robustness, 63 staff accommodation, Waterloo Station, London, 205
Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash, Cornwall, 203 Stanmore Court, St James’s Street, London, 187
Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, London, 115, 116 steel, structural, 209
Royal College of Music, London, 168 steel portal frames, 54
Royal Mail Building, Rathbone Place, London, 224 Stockton Pedestrian Bridge competition, 128–30
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland, 237 storyboards and cartoons, 45, 46
Ruskin, John, 252 Strata, London, 79
structural analysis, 41, 42
Savacentre Superstore, Beckton Triangle, London, 100 supermarkets, 95, 96–102
scale effect (non-linearity), 41, 46 sustainability, 95, 96, 97, 117, 190, 232, 240, 241–50
scales, 17–8 sustainable power generation, India, 58–9
Science Museum, Wroughton, Swindon, 52, 53
secant wall, 92, 179, 215, 231 tablet computer, 31–2
Second Sketchbook (Hunt), 43 teaching, 12
sections, 167, 175 temporary works, 177, 187, 233
Sellar, Irvine, 37 textures, 11
separating ideas, 46 Thames River, 161, 226
sequence sketches, 44, 92, 129, 130, 180, 225, 228, 233 Thompson, D’Arcy Wentworth, 41
Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London, 227 Threadneedle Street, London, 117
shading, 19, 212, 230 three-dimensional spatial literacy, 12
Shallow foundations, Middle East, 245, 246 ‘top down’ sequence, 65
Shard at London Bridge, 37, 38–40, 64–73, 76, 85, 222 top-down construction, 152, 215, 220, 223, 225, 232
sheet pile walls, 215 torsional drift, 107
A Short Book About Drawing (Marr), 5 ‘Toys That Save Millions: A History of Using Physical Models in
single point perspective, 84 Structural Design’ (Addis), 44, 46
sketching, 5, 7; reasons for, 7–13 tracing paper, 14, 18, 22, 236
Small, Julie, 11, 11 transparency, 10

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 Tree Walk, Battersea Park, London., 184 vertical perspective, 79, 80
trusses, 41, 52, 55, 60, 67, 82, 108, 243 viaduct, 238
tunnels, 14, 66, 81, 154, 167, 179, 215–6, 217–9, 222–3, 235, visitor centre, Hong Kong, 250
237, 239 visual communication, 12
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Turville Park Estate, London, 183

Twin towers, Kuwait, 80 walls, 37, 65, 79, 81, 96, 181, 215–6, 245; secant, 92, 179, 215,
Twisting Tower, Dublin, 86 231
Waterloo East Link Bridge, Waterloo Station, London, 126
‘U frame’ bridge, 206 Waterloo Station, London, 156
UCL scheme, London, 113, 114 Wellcome Trust headquarters, Euston Road, London, 110,
Underground, 210, 218 210
unusual building types, 197, 198–201 Wigmore Street, London, 228
Urban Oasis (Chetwood), 190, 191, 194 wind loads, 43, 50, 51, 107, 198
‘Urban Oasis’ design, 43 wind turbines, 97

vertical dimensions, 26 Zaha Hadid Architects, 55

260