Introduction
View of the Great Court, British Museum, London.
'Buro Happold' is a professional services firm providing
engineering consultancy,
design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of buildings, infrastructure and the environment. It was founded in
1976, by Sir
Edmund Happold in
Bath in the southwest of
England when he left Ove
Arup and Partners to take up a post at
Bath University as Professor of
Architecture and Engineering Design. Originally working mainly on projects in the
Middle East, the firm now operates worldwide and in almost all areas of engineering for the built environment, with offices in seven countries.
Sir Edmund Happold
Ted Happold worked at
Arup before founding Buro Happold, where he worked on projects such as the
Sydney Opera House and the
Pompidou Centre. Ted Happold was a leader in the field of lightweight and
tensile structures and Buro Happold has as a result undertaken a large number of
tensile and other lightweight structures since its founding, including the
Millennium Dome. Ted Happold died in 1996, but his influence on the firm is enduring. Ted Happold was a
Quaker, and his deep sense of humanity and principles can still be found in much of the work undertaken by the firm.
History
The Venezuela Pavilion at Expo2000.
Buro Happold was founded on the
1 May 1976, with its first office on Gay Street in
Bath,
United Kingdom. The firm started with seven partners:
★ Edmund Happold
★ Peter Buckthorp
★ Michael Dickson
★ Terry Ealey |
★ Ian Liddell
★ Rod MacDonald
★ John Morrison
★ John Reid |
Initially, Buro Happold offered only
structural engineering consultancy, with a particular strength in
lightweight structures, but in 1977 it added
geotechnical engineering and in 1978
building services engineering. Over the years the firm has added a large range of different services, including FEDRA, a leading
fire engineering consultancy. The firm also developed a variety of specialist services to support
design and
construction, including in-house
software for modelling fire and fabric and cable structures.
The King's Office, Council of Ministers and Majlis Al Shura (
KOCOMMAS), Central Government Complex in
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia was the firm's first major design project in 1976.
In 1983, Buro Happold opened an office in Riyadh, and has since opened offices around the UK and internationally:
From its foundation, Buro Happold worked on a number of different projects with
Frei Otto, a leading expert on lightweight structures and
gridshells, such as the Japan Pavillion for
Expo 2000 in
Hanover. The firm has also historically had close ties with
Bath University.
By 1993, Buro Happold had 130 employees and 8 partners. In 1998 this had grown to 300 employees and 12 partners, while in 2000 with over 500 employees the partnership was increased to 23. In 2006 the partnership stood at 25 with over 1400 employees and 14 offices.
Due to this growth and the addition of so many different services, the company was restructured in 2003 to consist of multi-disciplinary teams of engineers, each with structural, mechanical and electrical engineers supported by specialist consulting groups.
In 2005, Buro Happold launched Happold Consulting, a management and overseas development consultancy with expertise in the construction sector.
'Partners':
★ Neil Billett
★ Steve Brown
★ Andrew Comer
★ Mike Cook
★ Phil Dalglish
★ Mick Green
★ Alan Harbinson
|
★ David Herd
★ David Hull
★ Padraic Kelly
★ Ian Leaper
★ Rod Macdonald
★ Rod Manson
★ Tony McLaughlin
|
★ Peter Moseley
★ Nick Nelson
★ Eddie Pugh
★ Paul Rogers
★ Craig Schwitter
★ Neil Squibbs
★ Simon Wainwright
|
★ Gavin Thompson
★ Paul Westbury
★ David Wookey
★ Jerry Young
★ Matthew Smith
★ Denzil Gallagher
|
Notable Projects
Emirates Stadium roof.
Buro Happold's early projects ranged from designing giant fabric umbrellas for
Pink Floyd concerts to the Munich Aviary and the
Mannheim Multihalle, both with
Frei Otto.
[1]
More recent projects in the
United Kingdom include:
★ The Museum of Transport in Glasgow
★
Arsenal F.C.'s
Emirates Stadium in
London
★
Ascot Racecourse in
Ascot
★ The
Weald and Downland Gridshell
★ Perth Concert Hall in Perth
★ The Savill Building in
Windsor Great Park
★ The
British Museum Queen Elizabeth II Great Court Roof in
London
★ The
Lowry Centre in
Salford
★ The Sackler Crossing in
Kew Gardens,
London
★
Sheffield Winter Gardens in
Sheffield
★ The
Eden Project Core in
Cornwall
★ The
Globe Theatre in
London
★
The O2 in London
★ Museum of Liverpool, in Livepool
Another recent project which attracted press interest was a the Westborough School cardboard classroom in Westcliff
[1].
Internationally, Buro Happold's buildings include:
★ The
Al Faisaliah Centre in
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia
★ The
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in
Berlin
★ The Genzyme Headquarters in
Cambridge,
Massachusetts,
United States
★ The Danish National Opera House in
Copenhagen,
Denmark
★ The
Palace of Peace and Reconciliation in
Kazakhstan
★ The new
Lansdowne Road Stadium in
Dublin,
Ireland
★ RAK New Gateway Building, in Ras Al Khiamah
Buro Happold is best known for building engineering, but it also undertakes a large proportion of its work in civil, geotechnical and environmental engineering, and an increasing amount of overseas development work. Buro Happold is a member of the
Consortium for the Eradication of Poverty, which also includes
Arup, Scott Wilson and
RedR-IHE
Buro Happold is part of the consortium (
EDAW) appointed to design the Olympic Park for the London
2012 Olympics. The team which built the
Emirates Stadium, made up of
McAlpine,
HOK Sport + Venue + Event and Buro Happold will also be designing and constructing the
Olympic Stadium.
[2][2]
Awards
Buro Happold's projects have won two RIBA
Stirling Prizes: the Media Centre at
Lord's Cricket Ground in
1999 and the
Magna Science Adventure Centre in
Rotherham in
2001. Additionally the
Evelina Children's Hospital won the public vote for the
Stirling Prize in
2006.
Buro Happold won the
Aga Khan Award for Architecture for
Tuwaiq Palace in
Riyadh in
1998.
[3] Happold also won the
Queen's Award for Enterprise twice, for export achievement and again for
sustainable development. In
1999, Buro Happold was the recipient of the
MacRobert Award for their design of the
Millennium Dome.
At the 2007 Building Awards, Buro Happold won the Engineering Consultant of the Year award, while the
Emirates Stadium won the Project of the Year award. Other Buro Happold projects shortlisted for the same award were the new terminal building at
Farnborough Airfield and the Savill Building, which was highly commended.
[3]
Buro Happold won the prestigious Building Services Project of the Year Award 2007 for Perth Concert Hall, in Perth.
Buro Happold was only the second firm in the world to achieve worldwide
Investors in People accreditation.
Happold Trust
'The Happold Trust' was founded in
1995 by Ted Happold and the other founding partners in order to promote
education,
research and
training in the fields of
engineering,
industry,
design,
technology and
architecture. The Happold Trust is a
patron of Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief (
RedR-IHE)
[4] and a co-sponsor of the planned
Dyson Academy in
Bath.
[5]
External links
★
Buro Happold official website
★
Happold Consulting official website
★
What is Engineering site, supported by Buro Happold
See also
References
1. Pink Floyd Animals Concert Tour 1977
2.
3. Architectural-Gallery-Saudi Arabia-Tuwaiq Palace
4. RedR-IHE patrons
5.
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