19 Mar 2021
In 2020, fibUK held the inaugural Coolest Concrete Award, a poster competition for engineers and researchers in the first 10 years of their career. The competition asked entrants to produce a poster showcasing interesting solutions using concrete from their research, design, assessment or construction work.
Entrants were judged on the quality and clarity of their posters and on the usefulness and relevance of the subject to the engineering profession. The competition also encouraged entries where the solution contributed to global challenges including consumption of natural resources, climate change and improving infrastructure resilience.
The results of the competition are as follows:
Winner: Camilla Samuelsson for her poster on the ‘First Light Pavilion’.
The First Light Pavilion is a concrete shell structure that contains a new visitor centre at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, near Manchester. The roof is a 200mm thick, 50m diameter reinforced concrete shell. It is the first large scale shell structure to be built in the UK in the last 25 years.
Camilla’s poster was praised for its clear communication of the structural challenges and approach and its use of loading diagrams to demonstrate the structural system used.
View the project poster
Runner-up: Will Hawkins for his poster on ‘Thin-shell textile reinforced concrete floors for low-carbon buildings’.
Will’s poster gave a summary of his research project on a novel concrete vaulted flooring system. The poster outlines the geometry and materials used in the research and the construction and testing that has been undertaken on the proposed system.
The aim of the research was to develop an alternative to traditional concrete slab types which could achieve significant reductions in embodied carbon. Will’s poster was praised for its clarity and effective layout and the solutions presented were commended for their contribution to improving material efficiency.
View the project poster
The winner of the competition was invited to present her poster at ‘fib: what’s happening? 2021’ on 4th March 2021. The competition was judged by: Andy Truby, Truby Stevenson Ltd (fibUK Committee), John Armitage, Ramboll (fibUK Committee) and Emily Halliwell, The Concrete Centre (fibUK Early Careers Group Chair).
To find out more information please visit the website below – details of how to enter the 2021 Coolest Concrete Award will be added when entries open: https://www.istructe.org/training-and-development/enter-awards/coolest-concrete-award/