2025 Events

Annual Lecture 2025

Annual Lecture (Catherine Ramsden, Useful Studio). Click Here for further details.

Future of Design Programme, Leeds, UK

   

L to R: Graham Thomas of Arup presenting on the value of good design; Dr. Robert Corbally of Roughan & O’Donovan hosting a workshop focusing on bridge assessment; Diego Padilla-Philipps of WSP delivering a presentation on co-design; Prof. Nikolaos Nikitas (L) hosting a panel discussion exploring the future of design (click on individual photos to see them enlarged).

A report by Oliver Scales, MEng (Hons) GMICE, Roughan & O’Donovan

On 10 April 2025, the Future of Design conference took place at the University of Leeds, with more than 40 enthusiastic students and young professionals in attendance. Mark Bulmer, Secretary, British Group, welcomed the attendees to the event before introducing the first speaker of the day, Graham Thomas, Associate Director at Arup. Graham’s talk was followed by an interactive presentation on the practical application of sustainability principles, delivered by James Rawlin, a civil engineer at Arcadis. The final presentation of the first session was delivered by Mercedes Ascaso, a Principal Engineer at DLT Engineering. The morning concluded with a workshop hosted by Dr. Robert Corbally, Principal Engineer at Roughan & O’Donovan.

Following a break for a buffet lunch on the university campus, the afternoon session began with a presentation by Diego Padilla-Philipps, Director at WSP, who shared his belief that the future of design lies in co-design. This was followed by a presentation by Anthea Schneider of Knight Architects, who spoke about her involvement in Network Rail’s FLOW Footbridge. A panel discussion chaired by Prof. Nikolaos Nikitas of the University of Leeds, brought two of the speakers from the earlier sessions, James Rawlin and Diego Padilla-Philipps, together with Junley Chan, Design Manager at J. Murphy & Sons Ltd and Dr. Souvama Boral, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in circular economy at the university, to explore ‘the future of design’ for clients, contractors and consultants. Additional opinions were raised by some of the other speakers from the earlier keynote sessions and workshop, further fuelling the debate and bringing the role of the academic researcher into question.

The event concluded with a closing address from Mark Bulmer, who thanked the sponsors, Roughan & O’Donovan and University of Leeds; the speakers; and the organising committee for delivering a valuable, thought-provoking event. He also announced Damien Poblete as the winner of the paper competition, with his paper titled "When the AiP falls short of objectives, why follow it?".

The IABSE British National Group would like to extend their thanks to the sponsors of the event, Roughan & O’Donovan and the University of Leeds; to Mark Bulmer for chairing the keynote sessions; to the speakers for their informative presentations; to Prof. Nikolaos Nikitas for hosting the panel discussion; to the competition entrants; and to the organising team, Andrew Rolland of AECOM, Bethan Nitsch of WSP, Eleanor Atherton of AECOM, Gursimrat Basran of Arcadis, Oliver Scales of ROD and Subhadip Chandra of Kier.

2024 Events

Milne Medal awarded to John Roycroft

  

The IABSE British Group were delighted to award the 2024 Milne Medal to John Roycroft (BDP). John gave a superb lecture which told the story of his career, and how communication lay at the heart of everything he had achieved, via sketching and talking and understanding of clients and collaborators. He talked about his work on a variety of projects, including the Astra Zeneca HQ in Cambridge, the retrofit of a major London building to be the head quarters of an investment bank, and his long collaborations with major architects to achieve incredible projects.

The lecture is available to watch online: Click Here

The 2024 Milne Medal was the first awarded with a new medal, which has been struck following an open design competition won by Christian Frandsen of Mott MacDonald. Christian's design will now be used for the next 20 year cycle of Milne Medal events.

The event was also an opportunity to award the 2024 Nethercot Prize to Max Clayton (Structure Workshop) for his paper on "Fern the Diplodocus: A Structural Tale", which tells the story of a sculpture of a dinosaur skeleton installed outside the Natural History Museum with extraordinary structural bravery. The shortlisted papers are available to read online: Click Here

 

Henderson Colloquium 2024 (Click on Video Recording)

 

The IABSE British Group hosted a discussion evening on Moving Bridges, following the Henderson Colloquium 2024 in October. Simon Fryer (Buro Happold), Ryan Dillon (BAM) and Ezra Groskin (Moxon Architects), and Paul van Hagen (Hardesty and Hanover) gave a wider view of some the issues around the design, construction, operation and maintenance of these complex structures, and discussed how IABSE is intending to develop a guidance document to draw together wider industry knowledge and best practice.

Simon Fryer talked about advances that Buro Happold are making in differential temperature assessment of footbridge structures, and recommended safe-sided improvements that might be considered as part of the assessment of complex geometric forms; Ryan Dillon spoke movingly about the impact of the Narrow Water Bridge in Northern Ireland, in which he is involved in the construction; and Ezra Groskin delved into the architectural language and aspirations of moving bridge design.

Kindly hosted by Arup, the evening attracted a good audience and a wide range of vocal participation.

Future of Design conference

25.09.2024 // 9:30-17:30 // London, Future of Design conference, at Imperial College, London.

We are excited to present a dynamic event featuring keynote speakers, an engaging interactive workshop, and a thought-provoking panel discussion on regenerative design. It is not too late to sign up! For more information, visit the FoD website, where you can also explore details about our speakers.

Nethercot Paper Prize

Deadline for submissions 11.10.2024

The submission deadline for this year's Nethercot Prize is fast approaching. Early career architects, engineers, and designers are invited to submit a paper covering the process of designing a new structure or adapting an old one. Fore more details and judging criteria please visit the British Group website.

The intricate world of moving bridges: IABSE Henderson Panel Discussion

15.10.2024 // 6pm-7:30pm // London

This panel discussion pulls together some participants from the recent IABSE Henderson Colloquium to discuss the topic of "Moving Bridges", outlining the challenges and difficulties of designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining these structures..

Fore more details and to book please visit this site.

Young Engineers Coordinators 

The British Group's Executive Board has elected several Young Engineers, to help organise IABSE events, and also to encourage participation of students and engineers in their early career. The YE elected include the following, contact Cameron Archer Jones.

Upcoming Future of Design (FoD) on 25 September 2024: Register Here

Speakers, workshop hosts and panellists

For this year’s edition of the Future of Design conference, we present a line-up of distinguished speakers who are thought leaders in their respective fields. Some confirmed speakers include:

• Prof. Harbinder Birdi, Birdi & Partners
• Nick Cole, Robert Bird Group
• Kelly Harrison, Whitby Group
• Alessandro Margnelli, AKT II
• Aween Abubaker, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
• Mike Brooks, Buro Happold
• James Norman, University of Bristol
• Jonathan Smales, Nature

With their profound insights and ground-breaking contributions, these speakers will share their expertise and experiences, discussing the changes that are driving the evolution of design and shaping the future of our built environment.

IABSE British Group Annual Lecture: Ted Zoli

  

The British Group welcomed Ted Zoli (Technical Director, HNTB) from the USA to give the well attended 2024 Annual Lecture, with 120 people - a fully packed lecture hall. Ted provided an illuminating overview of several extremely demanding technical projects, focusing on the role that adaptation needs to play in design, and giving an overview of the state of the art in bridge design in the US which has a very different flavour to current practice in the UK. The annual lecture was followed by a celebratory dinner on the HMS Belfast. The British Group is grateful for sponsorship from Teufelberger Redaelli who supported the Annual Dinner. 

Youtube link to lecture: Click here. 

IABSE Manchester Symposium 2024

Keynote Speakers Video Recordings: Click Here.

Young Researchers Conference

Live from the Young Researchers Conference 2024: winners have just been announced! This year's conference, sponsored by IABSE British Group, saw a multitude of outstanding research projects from students around the world. Congratulations to Bowen Liu for winning our oral presentation, and to Shane Hossell and Mohamed El Ashrifor achieving joint second place. And congratulations to poster presentation winner Ben Millar, and joint second place winners Alessandro DE IASIO and Mohamed Elzeadani.

Future of Design (FOD) 

The highly anticipated IABSE Symposium took place from 10 to 12 April 2024 at Manchester Metropolitan University, close to Manchester City Centre. The Symposium was preceded by the Future of Design (FOD), organised by the British Group. Future of Design programs are intended for early-career design professionals and students to engage with leading lights in engineering. More photos at: https://lnkd.in/eT895XMf

2023

National Group of the Year Award Winner!

(Watch the first reactions video at the IABSE Awards).

IABSE Milne Medal

Design Competition Deadline 16.01.24. At this year's IABSE Milne Medal lecture we launched a competition to find a design for the medal for the next 20 years. The competition is open to anyone who has a passion for engineering and design and wishes to enter. Full details of the competition can be found here. The deadline for submissions is 16 January 2024, and deadline for queries is fast approaching, 16 December.

Nethercot prize paper webinar, will take place on 19 January, 14 hrs CET. Checkout IABSE's webinars page for further details. This year's Nethercot Prize winner Livia Guimares will be giving a webinar discussing her winning paper on the “Space House” in January.

Nethercot Prize Shortlist

We are pleased to announce that the following three papers have been selected for the shortlist for the Nethercot Prize, 2023:

Soho Loop Cantilever Footbridge – Ed Dablin, DYSE

Space House – Livia Camargos Guimaraes, Pell Frischman

Wendover Dean Viaduct – Sam Trueman, COWI

Congratulations to all the shortlisted participants. The winner will be announced at the Milne Medal Lecture, and all papers are available to read on the IABSE website here: https://iabse.org.uk/uncategorized/nethercot-prize-shortlist-2023/ 

The Nethercot Prize is awarded annually to an early career architect, engineer or designer (expected to be under 35 and based in the UK) in recognition of the quality of a written paper submitted for judging.

Study Tour 13-15 October to Dublin (Book Here)

We are pleased to announce the next IABSE British Group Study Tour to Dublin from Friday 13th to Sunday, 15th October 2023. We will spend a long weekend visiting some of the most distinguished and multi-award winning bridges in the city, hosted by the IABSE Ireland National Group. The itinerary is being developed, but we currently planning:

• a walking tour of all the bridges along with Liffey, with representatives from the design teams in attendance including recent and proposed crossings
• Tours and visits to eminent buildings in Dublin as part of Open House Dublin (https://openhousedublin.com/). 
• We will be based in Dublin, with travel planned via train and ferry or by air. Note that you can bring guests to the trip; they will also need to register.

Journey to Success

Scheduled on 26 October 2023 is an event for early career engineers and designers where leading figures in practice in buildings and transportation infrastructure discuss their own personal journeys. The event will discuss skills, opportunities, risks and difficulties. Read more here ...

Nethercot Paper Prize submission deadline

The deadline is 27 October 2023, early career architects, engineers, and designers (expected to be under 35 and based in the UK) are invited to submit a single-author paper for judging for the Nethercot Prize. The paper should cover the process of designing a new structure or adapting an old one. Read more here ...

Future of Design (FoD)

On 21 September 2023, the British Group of IABSE hosted the "Future of Design" conference at Imperial College London. This gathering brought together around 80 delegates, including students, young design professionals, and leading engineers, to delve into the transformative changes driving the evolution of design and the future of our built environment. You can read more about this in the SEI November issue, in an article by the British NG Chair, David Knight, see the group photo below.

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The IABSE British Group Annual Lecture: No one should be interested in the design of bridges; Ben Addy, Moxon Architects. Ben Addy (Moxon Architects) will deliver the IABSE British Group Annual Lecture on May 18th. The lecture will be held at the IStructE headquarters. Join us to learn why "no-one should be interested in the design of bridges". The lecture will be followed by the IABSE British Group annual dinner that will take place at the Compton in Clerkenwell, a short walk from the IStructE: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

2022

On the 12th of September the Future of Design 2022 conference for young designers aimed at promoting design and inspiring young generations was finally held, back in person! Organised at the Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester, this event was attended by 76 delegates from around the country.  The event kicked off with a welcome note from IABSE British Group Honorary Secretary Mark Bulmer. In the morning, delegates heard from Laura Hannigan from Simple Works on Waste Timber & Circular Economy, Mark Bulmer from AECOM on the Humber Bridge project, and Steve Mckechncie from Arup on the future of design. The talks demonstrated the wide range of skills demanded of engineers and different ways which they can be applied.

Prior to lunch, the Young Designer’s Paper competition talks took place. All papers were interesting and were well presented. The winning entry went to Kimberley Ertl, Establishing a Bridge Post – Completion Study Methodology, and the runner up prize went to Stephen Walsh – A Flying Truss Footbridge for Brum. Audience Choice Award went to Madi Kargin – Assessment tool for precast concrete buildings. Throughout the day the Young Designer’s Design Competition was on display in the hall. Two impressive entries were shortlisted, the 'Judges winner' went to Kimberley Ertl and Pranav Darda; and in second place were Stephen Walsh, Mark Saville, Zeina-Nabulsi and Andrus Kolossov. All awards were presented by David Knight, Vice chair, of the IABSE NG, and Fernando Madrazo-Aguirre, Chair, Young Engineers Board.

In the afternoon session, Bola Ogunmefun from Tisserin spoke about examples of timber design projects and Adrian Tomor from Brunel University discussed about digital stone construction. It was insightful to learn about the diverse applications of different materials. A very interesting and passionate round table debate about the future of sustainable engineering – material use and construction followed these talks. It was clear that delegates of this year’s Future of Design conference had engaged with the session. In the end, keynote Speaker Joanna Bonnett from COWI spoke about a future of designing less, Albert Williamson-Taylor from AKT II spoke about challenging the concept of engineering and David Knight from Cake Industries spoke about Moving bridges.

The IABSE British Group would like to extend their thanks to Ian Firth, Chairman of the IABSE British NG, and the organisers (Alex Wallace, Charlotte Weatherburn, Eleanor Atherton, Zeina Al-Nabulsi and James Leung) for another superb event organised. We would also like to thank the sponsors, for their generous support and cooperation: Arcadis, Jacobs, DYSE, Stantec and Redaelli. 

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IABSE Study Tour // Belgium (this tour has been currently postponed).

The next IABSE British Study Tour to Belgium. The group will spend a long weekend visiting some of the most distinguished and multi-award winning buildings and bridges in the country, in the company of the designers and other senior engineers. A great opportunity for networking and discussion, the tour is open to all (even if you haven't been to an IABSE event you will be made most welcome!). For more details and to express an interest please click here.

2021 and 2020

The Milne Medal is awarded to an individual engineer for excellence in structural design, both in the overall concept and in the attention to detail in their work, and is named in recognition of the late Bob Milne, who served for many years as the Honorary Secretary of the IABSE British Group. This year, we are delighted to award the Milne Medal to Margaret Cooke of Integral Engineering Design.

“Less is More”; Margaret Cooke

As we head towards 2050 we need to build less and re-use more. This requires a fundamental shift in how we work, in the training of engineers, in clever use of existing buildings, materials and components. We will also need to change the way we value our work: how do we articulate our worth when no repair or change is necessary? How do we persuade clients that it takes courage and real expertise to say that an existing structure has sufficient integrity?

Margaret Cooke has been working with existing buildings for nearly 30 years and is Conservation Accredited. She is one of the founding Directors of Integral Engineering Design where the worlds of new build, conservation, reuse and sustainability are inextricably linked. She is a passionate advocate of the “minimum intervention” approach to engineering.

Nethercot Prize

DEADLINE // 15.10.2021

The IABSE Nethercot Prize is open for entries! Early career architects, engineers, and designers (expected to be under 35 and based in the UK) are invited to submit a single author paper which should cover the process of designing a new structure or adapting an old one. Further details can be found here.

How can Structural Engineering be an unending stream of goodness? // IABSE 2019 Henderson Colloquium: A Webinar

Online // 4.10.21 - 6pm

In 2019 the IABSE British Group held the annual Henderson Colloquium, where twenty invited delegates explored what characterises structural ‘goodness’ in the future, and how future changes in technology and society will help or hinder the profession’s ability to create it? Whilst the question was deliberately ‘open’ several distinct themes emerged.

How should we respond to the climate emergency?

How to balance the disruption and opportunity of digital design?

How do we attract the future skills needed by the profession?

How do we ‘tell our story’?

IABSE Talks // Annual Lecture 2021 - Saving the Planet: New Lives for Old Buildings - Sam Price and AGM

27 May 2021

In 1978 Sam founded Price & Myers with Robert Myers where a large part of his career has focused on old building. He will explain why they are both relevant, and he will conclude with thoughts on some of the difficult decisions that engineers may face in the future. Register here Online // 27.05.21 - 6 p.m

Prior to the annual lecture, the British Group will hold the Annual General Meeting. UK IABSE Members wishing to attend or stand for election to the committee should contact the Honorary Secretary. Full details here

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2020

Milne Medal Lecture Report (Nathalie Richards)​

Download here..

Report from David Knight, British Group Vice Chair, Sept. 2020:

One of the great delights of IABSE is rubbing shoulders with the best engineers and designers in the world, and learning about them in an informal and friendly setting. As lockdown kicked in, the British Group realised that this was going to be absent from our normal schedule of events (such as the Future of Design conferences for young engineers and our evening lectures with eminent designers) as they would all be online, and decided to look at other opportunities to communicate with our members. "IABSE in Conversation" was born!

A podcast is a very personal way of communicating as you are often speaking through headphones straight into the listener's head. That personal touch meant that a very informal conversation is a good way of mimicking what might happen in a chat after an event or over a drink at a dinner. It also gives you the time to get to know a person a little and talk about their career and what inspires them in a way that does not always come across in project focussed presentations or on a CV. The podcast series interviewed five different designers or engineers, each with a very different background and route through the industry to where they are today. We spoke to a designer at the forefront of the technical revolution with experience in several major consultants and contractors; an expert in masonry structures, a writer and editor who communicates about bridges, a world famous bridge designer, and a young architect just starting on her career designing bridges. However, that is just the start of their stories, and you get to hear anecdotes and favourites, childhood memories and impressions from the start of their career, and thoughts on how the industry might move forward and what their plans are for the future.

The first series of "IABSE in Conversation" is available online at https://iabse.sounder.fm, in Apple Podcasts or Google Play, or on the IABSE British Group YouTube channel. Featuring Laura Langdridge, Bill Harvey, Ian Firth, John Roberts and Helena Russell, the series is well worth listening to in full, and we have plans for a second series shortly.

April 17 - Future of Design 2020 (Full Event Video) - First Online Event!

Shared by the British Group of IABSE

The IABSE British Group held their first live event on 17 April 2020, titled 'Future of Design (FoD) 2020'. This event was originally planned to take place as a full-day conference, but due to COVID-19 was moved to a webinar. The speakers were: William Matthews (William Matthews Associates) on Tintagel Castle Footbridge; Alexandra Gkoutzidou (University of Manchester) on Novel Materials in Construction and Environmental Sustainability focusing on Graphene; Catherine Ramsden (Useful Studio) on Social Value of Infrastructure.

This was followed by a discussion on the future of design and work in a post COVID-19 environment. Hosted by David Knight (Cake Industries) Next Future of Design event is in September 2020. This webinar was sponsored by DYSE, Redaeli, Stantec and Jacobs This webinar was organised by Andrey Smirnov (Stantec), Eddy Keegan (Jacobs), Georgia Panagiotidou (Jacobs), Rebecca Morgan (Arup) and Sara Peters (Arcadis).