Sarah Fray

BSc(Hons)
Civil Engineering Technology & Design
CEng MICE MIStructE
Senior Lecturer
Structural
Engineering Design
UBGMKD-15-1

9th February 2024

 Today’s Session focuses on the

Design Process
&

A very brief Introduction to

Sustainability in Civil Engineering
Today’s Session
 We are going to look at the principles of the process of design in civil
engineering
 Introduce some of the key aspects of sustainability in respect to civil
engineering projects

The learning Outcomes:

 You will be able to:
 Define the characteristics of the design process
 Evaluate their influence on a civil engineering design
 Make judgements on the impact of stages of design in creating a
successful project design
 Have an introduction to sustainability from which you can investigate
further yourselves
It may be helpful to spend a short time reflecting on

What is civil engineering?

 What is Civil Engineering?
“Civil engineering is everything you see that’s been built around us”

“It’s about roads and railways, schools, offices, hospitals, water and power
supply and much more.
The kinds of things we take for granted but would find life very hard to live
without.”

Arguably the oldest true civil Egyptian pyramids approx.: 2800-

engineering works date to about 2400 BC
4000BC with the invention of the Great Wall of China approx.:
wheel 200BC
 What Do Civil Engineers Do?
Civil Engineers design, create and connect up the world around us.
“They help make our villages, towns and cities work for the people that live
there.”

“ ’Civil Engineer’ covers a huge range of jobs and all types of

engineering.”

It can be argued that every specialism of engineering stems from Civil Engineering
The UK Institution of Civil Engineers is the oldest engineering learned society in the world
(started in 1818 and receiving its first Royal Charter in 1828
 Construction Transport
Management
Geotechnical
Surveying Engineering
Engineering
Construction
Management
Here are a few civil engineering specialisms
“Civil engineering is the application of physical and
Coastal scientific principles, and its history is intricately Environmental
Engineering linked to advances in understanding of physics Engineering
and mathematics throughout history.”

River “Because civil engineering is a wide-ranging

Engineering profession, including several separate specialized
sub-disciplines, its history is linked to knowledge of
structures, material science, geography, geology,
soil, hydrology, environment, mechanics and other
Structural Materials
fields.”
Engineering Engineering
The Institution of Civil Engineers: Royal Charter
We now have an appreciation of what civil engineering is
So what is Design?

These are not ‘design’ they are ways to communicate/evidence a design

A definition of design is:

[mass noun] “Purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or object.”
Oxford English Dictionary – online
 What is the aim of Design?
Remember this from earlier: -

“Purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or

object.”
Oxford English Dictionary – online
Both these structures were created to be visual centre pieces of large events:
•By Benh
The LIEU1889 World’s
SONG (Own Fair
work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 in ParisBy
and the 2012 Olympics in London
Alistair Ross [CC BY 2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia
Wikimedia Commons Commons
Both structures serve the same purpose – but bear very little similarity
 Design & Engineering

Design
The art of conceiving something
and presenting it in a way that it
can be created into a reality
Engineering
The application of science,
mathematics and technology to
justify and physically create
something

Often both are used to mean the same thing, they are not
mutually exclusive and in civil engineering are generally very
closely linked together
 What Controls our Design?
The Design must have a starting point
• What is required/why it’s required/where it’s required – this is called the brief.
• All designs/projects have an initial brief – this can be very loose to very specific

• The brief outlines what is wanted – these are the design ‘Needs’
• However, we are designing in the real world, which has a lot of externally applied
boundaries to what we can/are allowed to do
• All designs have imposed boundaries on what can be done such as:
• Legislation, local controls, i.e. space (height/width/length), ownership,
adjacent property etc etc:

• these are the ‘Constraints’ on the design

 Therefore: All designs are informed by:
Needs and Constraints

Needs: what is wanted (typically by the client) - internal demands

Constraints: what cannot be done (typically external to the project) –
external boundaries
Here is an example: The Flatiron Building - New York, USA
What was the very obvious Constraint on the design
Even more extreme:
111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, is a
supertall residential skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan 84-
story, 435-meter tower, completed in 2021. Preserved at the
base is the 16-story Steinway Building (also Steinway Hall),
completed in 1925, which originally carried the address 111 West
57th Street.
We have now seen one typical Constraint on a design – that of space.

There are many more – but as you will see in the Charles Eames video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8qs5-BDXNU

Constraints should not be an automatic limit on what can be achieved and

meeting the Needs of the project.

Solving the challenges of balancing Constraints verses Needs – is a key role of

a designer and requires creativity
 Design v Project

What is a project?

Processes
Research (Reuse
Start Design Finish/use Upcycle
Creation Recycle)

We can therefore describe a ‘project’ as a process journey

 Applied External
Boundaries

ints
What the customer wants

stra
The Requirement

C on
The
The Design Realisation
Design Product/Service
ds
Nee

The Design Process

 This is an often-used
illustration of the design
process in engineering

But – where is the end

point, is there an end
point?

Source: Teachingengineering.org
Perhaps a more realistic design process in civil engineering

© Think Up Ltd/UCL
 Looking at the design process in isolation

The design process

Needs/
Constraints Created

The feedback loop

 Some typical characteristics of:

A Designer An Engineer
• Continuous judgment • Analytical
• Adaption • Numerate
• Modification • Considered
• Ingenuity • Ingenuity
• Imagination • Adaption
• Flair • Modification
• Communicator • Scientific
• Creative • Structured thought
• Continuous judgement
 Can you be both – a designer and an engineer?
Yes – as engineers you will be

Outstanding examples to name a very few are:

Peter Rice (d. ex Arup), Dr Mike Cook (Buro Happold), Santiago Calatrava (Sanitago Calatrava), Michel
Virlogeux (Michel Virlogeux), Antony Hunt (Antony Hunt Assoc.)
 Design
We have looked at the process of design

Now we will consider the part of the process which has the
greatest impact on a design
 Design means:
Setting your ideas free
Idea
Idea

Idea

Design is Problem Solving Idea

 Design is an iterative process

Hi
SAFE nd
si
gh
t
Process

UNSAFE
Design is an iterative process…....Hindsight is a reflection on the easist way to get from A to B
As an Example:
Looking at the following slide:

• List all the Needs and Constraints that you can think of which
may have influenced this building design
 London Velodrome
London Olympics 2012

Structural Engineers: Expedition Engineering

‘The London Olympics were themed to be the most Chris Wise
sustainable Olympics ever Architects: Hopkins Architects
Needs Constraints
The use of the building: The site:
• Cycle racing Cost
• Spectator facility • Reduce materials and construction activities
• Minimum number of spectators including excavation
• Toilets, catering facilities, meeting rooms, Contamination
changing rooms, repair and training rooms • Reduce excavation
• Adaptable space
Sustainable: Statement building:
• Operations:
Column free – excellent internal visibility
Reduce Operational Energy
• Reduced Carbon Emissions
• Construction:
Reduce amount of material used
Reduced cost, embodied carbon, carbon
emissions
Use of low carbon materials
Great visible outlook:
Velodrome

“The roof is designed to reflect the geometry of cycling as well as being lightweight and efficient
reflecting a bike.

There is also a 360-degree concourse level with windows allowing people views of the Olympic
Park.

The velodrome is energy efficient—rooflights reduce the need for artificial lights, and natural
ventilation reduces the need for air condition. Rainwater is also collected, which reduces the
amount of water used from the municipal water system. The 250-metre track was made with 56
km (35 miles) of Siberian Pine and 350,000 nails.[18]

It is informally known as ‘The Pringle’ due to its distinctive shape. It was shortlisted for the 2011
RIBA Stirling Prize. It won the 2011 Structural Awards Supreme Award for Structural Engineering.
In 2011 it also won the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award at British Construction
Industry Awards”
© Wikipedia 02/2021
 So we can see that
Needs and Constraints informed the Concept Design
The Concept Design
(won through design competition)

The Concept Design developed into the Scheme Design

Principle elements of the project are determined and approximately sized
Often Planning Stage

The Scheme Design is expanded into Detail/Developed Design

All elements of the project are determined, sized, detailed, construction method statements produced, Health
and Safety and other legislative requirements are submitted
Typically Building Regulations Stage

Project goes out to build

 So what have we learned?

• We are all designers to a greater or lesser degree.

• Design is about creativity.
• Sometimes we are diverging and sometimes we are converging.
• All designs have Needs and Constraints.
• A design project will require iteration.
• Individual and group views are different.
• Hindsight is logical. Foresight is creative.
 Question?

Is money a Constraint on the

design???
 Sustainability and Civil Engineering
What is ‘Sustainability’ in our context?

• “Sustainability is a way of using resources that could continue forever. A

sustainable-able activity is able to be sustained without running out of
resources or causing harm” https://greenpeace.org.uk accessed 01/02/24

• “Sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising

the future’ “Our common future “ - Brundtland Commission Report, 1987”
https://earth.org accessed 01/02/24

The second definition is more holistic than the Greenpeace definition why is this
more relevant to our industry??
Sustainability and Civil Engineering

• So why is there a problem???

Sustainability and Civil Engineering

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-12/2019-world-economy-reaching-growth-limits-expect-low-oil-prices-financial
 Sustainability and Civil Engineering
Countries by total energy consumption 1989 -1998

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_energy_consumption_and_production#/media/File:Energy-consumption-World2.png
Sustainability and Civil Engineering
Countries by Total Energy Consumption 2018:
1015 BTU
2014
1. China: 147.57 119.533 So we can see every
2. USA: 101.162 98.3 country has increased its
3. Russia: 33.304 30.7 energy consumption over
4. India: 31.328 24.3 just a 4 year period

• Japan: 19.246 19.1

• Canada: 15.204 14.6
• Germany: 13.854 13.1
• Saudi Arabia: 10.175 10.3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
• UK: 8.281 8.0 List_of_countries_by_energy_consumption_and_productio
n
Sustainability and Civil Engineering
So how long has there been an awareness that sustainability was a
major issue??
1972: Club of Rome publishes “Limits to Growth” its first report. This report based on a digital model
predicted that grow could not be sustained due to resource depletion and limitations imposed by environmental pollution.
Sold 30 million copies and is the highest selling ‘environmentalist’ book of all time

1973: E.F. Schumacher publishes “Small is Beautiful – A Study of economics as if people

mattered”. Schumacher looked at the western world in an alternative and revolutionary way, identifying that unfettered
growth producing ever increasing giant organisations was resulting in gross economic inefficiencies, environmental
pollution and inhume working conditions. The TLS ranked this book in the top 100 books published post 1945

1974: Club of Rome publishes “Mankind at a turning point”. A bigger model was used which moderated
the ‘doomsday scenario’ of the first report by identifying negative environmental impacts within the power of mankind to
modify to the better
Sustainability and Civil Engineering

So we now know that sustainability has been a known issue for 50+ years!!

Importantly sustainability in all this foundational thinking was not limited to just
material resources. Each centred on impacts on people and their wellbeing and
quality of life
Sustainable
development

This led to developing

Equity within a thinking as to how this
Equity between
generation? could be used to measure
generations
and mitigate impacts at a
people level
Sustainability and Civil Engineering
1992: The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro – 178 countries adopted Agenda 21 – a comprehensive
plan to build a global partnership to improve human lives and protect the environment

Following multiple meetings, in 2015 the UN Dept of Economic and Social Affairs
published The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, at the heart of which
is the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainability and Civil Engineering

In our context the 17 sustainable

goals can be simplified into the
Three Pillars of Sustainability

If the Three Pillars are expressed as

concentric circles we can see that
only when all three coincide do we
have a truly sustainable solution
Sustainability and Civil Engineering

So where does Climate Change

come in??

Climate Change is one of the

greatest threats to global human
wellbeing that currently exists.

Climate change is driven by

carbon emissions which are a
direct result of human activity ie
economics and growth
Sustainability and Civil Engineering

And where do we have an impact

on climate change??

Directly in orange: approx 30% of

carbon emissions relate directly to
what we do

But if you add in the impact of

transportation and industry
related to Civil Engineering, we are
massive contributor to Climate
Change
That was a very brief introduction to sustainability

Sustainability has huge influence on our industry

because we ultimately have very real impact on
sustainability

We will be looking at this further in the Buildings

and other modules in the module