This year, Cundall’s structural team, led by Clare Dawson, Principal Engineer, is celebrating its success at the North West Structural Engineering Awards after its project the University of Huddersfield, Daphne Steele Building, won Best Project Constructed Outside of the North-West Region.

Cundall was honoured to be surrounded by industry pioneers at the Structural Awards, which have showcased excellence in Structural Engineering for over 50 years. Speaking on the project, Clare Dawson commented: "The project was a brilliant challenge for everyone involved, with some complex constraints to overcome. The team worked incredibly hard to ensure seamless coordination with all the other disciplines. We managed to significantly reduce the embodied carbon in the structure by challenging the brief and achieve efficient design through careful specification of the construction materials. Congratulations to the whole team!"

The University of Huddersfield, Daphne Steele Building is the first building constructed as part of the new masterplan for Southgate Campus. Consisting of 12,300msq of cutting-edge communal, administrative, specialist, and general teaching, physiotherapy, and laboratory space, the building exemplifies multi-disciplinary design solutions as a method for overcoming significant project restraints.

The project achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating and is the first university building to be designed to the WELL Platinum Standard, with a huge focus on biophilia and natural lighting linking nature from outside to the people within, from external terraces to a rooftop garden. Sustainable design solutions ranged from reduced embodied carbon to photovoltaic panels on the roofs, as well as combination air source heat pumps and ventilation design aiming at reduced fan powers for efficient comfort heating and cooling.

Cundall faced earthworks and geotechnical challenges due to steep level changes and former structures leaving made ground beneath the site. 900mm diameter rotary bored piles that act in skin friction were adopted for below superstructure elements such as lifts and stair cores due to the obstructions.

Owain Hughes, Structural Engineer, says: "I am delighted to have had the opportunity to work as part of the design team on the Daphne Steele Building. The success of this project is a testament to the exceptional multidisciplinary collaboration across all project teams, to find innovative ways to overcome unique design constraints while continuing to focus on the reduction of embodied carbon within our designs."

Congratulations to the whole project team for their hard work and dedication in bringing this new part of the campus masterplan to life.