Three of our projects are winners at the 2026 Civic Trust Awards
Seminal projects from the last 60 years that still influence how we design as engineers today
Contributors
Total of 6 people
We asked a handful of our directors what their most seminal projects were. Which projects were groundbreaking, foundational works that fundamentally influenced their field by introducing new methods or perspectives? Here's what they had to say...
Iain Shaw
“Contact Theatre relies on passive measures and is still the most efficient theatre in the country, and is comfortable. It was so interesting looking through the archive of the work that we and Randall did in the 1990s to convert a simple flat-roof 1960s theatre into the modern 90s 'masterpiece' that it has become, and to be able to learn from it, study it and optimise it, and then learn from those lessons to develop the new naturally ventilated spaces. When I go back it’s always a lively place, with a theatre company that own and love their building. For all its quirks, they absolutely love it, and it plays such an important role in the community particularly with the young people that use it to develop their skills and become the future of performing arts. It makes you realise that buildings are for people. Overall, it was a project for the future, but it really gave me an insight into our practice from the past. I think the whole project captures what we are about (good design, first principles, for the good of society, hard work!).“"The Contact Theatre. It was a fascinating project to work on the 2020 refurbishment and extension project. In a world where we seal buildings and mechanically ventilate and cool them, it was really refreshing to go back to basics.“
Contact Theatre
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© Adrian Lambert
© Adrian Lambert
© Ian Lawson
Nick Cramp
“The Musee d'art de Nantes is huge and varied, so I had the opportunity to apply a lot of methods we had been developing: theatrical lighting set ups in the sculpture halls; daylit art galleries to fight museum fatigue; colour modulating blinds to subtly changing tones of light that signify the distance from outside; lines of lighting which help with orientation and waves and patterns of shadows intended to focus your attention. It is very successful in France and referenced a lot in other work - I've often got a call or message from a gallery over there asking me how we did this or that, so they can do it too. This project also allowed me to see a France which is, sadly, almost gone now, where everyone from the clients to the contractors went for a full sit-down lunch in a traditional restaurant several times a week, and there was a real sense of community.““The Musée d'art de Nantes. I've often got a call or message from a gallery there asking me how we did this or that, so they can do it too.“
Musee d'art de Nantes
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© Hufton + Crow
© Hufton + Crow
© Hufton + Crow
© Hufton + Crow
Kathryn Donald
“Occupants benefit from mobile device access to book resources, control access and entry, and manage their environment. With smart technology, facility operators have a greater overview of the building systems' performance and the quality of the environment, with the ability to adjust the system operation to optimise performance and notify the operators of any anomalies.““11 Belgrave Road. We delivered a genuinely smart building, at the forefront of technology, integrating building systems to give occupants and facility operators greater control.“
11 Belgrave Road
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© Dirk Lindner
© Dirk Lindner
© Dirk Lindner
Innes Johnston
“The award-winning Hull Truck Theatre is naturally ventilated, uses borehole cooling, and dimming fluorescent houselights with specially selected ballasts, before LED technology was really going. It was innovative and courageous of Wright & Wright and us to commit to the approach and follow through in the architecture and with the additional attention needed to commissioning.““Hull Truck Theatre. It was innovative and courageous of Wright & Wright and us to commit to the approach and follow it through to implementation."
Image Carousel
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Colin Darlington
“The work was carried out during the three-month summer shutdown, so the programme duration was tightly limited. The main air handling unit was in a 'monster' central plantroom, with mass concrete everywhere you turned and vertical concrete risers in a 9-by-9-foot grid. The feasibility work concluded that the existing high-level supply system was causing draughts, was visually intrusive, and was getting in the way of the acoustic reflectors and the production facilities. There was a lot to be gained by reversing the air supply system to the space, from a high-level air supply with extract from below the seats to supply below the seats and high-level extract. The most involved and uncertain task was finding a way to supply air below the seats using the existing concrete plenum upon which they were placed. As standard outlets couldn't be used, we built a full-size mock-up in one of the meeting rooms and explored ways to supply the air. Although it was a nervous and tense time, with some additional modifications, we got to the planned opening night.““Barbican Concert Hall. Which I did in my mid-thirties, where a lot of what I did was new to me.“
Barbican Theatre
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© Rob Moore
© Rob Moore
© Rob Moore
Alasdair Reid
“The London Transport Museum is a grade II-listed Victorian building, and the former Flower Market in Covent Garden. It was previously converted to a museum, but this was the first full refurbishment. It was the wrong building in the right place (single glazing, hot and cold, changing humidity, heritage constraints, but in tourist central London). Keeping the glazed roof meant managing overheating and the effects of ultraviolet rays, and required flexibility in planning exhibits and environmental control by zones. The exhibits are tactile and for public use, but some spaces and elements required conservation. For example, we installed subtle air conditioning in the Victorian terrace area, up through the “tram tracks,” using an air plenum under the Victorian terrace.““London Transport Museum. At the time, the most comprehensive record of urban mass transit in the world.“
London Transport Museum
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© Avery Associates Architect
