On Wednesday 13th March Aluminium Day will return and this year, host Senior Architectural Systems is showcasing the different ways companies are encouraging young people to consider a career working with aluminium, and the various job roles available.

Bruce Nepp, Lab Design Specialist and Director at Buro Happold, discusses the changing landscape of scientific infrastructure and how architects and engineers can play a role in supporting the scientific discoveries of tomorrow.

Behind every modern, imaginatively-designed brick facade is likely to be a range of innovative masonry support. It’s the unsung hero of many wonderful private and public buildings; the unseen aesthetic and structural aid. But what else do we know about these vital, non-visible products? This feature provides an overview of how and why masonry support is needed in buildings and how it has allowed architects to set new parameters in brickwork design, says Ovidiu Bruzan, Senior Structural Engineer at IG Masonry Support.

The prestigious annual awards programme returns with a fresh focus on sustainability, social impact, innovation and ingenuity.

The UK construction industry is continuing to weather the impact of the coronavirus pandemic but is still facing ongoing challenges when it comes to design detail and the specification process. All too often, information is missing from drawings, leaving decisions to those on the ground, who may invariably take the opportunity to reduce costs by substituting products. This can lead to a loss of design intent and quality. However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

More typically used to support and stabilise buildings, the versatile Helifix Dixie piled foundation system has recently been installed at The Battle of Britain Bunker Museum, RAF Uxbridge, to support a statue of World War II hero, Air Chief Marshal, Sir Keith Park.

In 1899, Wilbur and Orville Wright, the inventors of the aeroplane, put their first model to flight. They faced several problems, including insufficient lift and deviation from the intended direction. Following a trial flight in 1901, Wilbur said to Orville that man would not fly in a thousand years. Since this occasion, good design has dispelled Wilbur’s theory. Here Jonathan Wilkins, Marketing Director at industrial obsolete automation equipment supplier EU Automation, discusses how virtual reality (VR) can be used to improve the design engineering process.

When the Natural History Museum decided to replace its famous ‘Dippy’ the diplodocus exhibit with a new star exhibit – a real-life skeleton of a blue whale – design and engineering expertise from Lancashire provided a solution to balance all the elements.

BuroHappold Engineering has won three prestigious accolades at the Cambridge Design and Construction Awards. All three were presented for the outstanding refurbishment of a 1960s Brutalist icon, now named the ‘David Attenborough Building’; the ‘Engineering and Sustainability Project of the Year’, the ‘Best Conservation, Alteration or Extension’ and the ‘Considerate Contractors’ awards.

Michael Hiscock, Partner in the Construction and Engineering Team at Wright Hassall, talks to FC&A about navigating payment plans and schedules.