Structural Concrete Competition
The competition offers a stimulating and fun challenge to students, while supporting the curricula of civil and structural engineering departments of UK universities.
Benefits for students
- Opportunity to present your work to prospective employers, some of whom are involved in setting and judging the competition.
- Chance to enhance your portfolio for prospective employers.
- Gain familiarity with current design practises.
- Develop skills in communication, planning and project management, effective distribution of work and collaboration.
- A chance to win up to £1250 for your team.
Because it is so flexible, Structural Concrete 2024 can easily be incorporated into existing university curricula, with content that reflects an independent project, a group project or a module assessment run over the first, second or both semesters of the academic year.
The challenge
The 2024 project is a new building to house the art collection of a well-known public figure who has donated it to her hometown. The celebrity has also donated the funds to build the new development and would like the building to be able to act as a hub for the arts and the community.
The structure is to provide space for the art collection, visiting art collections, function rooms, a café and offices for the curating staff. The client has appointed a project manager to turn her dream into a reality. The project manager has commissioned an initial structural design for the development, to be known as the Taylor Art Hub, from a firm of consulting engineers. The building is to be situated in the centre of the town and has a one-storey basement and four-storey superstructure. Entrants must respond as though they are the structural engineer responsible within the consultant’s team.
Download competition brief
Judging criteria
Local level:
The competition will operate at two levels. All submissions made at each university will first be judged locally by the academic tutor(s) involved with the project. The winning submission from each university should be entered for the national level of the competition by the tutor.
Only one entry from each university can go forward for final judging at a national level.
National level:
The winning entry from each participating university will be judged at national level using the following generic assessment criteria:
- Compliance with the project brief
- Safety, function, stability and robustness
- Material efficiency and sustainability
- Buildability, constructability and maintainability
- Speed of construction and cost effectiveness
- Imagination, flair, aesthetic appreciation and innovation.
The awards
The winning entry from each university will receive a prize of £250. The winning entry will go forward to compete at national level.
The judges may decide on joint prizes in which case the above prize money will be divided up by the judging panel at its discretion.
Key dates 2024
Please register your interest (see below) in the competition at any time. This will enable The Concrete Centre to keep in touch with you regarding key future dates and any supplementary information that may help you with your submission.
Entry forms must be submitted (via online form or email competitions@concretecentre.com) by 4pm on Friday 14th June 2024 - at this stage you will be provided with a unique reference number to use on the final entry, which will ensure that the entries are anonymous at judging-stage.
The 2024 Structural Concrete competition is now open!
Register your interest for the Structural Concrete Competition 2024
To enter the competition the university academic tutor(s) should register the university’s intention to participate.
Testimonials
"Again, thank you for organising such an event and competition. Our students thoroughly enjoyed it! There was a high level of interest from our MSc and MEng students to take part on this since it gives them the opportunity to apply their theoretical and design knowledge acquired in the course to a practical and challenging problem. It also gives students an appreciation of structural concrete new challenges on sustainability, new technologies and client needs.” - Tutor, 2021 competition
"Thanks alot, although we didn't win I gained a lot of good experience from taking part in this competition." - Student, 2021 competition
"Thank you for considering my entry in the competition. The challenge has greatly expanded my appreciation for structural design and I thoroughly enjoyed taking part". - Student, 2021 competition
“Also, I’d like to say a big thank you to yourself for putting the competition together. It’s been a great experience and I’ve gained a lot of knowledge working on its different aspects. Your efforts are much appreciated.” - Student, 2020 competition