Arup.com News RSS Feed

Retrofitting programme reduces bills

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Salford based social housing provider, Salix Homes and Arup today published a report demonstrating how the holistic retrofitting programme on an Edwardian housing estate in Salford has saved the tenants an average £353 on their gas bills.

The annual savings for the residents of the New Barracks Estate in Salford will be revealed today at the Retrofit Conference 2012 held in Salford Quays.

Arup was commissioned by Salix Homes to provide low carbon retrofit advice for its Decent Homes Plus programme on the New Barracks Estate, comprising of 78 Edwardian properties. Arup spent a year evaluating retrofitting options, understanding tenants' energy behaviours pre and post retrofit and the resulting social return on investment. It found that over a 20 year period the monetised value of benefits to all relevant stakeholders was estimated to be £3.4m, giving a total social value added (difference between the investment and the total social benefits) of £1.58m.

Salix Homes is an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO). Salix Homes is now working with AGMA (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities) who have been asked by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to trial aspects of the Green Deal.

It has delivered a successful programme between 2009 and 2012 combining social housing improvements with an ambitious low carbon retrofit agenda and worked with the New Barracks Tenant Management Organisation to pilot the scheme. Tenants have been in receipt of new boilers and control systems, double glazing, internal insulation, installation of mechanical heat recovery ventilation systems (MVHRs) , new bathrooms, new kitchens, properties re-wired and new front doors.

In addition to physical improvements to the buildings, tenants were given advice and guidance on how and where they can save more energy. Gas use savings to date equate to an average reduction of 47% in properties' C02 emissions. These changes will contribute considerably towards the local authority's target to reduce CO2 levels by 40% by 2013.

Arup used the New Economics Foundation's Social Return on Investment (SROI) tool to calculate the value of the predicted social impact resulting from the low carbon retrofit programme. The SROI methodology resulted in a full stakeholder map and the use of financial proxies to put a monetary value on identified qualitative and quantitative impacts. The predictive study showed that for every £1 invested in the programme return to society worth £1.58 is predicted.

Measuring the social impact of the built environment is a growing area of research, as governments and policy makers look to evaluate how buildings and urban planning impacts the people and communities who use them.

"Salix Homes is one of the few social landlords to carry out simultaneous assessments of carbon savings, tenants' energy use behaviours and social return, to improve its housing stock and deliver greater benefits for both landlord and tenants. Listening to our tenants has been key, along with gathering fuel bills for analysis over the course of a year. This allowed us to understand a number of factors including the value of reduced gas bills, reduced repairs costs, increased training and employment,, a significant increase in comfort levels for tenants and a lower carbon impact, and highlighting an average household saving of £353 on tenant's gas bills annually."

- Salix Homes Head of Property Services Matt Roberts

"Salix Homes has led the way in taking a broader view on improving its housing stock. Rather than focusing solely on physical improvement, Salix has looked at how this will help improve energy consumption and the environmental impact of its properties, as well as the experience of tenants living in its homes. In a period of austerity, demonstrating the value of investment in building improvements is a powerful tool which can be applied to a range of organisational or individual investments. As organisations look to benefit from the green Deal, this provides a powerful way of demonstrating the value of investment."

- Arup Associate Director Tim Whitley

"It was important that the retrofit respected the heritage and the beauty of our homes and still delivered modern, warm interiors.
"We have achieved this as our homes are now at a much better standard and we are making great savings on our gas bills."

- Co-ordinator of the New Barracks Tenant Management Co-operative Limited, Julie Thompson

Download reports

Salix measuring change post-retrofit 2012 (PDF, 2.8MB)
Salix SROI post retrofit 2012 (PDF, 3MB)

Lou Reed 3D audio installation opening

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:18:00 GMT

From January 27 to April 15, California State University at Long Beach's University Art Museum will present an audio installation of Lou Reed's groundbreaking work Metal Machine Trio, recorded and presented by Arup's acoustic consultants using state-of-the-art 3D sound technologies.

The installation provides audience members with an accurate sonic replica of Reed's experience on stage during an April 2009 performance of the composition (with special guest John Zorn) in New York City. The four 16-minute segments of the piece will run in a continuous loop throughout the duration of the show.

The installation will kick off with a discussion about the work at 8PM on Friday, January 27. Arup's Raj Patel, Mike Skinner and Dave Rife will be available to answer questions. Tickets to the event are available for purchase on the university's website.

Gardner Museum addition opens in Boston

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:34:00 GMT

The new addition for Boston's Gardner Museum, with daylighting and architectural lighting design by Arup, is now officially open to the public.

Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the new building features 70,000ft² of space next to the Italian Renaissance-inspired 1903 main building, known as 'the palace'.

The modern, glass-walled new structure's scale and proportions complement the palace, reinterpreting the vision of founder Isabella Stewart Gardner by emphasizing a strong connection to the outdoors throughout. Where the original museum featured a plant-filled central courtyard that galleries opened onto, the new structure offers views to the exterior and natural light in almost every space, including those which are typically cut off from the outside.

Arup's lighting design balances daylighting and electric lighting to provide a comfortable atmosphere and a strong connection to nature throughout at all times of day. Innovative design elements such as a large skylight in the music hall required careful calibration to avoid glare and unwanted acoustical effects.

New York office moves to Lower Manhattan

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:56:00 GMT

After 19 years in its current location, Arup's New York office is investing in its future by moving to a larger space.

Due to many years of steady growth in the city, by 2010 it became clear that the office needed more room to expand. Beginning at 5PM January 13, we are moving to 77 Water Street in Manhattan's Financial District.

The opportunity to contribute to Lower Manhattan's revitalization was a major factor in our choice. The area presents an unrivaled blend of history, culture and commerce, and its business and residential populations have been growing steadily for the past few years. Having been deeply involved in the area for a number of years through recent and ongoing projects such as the Fulton Street Transit Center and the East River waterfront, we regard Lower Manhattan as a natural setting for the next phase of our development.

At almost 100,000ft², the new office will be one third larger than our current location. We have been involved in every aspect of the design, working closely with local firm Verderame Architecture and Interior Design. The space is targeting LEED^® Gold certification, employing environmentally conscious strategies including daylight harvesting and the use of bike rooms, low-VOC paint, GREENGUARD^®-certified furniture and more.

New office details

Effective January 17, our New York address will be 77 Water Street, New York, NY 10005. Our direct dial telephone numbers and email addresses will stay the same; the main phone line will change to +1 212 896 3000.

Building a lifeline in remote China

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

From 21 December to 5 January, a team of Arup engineers travelled to Mixia Village in Yunnan Province, China to build an Arup-designed bridge with student volunteers from the Kunming University of Science and Technology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

As part of Arup's ongoing collaboration with Wu Zhi Qiao Charitable Foundation, the bridge provides safe journeys for the commuting villagers between Mixia and its surrounding villages which were often interrupted by damages to a makeshift bamboo bridge caused by the river flooding.

Building this Arup-led Wu Zhi Qiao project is truly a special experience for all those involved. Arup has contributed to a wide range of landmark projects, but this bridge bears another kind of significance to the firm. Lack of machinery and skilled construction workers, and the fine balance of robustness, sustainability and constructability in the remote location all posed great challenges to the team.

Built by hand

Among all the 22 completed Wu Zhi Qiao bridges, the Mixia bridge is situated in a location with the most complicated geographic conditions, which requires the finest technical skills. To withstand the devastating floods, the bridge has an impressive 20m clear span with a vertical clearance of 6m. Due to durability and longevity, the bridge is constructed out of galvanised steel with rocks and stones from around the site used as counterweights. Moving the steel members manually along the mountainous track, with the heaviest single component reaching 200kg, was certainly another challenge.

To build a culturally sensitive and highly sustainable bridge, we held a company-wide design competition, and the winning scheme was adopted as the basis for detailed design. After several site visits, the design was fine-tuned considering the on-site constructability. A small team of volunteers also travelled to steel fabrication and assembly sponsor S-couvrot's factory in Shanghai for a mock-up of the bridge assembly process to ensure smooth construction on site.

Freda Chu, Arup Wu Zhi Qiao's project manager

However, the dedication and enthusiasm of the volunteers made all the challenges seem manageable and worthwhile. They have not only built a physical bridge by hand, but also a platform bridging the team and the local people.

Beyond the physical bridge

In addition to the bridge programme, the team also visited Balong Primary School, brought clothes and stationary donated by Arup's Hong Kong office, refurbished school desks and chairs and had a circle painting fun day with the students.

To student volunteers the project provided a valuable opportunity to work with and learn from professional engineers, and link textbook learning with real world application. Vincent Tse from School of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong reflects: "The construction trip gave me a clearer picture of the whole design and construction process. I come to understand that a good design requires a thorough consideration of all the aspects — not only an impressive form but also the ease of construction and its integration with the surroundings, for example."

Mixia Village is located at the southern end of Yunnan Province, close to the China-Vietnam border. A primitive bamboo bridge used to be the only link between the 2,000 villagers to the external communities, but this lifeline to education and agriculture was often damaged or completely washed away by raging flooding in the rainy season. The natural and geographic conditions constrain the economic growth of the area, with the villagers living on an annual income of about RMB 1,000. The Arup-Wu Zhi Qiao Bridge will not only provide a safe and stable passage but also help to improve the livelihood of the locals.

International Tunnelling Awards 2011

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Arup scooped two top prizes in the hotly contested International Tunnelling Awards, held in Hong Kong on 1 December.

The Hong Kong West Drainage Tunnel (HKWDT) won the top prize in the Tunnelling Project of the Year (US$100m to US$1bn) category. This was the only Hong Kong-based project in the three tunnelling categories, and was chosen over six other finalists selected from numerous entries submitted by contractors and consultants worldwide.

The judging committee was greatly impressed with the challenges that HKWDT had overcome and recommended that other projects should take a close look and learn from the experiences gained.

Arup also collected the top prize in the Technical Innovation of the Year category for the design of an energy-saving segmental tunnel lining system. A collaboration between Arup, Rehau and Zublin, the lining system uses ground-source energy and waste heat from tunnel operations to heat buildings above ground and cooling systems inside the tunnel.

The judging committee highly praised the system as "a genuinely scalable innovation which provides real sustainable advantages. It turns a simple tunnel into a multi-function structure which is heating or cooling the tunnel environment. It can increase the value of your tunnel asset."

National award for improving office energy efficiency

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Arup's Brisbane office has been named the National Signatory of the Year award for improving office energy efficiency as part of the national CitySwitch Green Office Program.

Arup achieved a 4 star NABERS Energy tenancy rating (for offices greater than 2,000m2) and is the first Brisbane business to win the national title. This rating was achieved through equipment upgrades, lighting retrofits, embodiment of energy efficiency into policy, and the implementation of innovative behaviour change programs.

One of Arup's staff engagement activities was their 'Biggest Energy Loser' competition, where office floors competed with each other to reduce energy consumption. The judges were also impressed with Arup's Office Realtime data visualisation system which allows staff members to directly see their energy, water, paper, and flight consumption trends, ensuring a correlation between individual actions and overall outcomes.

"Arup is very proud to be involved in CitySwitch as we strive to minimise our environmental footprint. We are delighted to have our efforts recognised through this great program.
"This outcome is a reflection of all our staff and their commitment to understanding and reducing their day-to-day energy consumption in the office. It is also a testament to our sustainability and buildings specialists who made a significant contribution towards achieving our NABERS Energy tenancy rating.
"Going forward, we are committed to remain a CitySwitch signatory and upholding our requirement to obtain certified NABERS rating for next year. From a project perspective, in Brisbane and across the Australasia region, we are already responding to the challenges facing the built and natural environment. This is demonstrated by our work on a number of projects which focus heavily on environmental outcomes."

- Martin England, Principal and acting office leader

The CitySwitch Awards acknowledge leading signatories from each state who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and a high level of environmental leadership and action.

New approach needed for road congestion

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The Intelligent Mobility report, published today, calls for integrated use of existing technology to improve transport networks in the United Kingdom (UK).

Published by the UK Automotive Council Working Party, chaired by Arup director John Miles, the report investigates how congestion, road accidents and a growing population are all putting a strain on the UK's transport networks, creating a costly and ineffective transport system that also impacts on economic productivity.

Download the report from the Automotive Council website

The report explores the role of Intelligent Mobility and the importance of collaboration between government, infrastructure providers, technologists and the automotive sector. a precursor to the Automotive Council-led Summit on Intelligent Mobility which will be held in April 2012 it has been produced to develop an alternative to legislation or building more roads and to promote innovation.

"I welcome new transport related technology developments which help to reduce congestion, pollution and improve road safety. I am pleased to be working with the Automotive Council to take the first step towards promoting collaboration and innovation between industries in the area of Intelligent Mobility."

Business Secretary and co-chair of the Automotive Council Vince Cable

"The concept of intelligent mobility aims to promote the UK as a global centre for the development of new automotive technologies. Intelligent mobility would bring significant benefits to the economy, to job creation and to today's businesses who rely on today's transport systems. Business sectors should be encouraged to engage cooperatively in the pursuit of the bigger prize."

John Miles, Chairman of the Automotive Council Intelligent Mobility Working Group and group director at Arup

Congestion

As one of the top 25 wealthiest nations, the UK ranks as the 8^th most densely populated and as the 5^th most congested . Annually, congestion costs the UK £12bn; road accidents cost £9.3bn, and poor air quality costs between £4.5 and £10.6bn . A growing population, in which a key demographic is older people and their personal mobility needs, is also putting a strain on transport networks. It is very costly to meet the continuous demands on our infrastructure but if a solution is not found to congestion, economic activity will be seriously impaired.

Intelligent Mobility

The Automotive Council has used the term 'intelligent mobility' to describe the convergence between technologies and transport systems, which up to now have often been developed in isolation, to create a safer, intelligent, highly interlinked transport network.

The report states that the key to intelligent mobility lies in connecting up a range of independent industries and technologies such as vehicle manufacturing, transport information systems, communications technologies, logistics and distribution and infrastructure management.

Opportunities

The UK's automotive industry stands to benefit significantly from becoming an international centre of excellence and a test bed for the development of intelligent mobility solutions. It is also a key non-financial contributor to the GDP, directly supporting more than 180,000 jobs and accounting for more than £50bn in annual turnover. The report asserts that the UK has the opportunity to be at the forefront of this field, if this cross industry collaboration is initiated now.

The Automotive Council is planning to hold a summit in April 2012 to bring together all the potential sectors and get the dialogue started.

"Road transport has seen significant technological advances in the last twenty years; digital control of most functions in-vehicle is now commonplace, developments in infrastructure such as in road sensors mean that drivers are now provided with more information to help choose the best route. However, globally congestion is a growing problem, and accidents, although at a historic low, still occur. New technological developments now present an opportunity to revolutionise the way highways operate by pooling the information carried on board vehicles and using it to understand the position, speed and direction of vehicles in an area to both virtually eliminate collisions and use road capacity more efficiently.
The UK needs to lead this transformation, reducing accidents and congestion at home, plus attracting investment and generating exports and jobs. This report provides a strong foundation upon which to build this effort."

Richard Parry-Jones, Chairman of the Automotive Council

2011 results: solid performance in tough market

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:50:00 GMT

Arup's annual results show the firm produced a solid performance in challenging trading conditions last year.

Top line global income rose by 8.7% to £966.4m (mainly due to the consolidation of Arup's South African business), while net cashflow was positive at £40.9m and operating profits were £24.6m.

"These results reflect our strengths as a global player. They are also in line with our forecasts for what we knew would be a challenging year. We are particularly pleased to have maintained global income levels, which underlines the fact that our clients continue to see the value we bring. Our resilience is founded on our established strategy of diversifying across businesses and economies.
"Looking ahead, economic volatility is set to persist in some markets, so the Board will maintain our focus on core strategy and the bottom line so we can return value to our staff and maintain our financial strength."

- Philip Dilley, Arup Group Chairman

The results are for the 12 months to 31 March 2011.

Download the Financial Statements 2011 (PDF, 500KB)

Energy research post for John Miles

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:37:00 GMT

Arup Director, John Miles, takes up new Research Chair of Transitional Energy Strategies at Cambridge University being co-sponsored by Arup and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Arup, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the University of Cambridge have joined forces to create new energy research post, reflecting growing interest in how society can build toward a lower carbon future while supporting sustainable economic growth.

Arup Director, John Miles, will leave his current post to take up the inaugural role as Arup/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professor in Transitional Energy Strategies at Cambridge University from January 2012.

Professor Miles aims to use the post to explore the development of affordable, low carbon energy technologies and business models.

"It is a great honour to take up this position at Cambridge University. I hope our research will help to inspire some of the creative thinking that will be needed to open up real business opportunities for those engaged in leading the transition from our current carbon-intensive economy to a healthier, cleaner, lower carbon future."

- John Miles

Professor Dame Ann Dowling, Head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, welcomed the announcement, saying, "Professor Miles' research will put a sharp focus on the practicalities of making the transition from conventional power to a lower carbon future. His new chair is a perfect fit with the Engineering Department's strategic theme, 'Energy, Transport and Urban Infrastructure', and the wider drive for energy solutions across the whole University."

Robert Barrett, Head of Research Programmes at the Royal Academy of Engineering, added, "We are delighted to co-sponsor this research chair with Arup. The Royal Academy of Engineering is committed to promoting the highest quality research into the key issues we face as a society and this post will do much to aid our understanding of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead."

Recent developments in both Brussels and Durban have underlined the global challenges involved in restoring the global economy to health and reducing the threat of global climate change. Affordable, low-carbon energy technologies will play a critical role in developing long-term solutions, which is why Arup and the Royal Academy of Engineering have been so keen to support the new Research Chair at the University of Cambridge.