Arup was awarded joint winner in the Professional Services category at the Best Projects 2016 Awards for their structural, civil, façade, wet services and transport design for Attacq and architects LYT, for the PwC Tower currently under development in Midrand, north of Johannesburg. The awards, sponsored by Construction World were held at the Royal Kensington Golf Club in Johannesburg on 9 November 2016.
“We are delighted to have received this award in recognition of our design and professional services on this iconic structure currently taking shape. Recognition by one’s professional peers always imparts a great sense of achievement and satisfaction for the teams involved. Arup takes great pride in receiving this recognition.
“The PwC project highlights Arup’s use of parametric modelling on a scale never before undertaken in South Africa - which realised both time and cost efficiencies as well as a better integrated and well considered design with all architectural and construction factors in sync,” said Richard Lawson, associate at Arup and project manager for the PwC Tower.
“At the core of Arup’s philosophy is honesty, fair dealings with others and a commitment to humanitarian aims. While corporate social responsibility was not part of our scope on the PwC project, we used it as an opportunity for the education of students from the University of the Witwatersrand and young engineers from various divisions of the South African Institute of Civil Engineering through organised site visits and presentations.
“We believe this project highlights one of Arup’s founding principles, that of holistic design. The PwC Tower will find its place with pride alongside the many other iconic buildings that Arup has been associated with globally,” said Lawson.
Wilhelm du Plessis, editor of Construction World and deputy publisher of Crown Publications, publisher of the magazine, said: “the standard in the ‘Professional Services’ category was exceptionally high this year. The judges could not select a single winner out of the 11 projects that were entered for this category. Joint winners were chosen – the first time in five years that there are two winners in a Best Projects category. They were especially impressed by the level of engineering and the precision required.”
Elements of design and service that Arup submitted for consideration included:
- Construction innovation technology
- Design innovation
- Environmental impact consideration
- Health and safety
- Corporate social responsibility
- Quantifiable time, cost and quality
- Risk management
The Construction World judges received 58 entries for their 15th annual awards. It is the only award that recognises excellence across the entire built environment: civil engineers, building contractors, specialist contractors, specialist suppliers, consulting engineers and related professional services.