The University of Exeter Forum has won a prestigious design award.
The £48m building, designed by Buro Happold, won the Award for Education or Healthcare Structures at the Structural Awards 2013. The ceremony in London recognised the finest achievements in structural engineering from around the world.
The Forum provides a new heart for the university's main Streatham campus. The awards judges admired the use of "an elegantly expressed, sustainable and efficient timber gridshell roof," noting that "the simplicity of the detailing belies the complexity in analysis and form finding".
YK Cheng, president of the Institution of Structural Engineers, said: "Congratulations to Buro Happold and Exeter University. Projects like these help to showcase the highly complex structures which engineers help to make reality.
"The award will hopefully help educate the general public about the vital work that engineers do creating safe and secure structures, and encourage young people into rewarding structural engineering careers."
Earlier this year the Forum was shortlisted for the 2013 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) South West Award, won by Allies and Morrison for their work on the recent extension to Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum.
