Design Engine Structures

Design Engine Structures

Construction

Birmingham, West Midlands 192 followers

Structural engineering consultancy

About us

Structural engineering consultancy with specialisms in façades, steelwork and architectural metal work.

Industry
Construction
Company size
11-50 employees
Headquarters
Birmingham, West Midlands
Type
Privately Held
Founded
2013

Locations

  • Primary

    Lower Deckhouse, The Waterfront

    Birmingham, West Midlands DY5 1LW, GB

    Get directions

Updates

  • View organization page for Design Engine Structures, graphic

    192 followers

    It was a pleasure being involved with a great design team, in the delivery of the VITA "Copper Towers" in Coventry. A fantastic looking building, encompassing 496 self-contained studio bedrooms, communal “Hub”, private study, dining and games rooms and gym. Our Engineers were responsible for the design of the SFS structural frame system in addition to the below ground level retaining wall. The design involved using a combination of hot rolled elements and light gauge steel framing, which was supplied by O P Systems Ltd and built by Taylor Hart Limited. In-house SFS software was used to carry out the calculations and the connections were designed with the aid of Idea Statica finite element software. The engineering process was challenging due to the curved cladding support locations, stepped masonry, above window vent penetrations and SFS below ground level retaining wall and others. Main Contractor: Bowmer and Kirkland Ltd Architect: Fuse Studios Limited Glazing: Quest Cladding: Keyclad Limited #DES #SFS

    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
  • Meet the team! Mohammad joined the Design Engine Structures team having graduated with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bath back in 2016. Mohammad is a fast learner and is currently in progress to achieve professional accreditation as a chartered engineer with the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE). In his time at Design Engine Structures Mohammad’s knowledge has developed from the structural design of light steel framing right through to full wall build-ups of many systems and materials. He has provided structural engineering concepts and calculations to several prestigious and/or complicated projects. Favourite: Mohammad’s favourite thing about being a structural engineer is the variety of works that can be designed.   Fun Fact: Mohammad is an identical twin and a father of identical twins! #meettheteam #engineer #construction

    • No alternative text description for this image
  • To celebrate the start of this year’s Wimbledon Championships, we thought we would share our contribution to this iconic venue. It isn’t quite Centre Court, but no less important… The Media Centre. Design Engine were commissioned to design the terracotta baguettes and their support sub structure by James and Taylor James & Taylor Ltd. We used finite element models on SCIA Engineer, constructed of 1D and 2D elements to mimic the tile and support condition. Building these baguettes took plenty of thought and testing, kudos to James and Taylor for the hard work in the factory to bring this design to life. Wishing all the competitors and supporters and sunny and enjoyable tournament! #engineering #wimbledon #tennis

    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
  • At Design Engine Structures, we prioritise the well-being and professional cohesion of our engineering team. To foster a positive work environment, we have instituted a monthly tradition known as 'Activity Day' every first Wednesday of the month. During this time, each engineer has the opportunity to propose a social event that may include breakfast or dinner gatherings, as well as engaging activities such as quizzes and puzzles that involve participation from the entire team. This initiative has significantly enhanced team camaraderie, facilitating both learning opportunities and constructive discussions. Reflecting on the past year, it has been immensely gratifying to witness the positive impact of these initiatives on our team dynamics. What are some creative team building activities you've implemented at your company? Share your ideas in the comments below! #teambuilding #engineering #wellbeing

  • Less is more? As one of our monthly full team meetings, we spent a while considering whether we suffer from an in-built persuasion to add to things, even when taking things away presents a more effective and simpler solution. Inspired by the wonderful ‘Subtract’ by Leidy Klotz which Dave has been reading, he set each of our engineers a challenge with a Lego house where Bob needed a roof which could support a brick. They were asked simply to ‘improve the house to achieve this'. With hindsight, the simplest solution was to remove the one brick which was precariously holding the roof up, and lower the roof by one level. However, in our admittedly small sample of structural engineers, only one person went down this route (and even they also reinforced all the lintels). The rest all added anywhere from 2 to 39 blocks. With varying degrees of ornateness! The similar study in the book found around 60% added given the same brief. And even if they were incentivised to stop adding, still over 40% added. Are we carrying this mentality forward into the rest of our decisions – in project work, running companies and our home lives? Does subtracting need more conscious effort to do? The book certainly makes a compelling argument for this. And we shall now do so thanks to Leidy Klotz.

    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
  • We’re delighted to share our involvement in the façade refurbishment of 26-28 North Wall Quay in Dublin.    The project engineering included a wide range of areas such as stick curtain walling, unitised curtain walling, rainscreen cladding, rooflights, glass balustrades, parapet copings and others. DES carried out structural engineering for the aforementioned façades for our client Alucraft Ltd (Alucraft Ltd). The most challenging part of the project was the engineering of the twin-skin unitised curtain walling frames which consist of a highly bespoke build-up of a single glazed openable frame fixed to a double glazed frame. Due to the complexity of the interaction between the frames, this lead to a need for an finite element analysis of the frame to study its stability in use as well as mock-up panels being fabricated to test.   A variety of software was used to engineer the different aspects of the job including SCIA Engineern (SCIA | A Nemetschek Company ), SJ MEPLA and Hilti Profis (Hilti Great Britain).   All the curtain walling on the job was designed by Alucraft Ltd and supplied by Schueco (Schueco). All the anchors and cast-in channels are supplied by Hilti including all the proof tests.   #FacadeEngineering #DublinProject #DES #Collaboration #BuildingEnvelope #CurtainWalling #glass

    • No alternative text description for this image
  • As a company we always aim to keep up to date with the latest developments in the industry. Light steel framing has been the backbone of our practice, with the directors having well over 50 years of experience in structural engineering of light steel framing. We were pleased to attend Focus on Framing conference held by Light Steel Frame Association, bringing together leading light steel frame manufacturers and industry professionals all together set to discuss improving new build sustainability and new building regulations, and the involvement of light steel framing in residential housing and new tests and guidance that is worth implementing in future designs. Great thanks for the organiser of this event, it was great meeting you all and thank you for the insightful discussions! #FocusOnFraming #lightgaugesteel #steelframingsystems 

    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image
  • We’re delighted to share another large light steel framing project where we were employed to design the principal frame of an innovative office and student accommodation project.   The structure is over four floors and includes a hot rolled steel podium for open plan areas, including car parking, and four floors of student accommodation above, formed in our client’s proprietary light gauge steel panelised system with composite concrete floors. We developed the system with the client back in 2018, developing a suite of manuals and achieving NHBC accreditation.   We created an analysis model in Tekla Structural Designer (Trimble Tekla) for the hot rolled steel elements and designed all of the light gauge steel using our proprietary in-house design tools.   Our outputs included full GA plans to communicate specification of structural components, details of bespoke connections, detailed structural calculations and checking of the customer’s fabrication model in shared BIM viewer.   #StructuralEngineering #Engineering #SteelStructures #StudentAccommodation #office

    • No alternative text description for this image
    • No alternative text description for this image

Similar pages