Price & Myers was established in 1978 as a firm of consulting structural engineers. The practice covers an unusually wide range, both in size and type, using the most recent developments in materials and construction techniques. Price & Myers Sustainability group provides both external consultancy and in house support to develop sustainable engineering solutions. The group has undertaken extensive studies on embodied and operational carbon assessments for external clients to support planning applications and to help designers to select design solutions that minimise environmental impacts.

Sponsoring Stathis Eleftheriadis, 2013 EngD cohort

The research establishes a systematic computational framework that helps engineers assess optimised structural design alternatives based on cost and carbon performance parameters not only at structural level but at building level by utilising the developments of BIM technologies. The proposed application could be used during the early stages of design development by design teams in order to augment decision-making procedures towards sustainable and cost effective building structures.

For the company the research established a specification for a new service supported by a BIM-based decision support tool that could be further developed by the company to expand its commercial activities. This could have several implications not only within the company but potentially to the whole UK industry as it could create performance benchmarks that promote truly sustainable and energy efficient building structures developed during the early design stages. On a broader context, the scope of the research is being extended to other structural systems (steel) via another research and development (R&D) project in which the company received funding by InnovateUK – The UK’s Innovation Agency. Combined with the current research on reinforced concrete buildings the company could position itself as a leader on this field. At individual level, knowledge and insights acquired during this research was shared with the engineers at the company on several instances through workshops and presentations.