Abstract:
In this lecture, the Speaker visualises bridges as integral with nature, and advocates design and construction as the imaginative pursuit
Using recent project examples of the Cross Bay Link, a 1.8km-long multipurpose sea link which carries a motorway, green spaces, a footway and a cycle track which ventures into the horizons beyond the bridge to form a 5km-long cycling loop, a transportation artery and a leisure hub has been created.
His design of the Promenade Southern Bridge embodies a waveform deck in an S-curve and a single arch rib, of diamond shape, rising gracefully from a corner at one end diagonally across to the opposite corner of the other end. The pure artistry of the imaginative shape and form and reduction in carbon emission of some 40% were made possible by his pioneering use of high-strength steel for pedestrian bridges, in the arch rib and the steel-plated hangers. As pedestrians walk through the bridge, everlasting visions and ever-changing views unravel due to the intrigues of the S-curve and the three-dimensional array of hangers. Today the bridge site is one of the most cinematic in the world, prominent for leisure and cultural events. Timeless elegance and design excellence rule supreme. Robin’s project has received the HKIE 2025 Grand Award for Structural Excellence.
Bio:
Dr Robin Sham CBE received his doctorate from Imperial College London, through seminal research into artificial intelligence in conceptual bridge design. He is AECOM’s Global Long Span and Specialty Bridges Director. He is recognized worldwide for his sustained and imaginative contributions to bridge engineering, creating many of the longest and most monumental bridges in the past decades.
He is a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute, elected for his “outstanding contribution to civil engineering” and in honour of his “outstanding professional and personal achievements at the highest levels of responsibility and influence”. He is recognised as one of the greatest bridge engineers in the 20th and 21st centuries by the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania. He received the Institution of Civil Engineers Gold Metal for being “an individual whose sustained contribution to civil engineering over many years is of significant magnitude and stature; and an Institution of Engineering and Technology Achievement Medal for “pioneering innovations in bridge engineering”. In 2018, he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to the civil engineering profession.
Open to all. Attendees external to Imperial need to register by email.
Time: 1:00 pm