Buro Happold has just won a prestigious civil engineering Saltire award for their work on the distinctive Swan Canopy over the Forth and Clyde Canal pedestrian bridge.

Buro Happold took the Project Design award category for the canopy, the design of which reflects a swan in flight, creating a new focal point for the town of Clydebank, currently undergoing a major regeneration programme.

The 'swooping' design was created working with materials which are both sustainable and maintenance free. The canopy itself was formed from a self cleaning and reusable PTFE coated glass fibre fabric is stretched over a series of arches. One of the engineers' key challenges was to resist the large wind uplift attracted by a wing shaped canopy. This was achieved by introducing cables, suspended from masts, to resist the gravity loads and downward wind forces, and secondly by separating the arms and the wing out to form a triangular truss to resist the uplift wind forces.


The installation of the canopy back in April, meet with much media interest as the lifting process happened within a few minutes. The canopy has also been commended by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) as 'a beacon to the regeneration of the area'.

Buro Happold's Ian Hargreaves, project director said "We were thrilled to get the opportunity to work on this iconic piece which combines technical innovation with breathtaking beauty, and now we're even more thrilled that it's won the Saltire award. We have had great feed back from local residents - it's great to know that we’ve made both a practical and aesthetic difference to their town."

The bridge opened to the public in May, and will eventually provide a link to another regenerated part of town - Queen's Quays, the site of the former John Brown shipyard.

(GK/JM)