engineering.
AKT II has joined ConcreteZero, a global initiative that brings together pioneering organisations to create a market for net-zero concrete.
Since our founding 25 years ago, AKT II has forged an international practice that unifies the cultures and disciplines of architecture and structural engineering. This book is an engine for critical reflection on the scope, potential, and limits of what AKT II has come to define as Design Engineering.
100 Liverpool Street – which is nominated for the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize – is a cornerstone development for British Land’s masterplanned Broadgate regeneration, within the historic City of London. It was designed by Hopkins Architects. Two 1980s-era office structures have been assimilated, reconfigured and extended within the delivery of the modern mixed-use programme; the scheme adds +40% in functional area while reusing 50% of the superstructure and 100% of the foundations. Altogether, this pioneering design solution saves an estimated 7,000 tonnes of CO2, in comparison with the notional new construction.
As part of the 2022 London Design Festival, this bespoke architectural installation uses an ancient-Egyptian wall-building technique to showcase the cutting-edge carbon-neutral concrete that’s been developed by the London-based enterprise Seratech. Their team – a spin-out from Imperial College London – has developed a way of sequestering CO2 within the creation of novel, waste-free construction materials. The installation is engineered by AKT II, and has been delivered for the 2022 festival with the support of the specialist concrete contractor Byrne Bros.
Following an invited competition, AKT II are working alongside architect O’Donnell + Tuomey and building services engineer Max Fordham, to deliver the scheme for the Liverpool School of Architecture and redevelop the historic estate.
A 22-storey mixed-use tower by London Bridge has been approved for planning. AKT II is providing structural, civil and geotechnical engineering, working alongside Foster + Partners for our client CIT Group on this multi-layered urban scheme.
This installation playfully uses a traditional ‘crinkle-crankle’ wall design to showcase a cutting-edge cement-replacement technology – Seratech – allowing carbon-neutral concrete.
AKI II co-founder and director Hanif Kara has been awarded the 2022 Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Khudi Bari – meaning ‘Tiny House’ – is a modular monsoon shelter that’s designed by the Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum. It’s made for inhabitants of the country’s Ganges river delta (where entire swathes of land can flood overnight), and can be hand-assembled using local materials, with a cost of just £300. AKT II’s team was engaged to reconfigure the shelter’s structural supports so that it could be demonstrated, using the thinner bamboo that’s available in the UK, as part of the 2022 Summer Exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.
Zone F, a new mixed-use scheme within British Land’s Canada Water Masterplan, has received planning approval from Southwark Council.
Ten years on, AKT II director Edoardo Tibuzzi looks back at the BMW Group Pavilion at the 2012 London Olympics. Has the promise of creating an environmentally friendly structure that can have a meaningful purpose after the Games been kept?
AKT II has been awarded two awards in this year’s 2022 Tall Building Awards.
When we talk about pollution, there’s a form of it that’s almost everywhere but gets relatively little coverage: light. Artificial lighting has become integral to our modern civilisation, however its excessive use is now harming health, disrupting ecosystems, and even interfering with humanity’s understanding of the universe. In this article, AKT II’s bioclimatic associate Mattia Donato highlights the scale of the problem, and talks through what we can do as designers to create a – metaphorically – brighter future.
In central London, the new Marshall Building is a multifunctional academic facility that’s been designed by Grafton Architects for the existing urban campus of the London School of Economics (LSE). Inside, the project’s programmatic challenges are turned into a clear design opportunity, with a series of tree-like transfer structures that now form part of the building’s – and the university’s – architectural narrative. In this video, AKT II’s design directors Marta Galinanes Garcia and Chris O’Meara share some of the engineering insights behind this new ‘tree of knowledge’.
AKT II together with BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Heatherwick Studio and Atelier Ten, are working in partnership on delivering Google’s new King’s Cross office.
A new mixed-use that presides over the City of London’s Holborn Circus has been granted planning approval.
Summer has landed at the RA, and it’s as arty and joyful as ever. The Royal Academy’s iconic Summer Exhibition showcases art in all forms, including architectural works and sculpture.
Vinegar Yard, a new 20-storey life-sciences mixed-use development in London Bridge in Southwark, has just been recommended for planning consent from the Greater London Assembly.
For World Environment Day, we look at the successful story behind the waterless garden in the city of Sharjah and take the opportunity to hear from Elisa Gatto – environmental biologist, expert in urban vegetation, climate change adaption strategies and land productivity – and Mattia Donato, AKT II associate on ways to synergistically produce clean energy and food.
AKT II’s regional expansion continues with the recent selection of a new university scheme, following the winning proposal of an international design competition. We are supporting ADP Architecture and O’Donnell + Tuomey on the design of a £35m student centre at the University of York.
Good architecture and planning can make a significant difference to the way places work, both socially and on an environmental level.
139 tonnes of salvaged steel from a scheme currently being demolished in the City of London will be used in the Roots in the Sky development which is due to start on site in the coming months and complete in Q3 2025.
Following on from our groundbreaking work on the South Bank Tower extension, we’re working with HCL Architects for our client CIT Group, where we are taking the same principle with an existing 16-storey tower in Islington and extending it 13-storeys. By doing so, we ended up saving 35% of the carbon footprint of a new-build.
We’re thrilled to be part of the team that is designing an international airport in India. The team, consisting of AKT II alongside Nordic – Office of Architecture, Grimshaw, Haptic and STUP, were selected by Zurich Airport International after a concession agreement with the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
We’re supporting Studio Egret West, and have reached the final six in an international design contest for a revamp of Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens.
Kingston University Town House has been awarded the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.
Is mass timber all its hyped up to be? Jennifer Bonner and AKT II’s co-founder Hanif Kara think so, and they’ve written a book to explain why.
This proposed new high-rise development forms part of the expansive, masterplanned Nine Elms development zone in south-west London.
Oxford University’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities received unanimous approval earlier this week.
We’ve been working with Zaha Hadid Architects, alongside SWECO on PrismArch. Now in its second year, we’re continuing to research into a ‘prismatic blend’ between aesthetics, simulation models, and meta-information that can be presented in a contextualised and comprehensive manner in virtual reality.
