STF#9 - 2025: Presentations
Tan House Crossing – Designing with Repurposed Steel
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Aerial Photo ©Network Rail
Tan House Footbridge was a collaboration between Network Rail, WSP UK and Format Engineers. The use of repurposed steel has been central to the design process, made possible by creative digital techniques that facilitated a refinement of structural typology to match the available stock of previously unwanted material. The use of generative digital methods permitted an iterative and flexible design process that allowed any material and embodied carbon savings arising from different options to be tracked at each step towards fabrication. The collaboration is a good illustration of how to achieve carbon reduction by making informed early design decisions.
Parapet construction and view from inside bridge deck ©Format Engineers
The bridge was designed, detailed and fabricated between February 2022 and October 2024. At the time of writing, the authors believe Tan House to have the lowest embodied carbon of any footbridge which Network Rail has constructed on a live site. An internal Network Rail/design team study has determined that Tan House is considerably lower in CO2 than the Network Rail standard Series 400 steel rail bridge. It is testament to the fact that a bespoke and site-appropriate design does not have to be costly in capital expenditure or embodied carbon.
Full-height section of bridge (repurposed steel elements in yellow) ©Format Engineers
Camille Chevrier - Camille is a Senior Structural Engineer and a RIBA II Architect. Camille has a special interest in projects where architecture and engineering have a strong dialogue. In a world where resources and waste are at the centre of the concerns, she would like to minimise the impact of construction on the planet by using the right materials and the right amount depending on each project and its location. She is a visiting tutor at Bath Spa, Oxford Brookes School of Architecture, Bath University and Les Ponts et Chaussées in Paris for the Master of Design by Data.
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Format - Tan House Crossing Project