Hasta La Ideas

This 60 metre-long metal bridge is a route for heating and power pipes, rather than people.

Designed by London architects MJP, the stainless steel tunnel connects the combined heat and power plant (CHP) at the University of Birmingham’s main site with a campus across the railway tracks and canal.

Small perforations create a pattern of wavy lines on the bridge’s exterior, while the steel surface has a brushed finish that reduces glare for train drivers below.

The new CHP supply will decrease the University’s carbon footprint by approximately 1500 tonnes per year.

We’ve also featured another interesting University energy facility – click to read about an energy centre with diamond-shaped aluminium scales.

Photography is by Simon Kennedy.

Here’s a description from MJP:

Steam on at the University of Birmingham

The newly completed Steambridge is a key component of a forward-looking major programme to refurbish and extend the University of Birmingham’s combined heat and power (CHP) network. The site of the new bridge is at the West Gate of the University and marks the entrance to the Edgbaston Campus. MJP Architects have designed the curved 2k finished, laser cut, Grade 316 stainless cladding for a very long service life with zero cleaning and maintenance.

Liz Pride, MJP’s Director of Education and the University’s Development Plan Architect says,

“It’s in a very prominent location at the main West Gate entrance to the University’s campus and right opposite the entrance to University Station. It’s also quite a feature seen from the canal below. The elegant design of the cladding makes an inherently utilitarian feature interesting and attractive: it highlights the University’s real commitment to CHP and carbon reduction.”

Steam is Green

The University has an in-house combined heat and power (CHP) station, and a remote site at the Medical School on the opposite side of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal and the busy railway lines. The Steambridge links these two parts of the campus.

David Drew M&E Manager at the University of Birmingham says:

“The success of the bridge is that it reduces our carbon footprint by in excess of 1,500 tonnes of carbon per year and gives us a vastly improved security of supply”.

Kevin George CPW Building Services says:

It’s an impressive structure and the reaction that people have had has been amazing. People arriving at the University get off the train and they stop, look over and say ‘wow what’s that?’ – To get people to go ‘wow’ for a services project is a really great thing”.

The campus wide CHP network is a very sustainable method of providing for the future power needs of the University as local power generation, is significantly more efficient than the national grid and therefore reduces the University’s carbon dioxide outputs campus wide.

Glamour Brought to Infrastructure

The Steam Pipe Bridge is designed as an elegant, sinuous sculptural form, ‘flowing’ across the canal and railway lines. The curved silver cladding reflects the colours of the trees and water, whilst the rippling slots enliven its surface.

Birmingham and the West Midlands are UK centres of industry and the bridge uses aeronautical, transport and engineering imagery in its design, to reflect its location at the University of Birmingham and to illustrate its purpose. Reza Schuster Director MJP Architects says:

“It’s not just a pipe, it has the flattened ends and curved profile of the trains that run underneath it and the front of the bridge has the shape of an intake of an airliner turbofan nacelle. I like to think that the sinuous curves in the metallic surface describe the flow of steam from one side of the bridge to the other”.

Off-Site Construction

The 60 metre long superstructure was pre-clad off-site, transported by road in two spans, and installed with military precision during a five hour overnight line closure. The cladding panels were fabricated in Holland by Sorba Projects and their detail design was the result of a close and creative collaboration between MJP Architects, the University and the specialist subcontractor.

Client: University of Birmingham Estates Department

Project Team
Architect: MJP Architects
Project Manager: Couch Perry Wilkes
Contract Administrator: Robinson Low Francis
Structural Engineer: Couch Consulting Engineers
Services Engineer: Couch Perry Wilkes
Quantity Surveyor: Robinson Low Francis
CDM Coordinator: Robinson Low Francis

Contractor Team
Main Contractor: Volker FitzPatrick
Cladding Subcontractor: Sorba Projects
M&E Subcontractor: D&I Building Services