The new Forum for the Royal Academy of Engineering is at Nos 3 and 4 Carlton House Terrace, London, Listed Grade I. As Britain’s national academy for engineering, it brings together the country’s most eminent engineers from all disciplines to promote excellence in the science, art and practice of engineering. 

The Forum is used to celebrate engineering in all its myriad forms and host events highlighting the integrated and innovative solutions often required to address engineering challenges as well as providing extensive opportunities for networking, inspiration and disseminating expert knowledge.  Activities in the Forum help the Academy’s overarching objective of moving engineering to the heart of society.

Carlton House Terrace forms part of Nash’s ‘grand project’ prepared in 1827 to provide a new route linking Regent’s Park and Waterloo Place.  Decimus Burton designed the interior of No 3 but the authorship of No 4 is unknown.  The interiors had however been substantially altered by its owners over its history and suffered bomb damage during the Second World War and severe fire damage in 1989. The Academy’s refurbishment removed unsympathetic 20th Century alterations and reinstated the scale and integrity of the principal rooms. 

The approach to detailing has not been of restoration but of developing a design that is appropriate to the scale of the interior spaces, the historic significance of the terrace and its occupation by the Royal Academy of Engineering.  The objective was to develop an appropriate language that can be interpreted as being ‘calm, serene and timeless’.

The Forum provides four multi-use rooms at ground level, which are suitable for exhibitions, receptions, meetings and dining, and can be used individually or as a suite.  A 150-seat lecture theatre is located at first floor, together with an overflow lecture theatre/meeting room and break out space.  The large lecture theatre can be subdivided into two smaller rooms with an acoustic ‘sky wall’ which retracts into the ceiling void. 

A Rolls Royce engine was the inspiration for the dramatic new reception desk.  The desk is constructed using Ductal, an ultra-high performance concrete combining a mineral matrix with metal or organic reinforcing fibres. It has a high compressive strength and flexural resistance compared to other concretes and due to these properties can be used in thinner cross-sections and in more varied applications than common concrete.  This allowed the thin sections of the desk supports, echoing the blades of an engine.

To provide a single accessible entrance through No 3 Carlton House Terrace for all visitors to the Forum, a new sinuous bridge has been designed, rising gradually across the forecourt to make up the level difference between the pavements and reception.  Historic research revealed that Decimus Burton proposed a garden in front of No 3 with a winding picturesque path and the design of the bridge reflects this.

The bridge is constructed in stainless steel plate, fabricated into a triangular hollow section, and clad in stainless steel sheet.  Laminated glass balustrades provide guarading at the point that the level difference between the bridge and garden is greater than 380mm and the section of the bridge spans the front area. 

The bridge was constructed in Scotland, by engineering apprentices at Babcock International PLC and the planting scheme is by Andy Sturgeon, Gold Medal winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.  The establishment of a garden on the forecourt makes a public statement about the Academy’s commitment to sustainability, while the sinuous bridge marks 3 Carlton House Terrace as the home of UK engineering.