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Practice

StructureMode was founded in 2007 by Chartered structural engineer Geoff Morrow to promote and apply the power of structural engineering to improve design and create thoughtful, beautiful, efficient, and creative projects.

We have a strong focus on communication to understand the design intent and suggest adjustments, as well as introducing innovative structural concepts to improve the overall design. These interventions often eliminate unnecessary structure and simplify the arrangement, which reduces costs and embodied carbon. We focus on material use, keeping abreast of latest developments. By promoting low carbon alternatives, we further reduce embodied carbon.

By producing clear and detailed drawings, coordinated with the architecture and other disciplines, our projects run more smoothly by giving the contractor the information they need to get on with the job. We also use our experience to help foresee and avoid difficulties that can lead to extra costs or delay.

Our work includes large new-build structures and, often complex, refurbishments for public and private residential clients, plus retail, arts & education, commercial, entertainment and humanitarian projects. We made our name with cool stuff such as temporary structures, sculpture, bespoke staircases and furniture (and we still love doing this). We are world leaders in fabric formwork and lightweight tensile and tensegrity structures. Our clients keep us busy with new multi-storey housing and mixed-use developments, basements under existing buildings and sensitive refurbishments of historic and listed buildings.

We are actively engaged in engineering research, conducting practice based research and as Industry Partners with the University of Cambridge on the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Resilience in a Changing World (FIBE2 CDT).

We use Revit for BIM projects, plus AutoCAD, Rhino and Sketchup. Analysis and optimisation using Oasys GSA and Grasshopper, and connections are designed using IDEA StatiCa. These modelling and design tools help us quickly develop more efficient, integrated and elegant structures.

People

Geoff Morrow

CEng, MIStructE, MEng
Founder and Director

Qualifications
MEng Civil Engineering (1994)
Chartered Engineer (1998)

LinkedIn

Geoff Morrow started StructureMode in 2007, driven by his passion for beautiful design through an innovative and collaborative approach to structural engineering and materials. He has over 25 years experience designing and delivering a broad range of bespoke refurbishment and new build projects across many sectors, regions and scales.

Geoff has an excellent track record of sensitive refurbishment, new-build housing, retail developments, office buildings, bespoke element design, sculpture design and temporary structures. His articulate communication and clear understanding of the architectural design and aesthetic intent, combined with his knowledge of how to best realise it structurally, makes him a valuable and creative force on any design team.

As well as working on many projects in and around London, he has considerable experience designing international projects in developing countries, using local materials to make robust, comfortable and cost efficient buildings. He is an industrial partner on the EPSRC funded research project entitled ‘Health Housing For The Displaced’, led by Bath University.

Geoff leads and mentors his team at all levels, encouraging collaborative working and achieving accelerated career development. This has led to many engineers early attainment of chartered status and some have been recognised by professional awards, including the IStructE who commended one of our engineers for a Young Structural Engineering Professional Award.

He has led in-house research projects to investigate, test and analyse fabric-formed concrete, tensegrity systems and compression-only structures. The knowledge and understanding gained through this work has been applied to several live projects.

Geoff is also a sculptor working mainly with steel and stoneware. Many of his pieces integrate and challenge his structural engineering. His sculptures have been shortlisted for the 2014 V&A ‘Inspired by…’ competition, and exhibited at the ‘Shoreham Sculpture Trail’ hosted by the London Group, June 2017.

He often lectures and tutors students at many architectural and engineering schools, including Bath, Oxford Brookes, Westminster, Sheffield and the Bartlett.

Teaching

We love to be involved in education to help encourage and inspire up-coming generations of Engineers and Architects. It often challenges us to think outside the box and allows us to help reset the relationship between engineering and architecture.

We believe good architecture and design can be made better through structural engineering. A philosophy we apply in all our practise.