![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a1.png)
This unique Project started with a divided community and a run down residential area in Portsmouth. The district was divided, literally, in the ‘cold war era’ of the fifties and sixties, when a main road was cut right through the area, to form an emergency route to and from the Naval Base, for which Portsmouth is rightly famous.
![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a2.jpg)
The vision was to re-unite the community with a building of outstanding quality, that would literally be built on a new bridge over the main road.
![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a3.jpg)
![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a4.png)
AKS Ward were appointed as Structural Engineers by the client, The Portsmouth City Council, and then novated to Contractor BAM, who took on the project on a ‘Design and Build’ basis.
![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a5.jpg)
We used BIM technology to create the Building Model, which engages a multitude of design and construction techniques, to resolve the structural challenges that this sort of building poses. Working over and around a ‘live’ main road does have its challenges!
![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a6.jpg)
The ground breaking, and truly unique superstructure was created using curved Glu-laminated timber frames, oval in form, and just like a massive model aeroplane fuselage.
![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a7.jpg)
The multitude of structural forms has created a unique and cost effective structure, that will bring back the ‘heart’ to this once divided community.
![](https://www.aksward.com/wp-content/themes/aksward/img/stories/a8.jpg)