About
A technically competent and driven structural engineer with twenty years experience working in North America, the UK, New Zealand, and China. Expert in complex geometry, parametric modelling, and scripting. Interested in combining structural engineering with programming to create beautiful and minimal structures. Working with web-based tech such as WebGL to create new ways of visualizing design information. Passionate about mass timber engineering and design.
At StructureCraft I lead the delivery of our timber structures across North America and Asia, leading both the engineering team and 3D modelling department. I also spearheaded the launch of Dowel Laminated Timber - a new mass timber product in North America, being responsible for design of the manufacturing line to produce this new product, and achieving ICC certification for DLT.
I have held a broad range of responsibilities as a structural engineer, responsible for structural analysis, design, documentation delivery, team management, and site monitoring on projects of different scales and types. During my time at Buro Happold in London, I worked with several prominent UK architectural firms and was involved in the structural engineering on a 300m tower among many other projects. In this office I expanded internal research into parametric design - in particular complex geometry.
I am passionate about teaching, and have been involved as a lecturer and tutor both at architectural programs (Architectural Association, London) and in engineering programs (ETH Zurich, Imperial College, UBC, UNBC).
Activity
-
Our timber-concrete composite CLT stair will be presented at IASS 2024 in Zurich, hosted at ETH Zurich August 26-30. Mark Skepasts will tell the…
Our timber-concrete composite CLT stair will be presented at IASS 2024 in Zurich, hosted at ETH Zurich August 26-30. Mark Skepasts will tell the…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
A timber-concrete composite spiral stair spanning 70' between two floors of an airplane-shaped museum. For KF Aerospace's Centre for Excellence, our…
A timber-concrete composite spiral stair spanning 70' between two floors of an airplane-shaped museum. For KF Aerospace's Centre for Excellence, our…
Liked by Lucas Epp
Experience
Education
Publications
-
T3 Minneapolis – America’s Largest Modern Mass Timber Building
IABSE 2017 Symposium
Mass timber construction in America has been reborn with T3 Minneapolis (timber, transit, technology) – at 220,000 sqft and 7 stories, T3 is the largest modern mass timber building in North America. As a spec office building it is designed to attract the modern tenant, embracing green construction techniques and creating a warm interior environment with the timber superstructure. T3’s rustic core-ten façade resembles its historic neighbours while its interior highlights simplicity, modernity…
Mass timber construction in America has been reborn with T3 Minneapolis (timber, transit, technology) – at 220,000 sqft and 7 stories, T3 is the largest modern mass timber building in North America. As a spec office building it is designed to attract the modern tenant, embracing green construction techniques and creating a warm interior environment with the timber superstructure. T3’s rustic core-ten façade resembles its historic neighbours while its interior highlights simplicity, modernity and elegance through exposed engineered wood products and connections. Over 1000 CNC’d glulam beams and columns and over 1100 2x8 NLT panels were prefabricated offsite and sequentially delivered to site for just in time delivery. The T3 timber superstructure was erected in 9.5 weeks. The T3 success story began with a convinced developer and design team, and carried through with exceptional team communication, collaboration, and pre-planning and eventually delivery from StructureCraft. Every detail was carefully discussed and realized with the intent that T3 represent a successful and competitive model for future mass timber buildings in North America.
Other authors -
Timber Footbridge over the Bow River in Banff
Footbridge 2014 Conference
Set over the Bow River in the mountain setting of Banff is a slender 113m long timber bridge both serving pedestrian traffic and providing a sensitive sanitary crossing replacement. Its minimal form was designed to blend into the natural beauty of Canada’s first national park.
The 80m clear span is one of the longest for a timber bridge. Key to success of the project was careful attention to detailing, mitigation of dynamic behaviour, and a high degree of pre-fabrication.Other authorsSee publication -
Parametric Design Tools for Structural Floor Plate Scheming
IASS-APCS Symposium 2012: From Spatial Structures to Space Structures
In this paper we present a parametrically enabled design tool which provides a unified approach
to the structural scheme design of floor plates. The tool created allows the evaluation of a design’s
performance in real time as different design parameters are varied, both increasing process
efficiency and enabling a much more robust exploration of design space in the early stages of a
project. An optimising process takes a given topology defined parametrically, and starting from…In this paper we present a parametrically enabled design tool which provides a unified approach
to the structural scheme design of floor plates. The tool created allows the evaluation of a design’s
performance in real time as different design parameters are varied, both increasing process
efficiency and enabling a much more robust exploration of design space in the early stages of a
project. An optimising process takes a given topology defined parametrically, and starting from a
default beam size progressively iterates in near real-time towards a structure which satisfies both
serviceability, dynamic, and ultimate limit state considerations. Significantly, real-time dynamic
analysis enabled the evaluation of acceleration criteria at each iteration step and thus an accurate
and transparent appraisal of the dynamic performance of the structure.
The work presented in this paper was done thanks to the cooperation with Buro Happold as part
of the final year students’ dissertation and was directly related to real construction projects.Other authors -
Cairo Expo City - a Free-form Spatial Roof Structure
The Structural Engineer
The Exhibition Centre at the new Cairo Expo City development comprises a curved roof structure sweeping over four internal exhibition halls and covering over 180 000m2 of plan area. This project has been driven by the design team’s desire for complete integration of structure and architecture while efficiently realising a complex free-form shape. This paper presents the technical and logistical development of the roof structure, integration with architecture, operation and servicing, and the…
The Exhibition Centre at the new Cairo Expo City development comprises a curved roof structure sweeping over four internal exhibition halls and covering over 180 000m2 of plan area. This project has been driven by the design team’s desire for complete integration of structure and architecture while efficiently realising a complex free-form shape. This paper presents the technical and logistical development of the roof structure, integration with architecture, operation and servicing, and the structural design and optimisation of the spatial roof truss.
Other authorsSee publication -
The Richmond Speed Skating Oval Roof
Riverside Architectural Press
The Richmond Speed Skating Oval roof has a clear span of over 100m, creating a building footprint of 25,000m2. The all-wood roof utilises dimensional lumber to create 'WoodWave' panels, each spanning up to 13.1m between the fifteen parallel primary arches. Variation in module design was captured using parametric models, and linked to a computer-controlled manufacturing system, creating a full-cycle digital fabrication process which this paper describes.
Other authorsSee publication
Projects
-
Bottom Up | Design-Build
-
This new course at the American InterContinental University, entitled 'bottom_up/design_build', directly involved the architectural students with their clients – a community in North London who desired an allotment garden structure in a local park space. We developed a design which allowed community members to participate in both building and erecting, with each allotment box being built by community member who would then use it. The resulting allotment structure has been built in Grenville…
This new course at the American InterContinental University, entitled 'bottom_up/design_build', directly involved the architectural students with their clients – a community in North London who desired an allotment garden structure in a local park space. We developed a design which allowed community members to participate in both building and erecting, with each allotment box being built by community member who would then use it. The resulting allotment structure has been built in Grenville Gardens in Islington.
Other creatorsSee project
Honors & Awards
-
Footbridge 2014 Young Author Award
Footbridge 2014
Award for best presentation and paper by a young person at the 2014 Footbridges Conference in London.
-
IABSE Outstanding Young Engineer Contribution Award
IABSE
Award for best presentation and paper by a young person at the 2011 IABSE-IASS "Taller, Longer, Lighter" Symposium in London.
More activity by Lucas
-
A 6 acre all-wood Olympic roof - the largest of its kind in the world! As the 2024 Olympic ceremonies continue in Paris, we reflect on one of our…
A 6 acre all-wood Olympic roof - the largest of its kind in the world! As the 2024 Olympic ceremonies continue in Paris, we reflect on one of our…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
Last week we hosted an insightful panel discussion on the benefits and challenges of using timber in combination with other materials to build tall…
Last week we hosted an insightful panel discussion on the benefits and challenges of using timber in combination with other materials to build tall…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
Announcing my new consulting firm, Field Edge! For the last year and a half, I have been independently consulting and managing projects for clients…
Announcing my new consulting firm, Field Edge! For the last year and a half, I have been independently consulting and managing projects for clients…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
Looking forward to the conference next week in Denver. Thank you to ULI Colorado for sponsoring us! Leif Johnson and I will discuss the project…
Looking forward to the conference next week in Denver. Thank you to ULI Colorado for sponsoring us! Leif Johnson and I will discuss the project…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
The longest clear-span timber gridshell of its type in the world. The largest of the Taiyuan Botanical Garden Domes is a non-triangulated gridshell,…
The longest clear-span timber gridshell of its type in the world. The largest of the Taiyuan Botanical Garden Domes is a non-triangulated gridshell,…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
We can't get enough of this new report that Kelly Alvarez Doran and Ha/f Climate Design recently released. It's a timely reminder that low-carbon…
We can't get enough of this new report that Kelly Alvarez Doran and Ha/f Climate Design recently released. It's a timely reminder that low-carbon…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
It has been a great experience working from our StructureCraft Trento, Italy office and reconnecting with colleagues across Europe. I am full of…
It has been a great experience working from our StructureCraft Trento, Italy office and reconnecting with colleagues across Europe. I am full of…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
𝟏𝟎𝟑𝟎 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐨𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐋𝐈 𝐍𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞’𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝! • If…
𝟏𝟎𝟑𝟎 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐨𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐋𝐈 𝐍𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞’𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝! • If…
Liked by Lucas Epp
-
Join us next week in our CTBUH event: "Timber Structures - How Building in Hybrid Can Reach New Heights." Only few tickets left, book yours in the…
Join us next week in our CTBUH event: "Timber Structures - How Building in Hybrid Can Reach New Heights." Only few tickets left, book yours in the…
Liked by Lucas Epp
Other similar profiles
Explore collaborative articles
We’re unlocking community knowledge in a new way. Experts add insights directly into each article, started with the help of AI.
Explore MoreOthers named Lucas Epp
12 others named Lucas Epp are on LinkedIn
See others named Lucas Epp