Newtecnic
Newtecnic is a firm of design engineers led by Andrew Watts, Howard Tee and Yasmin Watts. The Newtecnic approach, based on research from first principles, allows the company to achieve engineering design solutions for the complete building, from concept to production information, including engineering design for facades and the supporting structure.
The Modern Construction series of books forms an essential part of their research work which informs the design of projects. With 3D BIM, Newtecnic designs models that become highly evolved during the design process. Components of these BIM models, with accompanying text and images to illustrate design processes, form the basis of the Modern Construction Series.
The engineering design skills of Newtecnic allow the firm to communicate, through the Modern Construction series, the key issues of 21st century building engineering and design. Newtecnic are holders of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise and has been ranked in the top three of New Civil Engineer 100 Companies of the Year.
Contents
| Formation | 1995 |
|---|---|
| Type | Limited Company |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Services | Design Engineering |
| Industry | Engineering, Construction |
| Website | www.newtecnicengineering.com, www.newtecnic.com |
Background
The firm was founded in London in 1995. The Newtecnic approach has, over the last 25 years, been all about learning the craft of design engineering, including modelling, analysis and prototyping of project-specific systems for building envelopes and structures. Their first project, of which they were a team member, was Federation Square in Melbourne; then Burjuman in Dubai, followed by a series of high-profile built projects before launching Newtecnic’s own multidisciplinary design engineering practice. This independence has allowed the company to reach 3rd position in the NCE list of Top 100 companies, just behind Arup. The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2018 burnished their reputation for architecture and engineering design.
From the early days of Newtecnic in 1995, Yasmin Watts and Andrew Watts have been engaged in large-scale design engineering competitions with other designers, while developing their own high-profile multi-disciplinary design engineering practice. The development of the design engineering side of their work has allowed them to make major contributions to projects alongside internationally-established concept architects. In recent years, they have worked independently as engineering designers on the design and execution of large-scale ambitious projects around the world, working for developers, government agencies and international contractors.
Newtecnic provides high value design while keeping associated construction costs within budget. Technical data gathered over 25 years, as shared in the Modern Construction series of Newtecnic-authored architecture textbooks, allows Newtecnic to optimise costs of construction from an early stage of a project. Founding directors Yasmin and Andrew Watts spent their formative years in senior roles at the offices of Renzo Piano and Jean Nouvel respectively. These mentors passed to Yasmin and Andrew a love of the art of construction and its application in high-profile complex projects.
As Newtecnic developed further, Howard Tee joined the leadership in 2008. Howard leads the firm’s application and evolution of design engineering; Andrew leads the application of design engineering technologies and associated methodology. Howard and Andrew work together to design all projects using a method which combines design with engineering; an aspiration of those who taught them both. Design work is supported by Yasmin as creative director. As the firm grew, the technical books in the Modern Construction series, authored by the company and published by Birkhauser, provided the basis of extensive technical data on implementing the art of building construction. The leadership team have evolved their own drawings, models and analysis over the past 25 years. They continue to generate the main outputs themselves, with no tasks being delegated to outside firms. Supporting teams of designers and engineers are responsible for iterating and editing the outputs of the leadership, under their direct supervision.
With the growth of the firm, Newtecnic has developed an ever-greater understanding of the engineering and construction aspects of design through the publication of a series of textbooks which have become standard volumes in most universities. Now in its 5th edition, the Modern Construction Handbook was written, and continues to be updated, as a result of the technical data acquired over the past 25 years. Their work as Newtecnic has been informed by their deep understanding of structural and environmental systems and how these can be applied to ambitious design projects as seen in the two volumes of Modern Construction Case Studies and Modern Construction Envelopes, now in their 3rd editions.
Andrew Watts, Engineer & Architect, FICE FIED FIET FRSA CEng RIBA ARB
Yasmin Watts, Architect and Sculptor, FRSA RIBA ARB BArch BSc(Hons)
Howard Tee, Engineer & Architect, MIED MIET RIBA ARB MArch(Dist) BSc(Hons)
Selected projects in London
Windermere Housing, London, United Kingdom
Dalston Housing, London, United Kingdom
Awards
In 2020, Newtecnic were shortlisted for the New Civil Engineer Awards, Companies of the Year 2020, in the Engineering Culture: Leader in Collaboration category.
In 2019, Newtecnic were ranked 3rd on New Civil Engineer's Top 100 Power List of civil engineering firms to work for and with, and were shortlisted in the Engineering Impact in Energy category.
In 2018, Newtecnic received the Queens’s Award for Enterprise, which recognises outstanding achievement in the fields of Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development and Promoting Opportunity.
Publications
Newtecnic are authors of the textbooks, published by Birkhauser and RIBA Publishing, used in universities and professionals worldwide.
Modern Construction Handbook, Sixth Edition
Modern Construction Envelopes, Third Edition
Modern Construction Case Studies, Second Edition
Modern Construction Case Studies, First Edition
Modern Structural Design, First Edition
Modern Environmental Design, First Edition
Modern Construction Handbook, Sixth Edition
Modern Construction Case Studies, Second Edition
Modern Construction Envelopes, Third Edition
Modern Construction Case Studies, Second Edition
References
Newtecnic have 150 articles published in international technical magazines in the last 3 years. Listed here are 30 of those scholarly articles, featuring Newtecnic’s approach, technology and project outputs:
1. Digital pattern books disrupt construction industry. Civil + Structural Engineer. 1 June 2019.
2. Design engineering for a future world. newdesign magazine. 2019 yearbook.
3. Welcome to the future. AEC Magazine, The 100th Edition. January/February 2019.
4. Digital twins for construction: out with the old, in with the twin. E&T magazine. 16 January 2019.
5. Best Practice, Redefined: Uncovering The Impact Of Drone Uptake. Feature in the eBook ‘Drones In Construction – Construction Takes Flight in 2018’. UK Construction Online. 2018.
6. Surface Beauty. newdesign magazine. Issue 133, 2018.
7. Scaleable Responses To Infrastructure Innovation. CEO Today magazine. December 2018.
8. Multi Industry Opportunities. Engineering magazine. September 2018.
9. Digital builds: The technology taking construction to the next level. The Engineer magazine. 6 August 2018.
10. Grand Theatre de Rabat, Morocco. Concrete Engineering International magazine. August 2018.
11. Newtecnic and Cambridge University Construction Research Partnership Delivers Concrete Facade Innovation. Premier Construction News. 29 July 2018.
12. Newtecnic and Cambridge University Construction Research Partnership Delivers Concrete Facade Innovation. Informed Infrastructure. 26 July 2018.
13. Cambridge research partnership pays dividends for building envelope design. The Construction Index magazine. 25 July 2018.
14. Firm Profile: Newtecnic. AECbytes. 24 July 2018.
15. Design and Construction Disconnect. Civil + Structural Engineer. 1 July 2018.
16. Cool Working In Hot Climates. EnvironmentalEngineering.org.uk. June 2018.
17. How to engineer the future and increase energy efficiency. Consulting-Specifying Engineer. 28 June 2018.
18. Newtecnic: Naturally Efficient. Construction Global. 16 June 2018.
19. Brave face: Managing change on the curviest, most complex façades. Construction Research and Innovation journal, volume 9, 2018, issue 2. DOI: 10.1080/20450249.2018.1480126. 01 June 2018.
20. Optimizing construction technologies and methods. Civil + Structural Engineer. 1 June 2018.
21. Closing The Gap Between Designing And Making. Institution of Engineering Designers (IED). 01 May 2018.
22. Newtecnic: Embracing The Third Dimension With Newtecnic. Construction Global magazine. April 2018.
23. Future Perfect. The Construction Index magazine. March 2018.
24. Futuristic UK engineering firm hits America. Global Construction Review. 9 February 2018.
25. Dreaming spires - towering vision. AEC Magazine. January/February 2018.
26. Talking to Machines. Construction Computing. January/February 2018.
27. KAFD Metro, Riyadh. Concrete Engineering International magazine. January 2018. Reproduced on buildingconstructiondesign.co.uk on 25 October 2017.
28. Building With Numbers. GeoConnexion International Magazine. October 2017.
29. Building Visions. The Engineer magazine. September 2017.
30. Very Grand Designs. Institution of Engineering Designers (IED). 01 September 2017.