The award-winning 1990s buildings at Castle Meadow, Nottingham, which previously served as offices for HM Revenue and Customs, have been repurposed and transformed for the future as a University of Nottingham campus. The structural engineer had an influential role on the project to define the principles for retrofitting the existing buildings. The differing levels of retrofit, including a complex tensile-fabric roof replacement, have given the site a new lease of life, demonstrating that existing buildings and spaces can be innovatively transformed and reused using a variety of approaches. These buildings set the benchmark for low-carbon developments in Nottingham, with an embodied carbon of 80kgCO2e/m2 for the central building works.

All the articles from the February 2026 issue of The Structural Engineer.

Mohamad Al-Dah reflects on his year as President through the themes of partnerships, mentoring and carbon, which were outlined in his inaugural address in January 2025.

As risk management becomes an increasingly important part of structural engineers' work, IStructE Technical Director Patrick Hayes explores some of the complexities in applying its practice to the realm of building safety problems.

This month's report relates to a concern about the load capacity of a new temporary structure designed by another firm.

This article describes a project to increase the height of three steel-framed warehouses in Iraq to expand their food-storage capacity and the unusual engineering challenges presented.

Tim Ibell and James Norman encourage structural engineers to consider the human impact of the carbon emissions arising from the buildings they design, as climate-change-related mortality increases.

This month's report raises concerns about incidents involving retaining walls that support the highway.

Emily Halliwell concludes this series of notes signposting key resources at each level in the IStructE hierarchy of net-zero design by looking at how to 'minimise waste'.