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John Orr - Magdalene College

Professor John Orr

Professor John Orr graduated with a first class MEng(hons) degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Bath in 2009, winning three University Awards. He subsequently stayed in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering to complete a PhD “Flexible Formwork for Concrete Structures” in 2012. He joined the University of Bath as a lecturer in January 2013 before moving to the University of Cambridge in 2017.

John’s research has its focus in minimising embodied energy and improving construction productivity. He works primarily in concrete structures, creating new methods for analysis, optimisation, and automation of their construction. He has built a funded research portfolio of £3.8M (www.jjo33.com) and a team of 12 working towards his vision for the lightweighting of infrastructure by learning from real performance. Professor Orr leads a number of interlinked research projects. To ensure optimisation is undertaken in a reliable manner Professor Orr leads EP/M020908/1 (£1.1M) a five-year project to develop "peridynamics" as a mesh-free analysis method for reinforced concrete. As optimised structures tend not to be prismatic, but free form, both the mould and internal reinforcement must be fabricated in bespoke geometries. EP/M01696X/1 developed Wound-FRP as a new concept for internal reinforcement of structures, and fabric formwork provides the required mould geometry. Embedding sensors to understand real performance and linking this with human behaviour is defining new measures of productivity and wellbeing. Professor Orr leads WP3 "Construction Solutions" in the EPSRC project "Healthy Housing for the Displaced" (EP/P029175/1 £1.6M) which has the fundamental aim of creating a new science of shelter design for the 1 billion displaced people on our planet.

Research Interests

Material efficiency, optimisation, concrete structures.

Qualifications

MEng (hons) PhD CEng MIStructE FHEA

Career/Research Highlights

  • Henry Adams Award for best journal paper of 2011 published in The Structural Engineer, the journal of the world’s largest structural engineering institution, as lead author (Institution of Structural Engineers)
  • Henry Adams Award for best journal paper of 2010 in The Structural Engineer (lead author) (Institution of Structural Engineers)
  • 2009 Winner of the Institution of Civil Engineers Prize for the top undergraduate Civil Engineer (University of Bath)
  • 2009 Winner of the Mike Barnes Prize for best undergraduate dissertation (University of Bath)
  • 2009 Winner of the prestigious ‘Basil Spence Prize’ for the best final year interdisciplinary design project (University of Bath)
  • 2009 Recipient of the Buro Happold Trust Travel Scholarship 2009 (UK wide competition)

Professional Affiliations

Chartered Member of the Institution of Structural Engineers (CEng MIStructE)

Selected Publications

Webber, A., Orr, J., Shepherd, P. and Crothers, K., 2015. The effective length of columns in multi-storey frames. Engineering Structures, 102, pp. 132-143.
     a. The most downloaded paper for this journal – 25,956 times as of January 2018

Orr, J. J., Darby, A., Ibell, T., Evernden, M. and Otlet, M., 2011. Concrete structures using fabric formwork. The Structural Engineer, 89(8).
     a. Winner of the IStructE Henry Adams Award 2011

Orr, J.J., Darby, A., Ibell, T., Denton, S. R. and Shave, J. D., 2010. Shear design of circular concrete sections using the Eurocode 2 truss model. Structural Engineer, 88 (23/24), pp. 26-33.
     Winner of the IStructE Henry Adams Award 2010

List of publications