Case Study: Gurit achieves a cost-optimized, lightweight Marsden Cross roof on time and within budget with Altair

Gurit - Customer Case Study

Gurit, a Swiss developer and supplier of composite materials and engineering services, was tasked with engineering a lightweight, thin triangulated composite roof for the Marsden Cross Interpretive Centre under a tight schedule and strict fixed costs—an earlier firm had judged the project impossible. To meet structural, aesthetic and budget constraints from the outset, Gurit partnered with Altair tools (Altair HyperMesh and Altair OptiStruct) to enable analysis and cost-aware design decisions.

Using Altair HyperMesh and Altair OptiStruct, Gurit implemented a custom cost-driven shape-and-laminate optimization that treated material cost as a design variable, resulting in a flatter, lighter roof that reduced surface area, material use, fabrication and installation effort. The Altair-enabled solution allowed Gurit to deliver the roof on time and within budget in five months, cut mass from the original design, ship it in two factory-assembled pieces and install it with a single lift—lowering overall project cost while preserving the architect’s intent.

Gurit

Thomas Basset

Senior Design Engineer