An entirely tubular structure was chosen for the new £4.5m High Performance Indoor Athletics Centre (HIPAC) at Loughborough University. The two-hall building has a main structure of triangular trusses with pinned connections to the columns. All the major elements, including the columns are structural hollow sections.

The HIPAC is primarily for elite athletes but will also be used by local athletics clubs and as a university teaching area. With its running tracks, throws hall and a specialist weight training space it will provide an important all-weather training base for many of the UK's leading athletic stars.

The design of the Centre was developed as a single storey split floor comprising of a lower hall 3213m² containing an indoor 110m running straight, long jump, pole vault and javelin throwing. The upper hall 1523m² contains 2 hammer/discus nets, high jump and indoor shot throwing area. Included as part of the upper hall is a 2 storey annexe comprising of offices, changing, conditioning and treatment facilities.

The 24m and 28m span triangular trusses have 193.7 x 6.3 and 8.0mm circular hollow section (CHS) chords and 114 x 5mm diagonals. The trusses are pinned to 273 x 8.0 and 12.5mm CHS columns. The front line of vee shaped columns supporting a canopy over a walkway and TV gantry is exposed with the rest of the structure enclosed within cladding. In total there is 180 tonnes of hollow section to EN 10210 S355J2H in the trusses and columns.