Benchmark Scaffolding has won Design of the Year at the 2026 Scaffolding Excellence Awards for its Tension Tie System developed for Salisbury Square Court Building.
The winning design was developed for the Court Building’s hand-set, self-supporting stone façade, which has joints of only 3 mm and required no visible fixings. The scaffold needed to remain safely restrained throughout the work, but conventional tying methods would have required stones to be omitted or the finished façade to be altered.
With no standard solution suitable for the project, our team worked to develop a removable restraint that could pass through the narrow joints without damaging the stonework.
Development included engineering workshops, prototypes, destructive testing and a visit to the full-scale visual mock-up in Germany. The final arrangement combines a removable 3 mm wire restraint with a purpose-designed stainless-steel cavity bracket and scaffold connection.
Safety was central to the design. Testing established the system’s capacity and failure modes, followed by internal and independent checks before its approval for use. Components were pre-assembled and checked before delivery, while a dedicated site team and specific tagging and inspection process supported consistent installation and ongoing monitoring.
Over 900 restraint locations were installed across the façade package. This allowed the scaffold and stonework to progress together without omitting a single stone, leaving visible fixings or requiring remedial work to the completed façade.
Environmental considerations also influenced the design. By adapting and repurposing familiar scaffold components rather than manufacturing a heavily fabricated, one-off system, the team reduced material use and created elements that can be recovered and reused. Avoiding façade alterations and remedial work also reduced waste and unnecessary reworking.
Benchmark Scaffolding Managing Director Rob West said: “This was a difficult brief and there was no ready-made answer. The team tested different ideas and kept refining the design until we had something that worked technically and could be delivered safely on site. To see that work recognised by the NASC is a brilliant result for everyone involved.”
Congratulations to everyone who helped take the Tension Tie System from its first design stages through testing and successful delivery at Salisbury Square. Thanks also to the NASC judges, and congratulations to our fellow finalists.
