Category: Awards

Hyperion Robotics has won Specialist Construction Product of the Year at the Construction News Specialists Awards 2026 for its low-carbon foundations. The company was also Highly Commended in the Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability category.

The awards were presented on 3 September at the London Hilton on Park Lane. Run by Construction News, they recognise the specialist contractors and suppliers behind the UK’s major infrastructure and building projects, and are judged by a panel drawn from across the industry.

What the judges said

The judging panel described Hyperion’s entry as “a compelling and technically impressive innovation that addresses several industry challenges at once, including low-carbon performance, improved site safety and operational efficiency, with strong real-world validation and an impressive range of potential applications.”

The product

Hyperion foundations are computationally designed and robotically manufactured. Each foundation is designed for the loads it will actually carry rather than cast as a solid block sized for the worst case, and the optimised geometry is then produced at Forge I, Hyperion’s UK manufacturing facility.

The approach uses up to 75% less material than a conventional concrete foundation and cuts embodied carbon by as much as 70%. Because there is less material, the foundations cost less to deliver, need fewer truck movements to reach site and take fewer operations to install.

The foundations are already in use on live infrastructure projects. Costain is installing 95 Hyperion sleepers on the Northern Endurance Partnership project in Teesside, 66 pipe support foundations have been delivered at Usk Reservoir with Mott MacDonald Bentley, and substation foundations have been tested with National Grid.

A word from Fernando

Fernando De los Rios, CEO of Hyperion Robotics, commented:

This award recognises a product that is in production and in the ground, and that is how we want to be judged. Our thanks go to the clients and partners who trusted us to put low-carbon foundations on real projects, and to the team who designed, manufactured and tested them.

Read next

This is Hyperion’s second national award of 2026. In July, the company was named Product Solutions Provider of the Year at the New Civil Engineer Awards, where the judges highlighted proven benefits on live projects and the conversion of initial sceptics into advocates. Read about the NCE Awards win.

If you are planning infrastructure that needs foundations delivered with less carbon and at lower cost, get in touch to talk to our engineering team about your project.

Hyperion Robotics has been named Product Solutions Provider of the Year at the New Civil Engineer Awards 2026. The category recognises the innovations changing how civil engineering gets delivered, and the win was announced at a ceremony held in partnership with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

Recognition from the New Civil Engineer editorial team, judged from the heart of the UK civils industry, is a serious signal that our approach to foundations is working.

What the judges said

“Hyperion Robotics ticks all the boxes across the award criteria: innovative, collaborative and sustainable, and addressing a significant problem with a high-value solution. Its benefits are proven, with client testimonials demonstrating tangible impact and the conversion of initial sceptics into advocates. Exciting plans for standardised products, advances in low-carbon cement and UK manufacturing show a clear commitment to building on the innovation and offering continual improvement.”

Two lines in that citation mean a great deal to us. The first is that our benefits are proven, backed by client testimonials from live UK infrastructure projects rather than projections on a slide. The second is the acknowledgement that we have been converting initial sceptics into advocates, which is what every new construction technology has to earn.

The partners behind the results

None of this happens without the contractors, consultants, clients and academic partners who have been willing to work with us on live projects: Mott MacDonald Bentley on Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s Usk Reservoir; National Grid and the Integrated Civil and Infrastructure Research Centre (ICAIR) at the University of Sheffield on our substation foundation testing; A E Yates; Costain; and the wider community of engineers pulling us into new conversations about how foundations get built. Every one of the results the judges cited belongs to those partnerships as much as it does to us.

What the award is really about

NCE editor Gavin Pearson framed this year’s winners as the answer to the biggest question in infrastructure: how the industry is going to deliver everything being asked of it. We take the responsibility of that framing seriously.

Our computationally designed, robotically manufactured foundations use up to 75% less material than a conventional concrete foundation and cut embodied carbon by as much as 70%. Less material means lower delivery cost, fewer truck movements and fewer operations on site, and those savings are already being realised on live projects. There is a lot more to build.

Thank you to New Civil Engineer, ICE and the judging panel.

Read next

In September, Hyperion went on to win Specialist Construction Product of the Year at the Construction News Specialists Awards 2026. Read about the CN Specialists Awards win.

If you are planning infrastructure that needs foundations delivered with less carbon and at lower cost, get in touch to talk to our engineering team about your project.

At the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Yorkshire & Humber Awards, Esholt Sewage Treatment Works has been honored with Net Zero Award, which highlights projects, studies and research which set new standards in lowering the carbon footprint of Yorkshire and Humber. This accolade not only recognizes the project’s commitment to reducing the carbon footprint but also calls for more innovations across the water sector.

In partnership with Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) and Yorkshire Water, Hyperion Robotics has designed and manufactured four bespoke drawpits, installed in Esholt Sewage Treatment Works.

These circular structures, a departure from traditional box-shaped designs, weighs five tonnes, almost half the size of a traditional drawpit while meeting strict Eurocode standards for structural engineering. This approach resulted in a 50% decrease in material use and a 40% reduction in carbon emissions.

The project’s success aligns seamlessly with the principles of “build nothing, build less, build clever, and build efficiently” as lauded by the judges of the Net Zero Award.

This recognition serves as both a celebration and a call to action. It celebrates the dedication and innovation of the teams involved, inspiring us to further our commitment to sustainability. Additionally, it challenges the entire construction industry to embrace and replicate these transformative practices.