The China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization recently issued No. 544 announcement, stating that the Code for the Construction and Quality Acceptance of the Membrane Structure Engineering (T/CECS 664-2020) was approved for enactment. The Code was compiled by Beijing University of Technology (BJUT), the China Association for Spatial Structures of the China Steel Construction Society, and more than 20 famous membrane structure development and construction units under the presidency of Professor Xue Suduo of BJUT. The Code is the first acceptance criteria for the membrane structure engineering of China. This is an important achievement of BJUT in the compilation of national standards and specifications, highlighting the leading role of BJUT in this field.

Membrane structure is a pre-tension structure adopting flexible architectural membrane materials as key stressed unit. Due to advantages like beautiful design, light weight, energy conservation, environmental protection, etc, membrane structures have been developed rapidly in China over the last 20 years. They have been applied in large-scale stadiums, convention centers, industrial facilities, and various other buildings of cultural recreation, storage and environmental protection. The roof coverings of the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) and the National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) constructed for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games adopted membrane structures. According to incomplete statistics, the newly-built large-scale membrane structures in 2019 covered tens of

millions of square meters.

The compilation of this code lasted for more than 3 years, during which the Center for Spatial Structures Research of BJUT joined hands with the China Association for Spatial Structures of the China Steel Construction Society to organize multiple seminars. The team led by Professor Xue Suduo and experts involved in the compilation collaberated to complete all tasks with high standards. At the inspection meeting of the Code for the Construction and Quality Acceptance of the Membrane Structure Engineering, held by the China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization, evaluation experts spoke highly of the code, saying that it “collects the latest achievements of China’s membrane structure engineering practices, fills the void in the code for the construction and quality acceptance of the membrane structure engineering of China, and reaches advanced international level”.