• A survey of engineering practice with 106 mainly UK-based respondents is presented. • Material efficiency is identified as a key design priority alongside cost. • Overdesign arises to accommodate pre-construction changes in loads or geometry. • Changes between 2017–2022 show increased emphasis on material efficiency. • Research questions are proposed to guide embodied energy and carbon reduction. This paper presents a survey of engineering practice and culture in structural design relating to material efficiency. The survey included 44 questions and received 106 responses, predominantly from practicing structural engineers in the UK. It builds upon a previous survey from 2017 with the same set of questions, allowing a longitudinal study of changes over time. The results were analysed using statistical methods, including chi-square tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, two-sample t-tests of independence, regression analysis, and analysis of covariance. The findings showed that material efficiency ranks at the top of design priorities, alongside cost, a notable shift since the 2017 survey. There is also growing, though not yet universal, client demand for low-carbon designs. Despite these advances, overdesign remains prevalent, primarily due to the need to accommodate potential changes in span, loading, or layout prior to construction. The survey also revealed a disconnect between engineers’ understanding of vertical floor loading and serviceability limit states and current code requirements. The results are complemented by research questions that emerged during the study, which require further input from the research community.
Liapopoulou et al. (2026) studied this question.