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[Display omitted] • Deflection behaviour of existing auxetic re-entrant beams compared with traditional beam designs. • Overlooked factors of placement and orientation of auxetic clusters utilized for enhancement. • Two new improved auxetic beam designs proposed with minimal deflection and 64% reduction in material. • Usefulness of the proposed designs brought out by application into lightweight foot bridge design. Auxetic materials have gained popularity in engineering applications owing to their unique deformation response mechanism. However, they have not been exploited to their full potential in engineering load bearing applications. The current paper, therefore, is focused on exploring and improving the deflection behaviour of auxetic beam structures. Initially, a single re-entrant unit cell and an array of auxetic clusters are modelled using Finite Element Method (FEM). These numerical models are then verified for its Poisson's ratio and deflection behaviour using theoretical formulations. Subsequently, in the next phase, a comparison of the deflection characteristics of the in-use common beams with that of the conventional auxetic beam design is carried out. Much overlooked factors such as orientation and placements of auxetic clusters are introduced in beam designs and are exploited to improve the deflection characteristics of conventional auxetic beams. Through this assessment, the paper proposes two novel design concepts of Oriented Re-entrant Structures (ORS) and Assorted Re-entrant Structures (ARS) for improved load bearing response. Novel designs of ORS and ARS beams are observed to perform significantly better than the conventional auxetic and honeycomb beams. The newly proposed beam designs exhibit a 64% reduction in mass in comparison to the homogeneous beam. The usefulness of these designs are brought out by introducing the ARS auxetic beams into a real-world lightweight foot bridge design. The bridge designs with ARS cross beams demonstrates a better behaviour in comparison to the bridge designs with conventional cross beams in terms of both deformation and material usage. This work highlights the potential use of unconventional mechanical metamaterial structures in engineering load bearing problems to address the demands of green engineering and sustainability without compromising on its structural integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]