Alan Holgate

Ah, this is sadly out of print, and a real loss that is too. Fortunately, the whole text remains available online at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~aholgate/structdes/taisd_anchor.html. The book was intended for structural and civil engineering students, to open their eyes to some of the real issues they might encounter at work, beyond the normal technicalities, safety, contract law and the like. It remains as relevant today as when written and although some of the material is clearly dated, show more it's an excellent antidote to the delusion that engineering is only ever a sterile, rational discipline.

Holgate bemoans the lack of writing on engineering culture, philosophy and creativity, and he's right to note that by comparison with the architectural literature, the writing on engineering is impoverished in these areas.

Setting out to try and remedy this, he targets everything that's airy-fairy about engineering and that technologists often prefer to ignore. Starting with a case study of the Sydney Opera House, which explores how the politics of a design team can determine the output of a project, he deals extensively with the design process in general, with the relationship to architecture, and with the role of creativity.

The first of these is somewhat dry but is aimed at introducing the way a real design office works to students with little experience of one. The section on architecture is similar - a rapid-fire primer for buildings engineers who will need to understand the 'mind' of their key professional counterparts.

Moving onto creativity and the design process, Holgate offers a number of views that undercut the idea of design as linear and rational, and that draw on modern design theory. This section strikes me as dated, but nonetheless useful for engineer seeking to get beneath their habitual practices.

By far my favourite part of the book is the final segment, which starts by discussing structural philosophy, particularly as expressed by great designers such as Torroja and Nervi. The limits of the use of structural efficiency as a guiding principle are adroitly delineated, leading on to speculation on a possible critical theory for structural engineering - a means by which buildings and related structures could be discussed and analysed more meaningfully, with the aim of raising understanding throughout the profession of what really is 'good' or 'bad'. To me, this offers the only way for structural engineers to compete against modern architectural domination, and it's unfortunate that the idea hasn't had more exposure.

There seems little doubt to me that engineers would be better-rounded as professionals, and better able to promote their role in the creation of structural art, if they were better able to articulate their work within the 'softer' contexts discussed in this book. Many recent debates in structural engineering (in my own niche, the relationship with architecture for landmark bridge designs) will find illumination here. show less

This is a compendious and well-illustrated survey of the work of one of Europe's greatest twentieth century structural engineers. Schlaich and his firm have specialised in innovative and complex structures such as cable nets, glass grids and concrete shells, and have created some of the most inspiring and important bridges and buildings of recent times.

Holgate is a sympathetic author, who clearly understands the political, commercial and technical influences upon these designs. He's helped show more very much by Schlaich's own openness and willingness to acknowledge past errors.

The book has many photos, diagrams, extracts from technical drawings etc, is well-referenced, and suffers only from the lack of an index. There's plenty of inspiration here for architects and engineers alike, as well as considerable insight into the building design process. show less