THE ARUP JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 1970 5f Vol. 5 No. 3 September 1 970 Contents Conclusion Published by Ove Arup & Partners Consulting Engineers By close collaboration with the architect and Arup Associates Architects and Engineers the precast manufacturer, we set out to THEARUP 1 3 Fitzroy Street. London. W1 P 6BQ isolate as many problems as possible and solve them before erection on site began. In Editor: Peter Hoggett this way erection was controlled by produc• Art Editor: Desmond Wyeth MSIA tion. To ensure that components were avail• JOURNAL Editorial Assistant: David Brown able when required entailed a detailed study An engineer looks at architecture. 2 of the components, the erection technique by Ove Arup and not least, the time allowed. Had it been possible to produce only basic shapes for Prestressed concrete congress, 4 deck and ceiling panels the overall time for Prague. June 1 970, production and erection might have been by D. Dowrick significantly reduced but it would have meant additional, noisy work on site cutting holes. The Carlton Centre, 5 The short time for erection of the shell has by R. Heydenrych given finishing trades and service engineers a The use of prestressing 6 dry and spacious surrounding in which to foundation strengthening at work. York Minster, A rigorous cost analysis has shown that by D. Dowrick certain items proved uneconomic since they serve no primary function. One must realize St. Katharine Docks. 10 that the cost per item for erection, within by M. Tucker limits, is constant regardless of size of com• The changing face of concrete, 20 ponent. Brockham Park now has, in addition by T. O'Brien to its other amenities, a building that blends perfectly with its surroundings and that is a Beecham Research Laboratories : 24 Fig. 7 radical departure from the stables ! an exercise in simplicity, North Block during erection of the frame (Photo : Beecham Research Laboratories) by A. Hart Average cost of the precast frame superstructure per ft2. - Fig. 8 excluding fascia In situ concrete link block between North & South Blocks Item North Block South Block Fascia panels are precast as for the main blocks (Photo: Beecham Research Laboratories) Supply Front cover: I warehouse, St.Katharine dock, seen from the new Dock House (Photo: Henk Snoek) 1) Trusses 14/1 12/6 Back cover: Cameo of Thomas Telford (Reproduced with the permission of Mrs. N. S. Telford) 2) Columns 2/6 3/2 3) Deck Panels 1/11 1/11 architecture from the many tangible proofs of engineering. Here there is steady progress in An engineer looks its existence encompass such acknowledged the achievement of engineering aims, and a 4) Ceiling 7/4 7/4 landmarks as Vitruvius's De Architectura. and very much greater agreement about what is 5) Siporex 3/1 * 3/1 * at architecture Norberg-Sciiulz's latter day Intentions in good and bad engineering. architecture, many less systematic but more What is the reason for this difference, and Erect Ove Arup impassioned pleadings by actual and would- how can it be maintained in view of the fact be architectural practitioners, and the weekly that there is no clear border line between 1) Trusses 3/6 4/2 outpourings of esoteric critics in architectural engineering and architectural structures. 2/4 journals whose claim to fame rests on their Whether you call a bridge architecture or 2) Columns 1/10 This paper was given at being incomprehensible, or so it appears to a engineering is optional—if we attach the Leicester University Arts Festival on 3) Deck Panels 2/6 2/6 mere engineer. normal vague meaning to these words it is 11 February, 1969 4) Ceiling 5/- 5/- What all these have in common is: both. And that in fact applies to all man-made structures—they are both structures—i.e. Introduction 1 that they are all different, if that isn't too 5) Siporex • • engineering structures and pieces of architec• The title for my talk is An engineer looks at Irish ture, in different proportions, if you like. ~;.' JZZv^ ' ZL ~7 •til ': * Total 29/5 29/8 architecture. The engineer is me, of course, and 2 that they deal almost exclusively with The question arises, can one separate the (excluding the only reason for bringing him into the title aesthetic considerations of order, balance, structural from the architectural part? Can a ceiling panels) is to indicate that I am only an engineer, and space, form, light and shade, textures—in structure be a bad engineering structure and cannot claim to be an expert on architectural short, the visual organization of the material, •Supply & Erect good architecture or vice versa? That is a theory, so what I say about architecture may and are less concerned with function or very important question, which I will return not meet with the approval of the pundits. But economy to later, when I have dealt with my first I have had a great deal of experience in helping 3 that although they may be a very valuable query. architects to design buildings and other aid to the understanding of different architec• structures, and I have tried my hand at the tural viewpoints, they are too vague to be a The reason for the difference between the latter myself, and it was always the intention guide to architectural creation. What I mean architectural and engineering 'climate', so to that the result should rank as architecture, is, you cannot look up in a book on architec• speak, is very complex. It is partly a matter of preferably good architecture. Unfortunately ture where to draw the next line on a drawing terminology, partly a matter of historical that doesn't mean that I can give you any board, as the engineer can if he has forgotten accident, and the consequent training of satisfactory or generally accepted definition the formula for analysing the strength of a architects and engineers, and mostly a matter of the term, and I doubt whether anybody else beam. Books and drawings may enable an of what is commonly supposed to be the can. I can only give you my own point of architect to produce a building in the Gothic difference in content or context—architecture view. or even Miesian style, but that is not nowadays being concerned with producing works of t'^Mlll II III' mi '^l A building can be a piece of architecture. But considered an acceptable substitute for true art; engineering with utility structures. of another building, some might say that it and original architecture—whatever that may isn't architecture. In other words, buildings are mean Structural requirements architecture only if they fulfil certain condi• No, the architect nowadays is definitely on If we continue to use the word structure in its tions. Which conditions?—general confu• his own. in an ocean of complete permissive• widest sense, in which it can mean a building, sion. ness and an almost infinite choice of means. a silo, a bridge, dam or road, in fact anything Architecture can also mean a discipline, like It can be a relief, therefore, if his choice is built by man which stays put—for a time at philosophy, medicine, law. building science, limited by impossible site conditions and a least—so as to avoid 'static hardware' or some sociology or Art—with a capital A. In fact shortage of materials or technical resources. such concoction—we have seen that to call architecture was once considered the mother A corollary, or in any case in keeping with some of them architecture and othersengineer- of arts, a valid art form like painting, poetry or this chaotic state of affairs, is the fact that ing structures is rather arbitrary. drama, and many attempts have been made, architecture cannot be said to have progressed We demand of all of them that they should and are still being made, to produce a theory from old times till now. Few would argue that function well, last well, look well and cost of architecture which will enable us to modern architecture is a marked improve• little, but if we survey the whole field of distinguish architecture from mere building, ment on the architecture of earlier epochs, possible structures, the emphasis placed on good from bad architecture, and which will be that our great architects are greater than their these four demands differs widely. Fig. 9 a guide to the creation of architecture. ancient confreres. Perhaps such a comparison They must all fulfil their particular function, North Block on completion of the structural frame (Photo: Beecham Research Laboratories) 2 These attempts to distil the volatile essence of is meaningless. But look at the contrast in for that is the reason for building them. But the the requirements and asbestos shims were functions vary, from those which are easily and the people actually using the buildings. familiar with the means of execution and used to carry all temporary loads. Asbestos defined but difficult to fulfil, for instance to They felt it as a duty to help in formulating the their cost. It is a fallacy to believe that more packs were prelevelled centrally in each slot build a bridge over a gorge, to others which are brief, a task which grew more and more com• accountancy and cost planning will in them• before the column was lifted into position. easy enough to fulfil if only we could manage plicated, and which demanded the expertise selves make building more efficient. These This eliminated the lengthy process of to define them. A teaching hospital, involving of architects and engineers. The field of obviously have their use but chopping some• adjusting the level of the column by crane several authorities and a large number of architecture was widened to include housing, thing off a design by lowering standards does and required only that the length of the doctors all with their different and often schools, hospitals—and gradually all struc• not create anything.