Engineers must stand up to architects with knighthoods, says Shuttleworth
Ken Shuttleworth urges engineers to ‘find a new Brunel’
The elevation of the architect over the engineer is to blame for today’s cities being full of unsustainable buildings, Ken Shuttleworth told engineers and students at Imperial College.
Architects are able to get away with their “orgy with glass” because engineers have lost their voice, he said, delivering the Worshipful Company of Paviors’ annual lecture on Tuesday.
The founder of Make urged engineers to “find a new Brunel” who could represent them on television and push an environmental agenda.
“In the 19th century the engineer was king,” he told the audience. “Then architects took over and design became paramount which led to this orgy with glass.
“If the engineer says ‘you can’t have this much glass’ he is sacked and replaced. Engineers need to become more assertive and tell architects what to do.
“Find the best engineer at speaking and put them on TV. Plenty of architects have knighthoods and get on TV. You need a new Brunel to promote engineering,” added Shuttelworth, who spent 30 years at Foster & Partners.
Questioned about the sustainability of Make’s plan to demolish part of the 1980s Broadgate Centre, he said conversion simply wasn’t possible.
Its £340 million replacement was London’s first sustainable office project which tried to reflect the “death of bling”, he added.
“Buildings aren’t built to be monuments. They are commodities that are built to be demolished,” he said.
“London has so many historic buildings and if you can’t knock anything down the city will stagnate. Sense has to prevail. Keep what you can keep and what works and if not, do something better.”
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Readers' comments (35)
"London has so many historic buildings and if you can’t knock anything down the city will stagnate." - oh yea, this kind of thinking done the country a lot of good in the 60s!.. how many historical buildings were replaced with "commodities to be demolished" we still see around today? I like Make even less now, though it would be impossible!
As an engineer I have no problem telling architects what I think. A Clarke Ceng, (sole trader)
Both have their respective places - possibly with the exception of Nervi, Arup and Brunel and dual qualifiers like Calatrava. There are few structures in existence to my knowledge that owe their vision to the engineer. It's sad that architects have become so self - loathing to become their own apologists. Perhaps architects should retrain as engineers, do both, attribute the vision to engineering and carry on? I always thought the obsession with glass ended with Gropius' Bauhaus Weimar school. Contemporary architects who pretend to be engineers seem to come across less resistence - we've had the whole 'High Tech' period overly concerned with flitch plates and nodal joints at the expense of space, place, form and aesthetics.
John Mortis, you are right. I check the details. I would also like to point out that your 'your' should actually be 'you're.' Have a good weekend.
I was in the Reform Club with my uncle Freddy the other day and one of his friends said to me that this Shuttleworth chap is given office space rent free by a group of well know engineers - not Brunell, but someone else. Can't remember the firm, though. Apparently there is a deal here in which he promotes engineering in exchange for free space. Jolly good, these engineers.
"Engineers must stand up to architects with knighthoods, says Shuttleworth"
And after reading the nonsense he apparently came out with, certain 'Architects Without' too.
I look forward to engineers taking a leading role.
In some sectors, like transportation, this is already very the case.
But, in most cases, engineers are too specialised to take a leading role. System engineering is a pretty specialised area. Quite in vogue on large infrastructure projects, but can it deliver good architecture? I guess it's worth a go.
You don't have to love every building Make has produced to appreciate what Ken is saying. He makes a valid point that in the industry today engineers and consultants are not standing up to architects (and ultimately clients) to properly advise on what is (and is not) sustainable.
And, yeah, he did design the Gherkin, but that was then, and this is now. Like no one else has changed their approach before?
As for demolition, I can't believe anyone would think our world would sustainable if we didn't demolish. As the man says: stagnate.
I agree that we should not be arguing...
This guys
http://www.ted.com/talks/bjarke_ingels_hedonistic_sustainability.html
are architects and it seems they are doing their best to design sustainable buldings...
john paul wrote: "There are few structures in existence to my knowledge that owe their vision to the engineer."
What about: Eiffel Tower, Brooklyn Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, structures and buildings designed by Eladio Dieste?
What about Frank Lloyd Wright who has no official qualifications in architecture but spent 2 semesters studying civil engineering.
What about Francis Fowke - a civil engineer who designed the Royal Albert Hall .........