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Known for his TV films on ancient structures, designer of London’s Millenium Bridge and Europe’s tallest building (the ecological Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt) Chris Wise, FRS Master of the Royal Designers for Industry and formerly Ove Arup Professor of Civil Engineering Design at Imperial College, is among the leading structural engineers of his generation. He holds radical ideas about engineering and srt and how they affect society.
In his inaugural address to the RDI Chris reflected on creative life in a world released from the tyranny of mathematics by computer. He discussed how designers think today and how they engage with society through their work and how engineers can release their potential to design solutions for climate change, population growth, wealth and an aging population.
Chris Wise believes engineers should be trained practically – taken out into the field and given pieces of concrete and steel to build a bridge in 24 hours, for example. He also believes that engineering is an art not a science!
Chris Wise runs his own engineering company, Expedition Engineering, whose work includes Italy’s tallest building designed with Renzo Piano, to be completed in 2010, the conversion of a historic building in Barcelona, a regeneration scheme for Greenwich wharf and the engineering of the 2012 Olympics Velodrome.