Building Regulations - the Role of the Structural Engineer

Mr. J. A. Baird has written in amplification of his earlier letter which appeared in this column in September 1975: Somehow my edited contribution on training and engineer's failures has been misunderstood (The Structural Engineer, Vol. 53, No. 9, p. 400). Mistakes are being made and of course they have to be investigated, preferably by someone experienced, perhaps even specializing full time in such work. However, my communication was to draw attention to the appointment made necessary because we, as a profession, are making sufficient errors for a fulltime inspector to be required, and to ask if we are satisfied with current training which has led to this situation. Verulam

As a result of an international architectural competition a Conference Centre and Hotel was designed and built in Riyadh. It was the intention that they should set new standards of building in a country which had previously been almost totally closed to the West. This paper gives the story of the design and construction of this building and describes the types and standards of construction which were achieved. E. Happold, W.I. Liddell and P.A. Woodward

A social involvement The title of my address, 'The structural engineer's significance', is not only provocative, as intended, but is clearly incomplete and poses the obvious question: significant in what respect? To answer the question there are a number of expressions which come to mind: with regard to society; to engineering (and it would be interesting to know what would be the order of preference given these two by most members of this Institution); to the sciences: to the quality of life; to the economy? And there are a number of others. If indeed, we should vary the title by calling it 'The structural engineer's contribution', to the foregoing rather general areas of interest we can add more specific ones, for example: the multidisciplinary team; his own and other professional bodies and institutions; the cityscape. (I have had to coin this word because I could not find one that conveyed what I meant- 'seascape' and 'landscape' are clear enough to everyone but how else could one say, in a word, that one meant the visual impact of the large built-up area?). Peter Mason