A symposium was held by the Institution at Bloomsbury Crest Hotel, London, on 18 June 1987 for the presentation and discussion of a report by a team which visited Japan in March 1987 to study the Japanese approach to alkali-silica reaction (ASR). The venture was organised and sponsored by the Cement & Concrete Association and supported by the Department of Trade & Industry.
The theme of this year’s Congress of the International Union of Architects is ‘Shelter and cities’. The Institution of Structural Engineers was invited to present three papers, and we were very pleased to be able to contribute. Professor E. Happold
The risk of earthquake disaster is gradually diminishing in the richer earthquake-prone countries, but it is growing rapidly in the poorer countries because of increasing populations, rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation, and deteriorating older building stock. This paper discusses some of the factors that contribute to the high vulnerability of both rural and urban populations in seismic areas, and suggests that, to reduce this vulnerability, more attention needs to be paid to the traditional non-engineered construction methods of these countries and their existing building stock. R.J.S. Spence and A.W. Coburn
July and August 1987 Members are reminded of the value of regular attendance at meetings, discussions and other occasions organised by the Institution. All are welcome to attend any such meetings anywhere - and to introduce guests. Further details of any of the events that are to take place in the next few weeks can be obtained by writing to the Secretary of the Institution (for London meetings) or to the Hon. Secretary of the Branch concerned.
At the beginning of last year I was seconded for 3 months to The Save the Children Fund (SCF) to work in a refugee camp in western Sudan. Three years previously I had been seconded to the United Nations Relief & Works Agency for (UNRWA) to help rebuild the refugee communities in Lebanon. These had been destroyed by the civil war and subsequent Israeli invasion. R. McAdam
I would like to dwell on the recent correspondence on the subject of fee competition, but first would like to support, without reservation, all that Mr Wex expressed-views that any practising consulting engineer would be hard pressed to fault. Mr. Peter Campbell
In the developed countries the problems of inner cities are among the most interesting that engineers now have to face. They also offer them one of the greatest challenges. Solutions are rarely purely technical but also have to deal with the social dimensions and the economic challenge of revitalising areas blighted by a change in the conditions that originally made them viable. S.B. Tietz and R.S. Narayanan
Shortcuts Continuing the occasional contributions offering ‘shortcuts’ of one sort or another, we now have a simplified procedure for calculating the central deflections of simply supported beams, offered by Mr Brian Edmondson of Wrexham. Verulam