‘I know you think you know what I said, but do you actually understand what I thought I meant?’. Communication - whether by physical or electronic means - requires a certain level of understanding. The use of a common language and vocabulary is seen as the basis for computer-based communication; ultimately leading to the integration of software applications. A. Crowley and A. Watson
The paper describes the design and construction, on a reclaimed industrial site in the Ruhr Valley in Germany, of a major retail and leisure complex. There are over 200000m2 of buildings with associated infrastructure and landscaping, and it is one of the largest developments of its type in Europe. Close working relationships were maintained with the consortium of German contractors, the proof engineers, and the multinational team of project managers, architects, mechanical and electrical consultants, and other advisors. Structures are generally in reinforced concrete with a combination of insitu and precast elements to provide for flexibility and speed of construction. A.J.M. Soane and D.R. Waby
Recent demand for very heavily serviced widespan ofice floors has led, as a natural development of the concept of haunched and tapered frames, to the use of composite floors supported by tapered (varying web depth) beams. One requirement is for a better understanding of the local buckling behaviour of the relatively deep slender web at changes of slope in the lower flange, in particular at the slope change which occurs at the centre of a beam whose depth increases linearly from each support. Professor P.C.G. da S. Vellasco and Professor R.E. Hobbs
Entrepreneur, teacher, politician and above all, engineering genius - these are the qualities that stand out when one looks in retrospect at the life and career of the late Sir Edmund Happold. He made an outstanding contribution to the work of this Institution as well as to the wider disciplines of building and civil engineering. John D. Allen