Large scale public works of art and installations are often extremely challenging to design because of their highly visible and very structural nature, the balance of aesthetics with practicality and the need to consider ideas outside of the norm to drive them to completion.
This technical lecture presented several examples of public art - ranging from one of the UK’s largest permanent works to filigree and fast paced installations further afield.
Stephen Melville suggested how engineers can model, develop and rationalise these structures to make the unbuildable buildable - and how guerrilla tactics can make the impossible programme possible.
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Gain an understanding of the unique design challenges associated with large scale public art works and installations
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Learn how engineers can model, develop and rationalise these unusual structures
- Understand the value of guerrilla tactics in making the impossible possible
Tim Lucas tries hard not to design structures. He is interested in both the nature of materials and manner of how things are made and built; so that the fabric of the built environment can become more loadbearing and use up less material. He is an expert in design for digital fabrication and advocates minimal interference structural engineering. He is a partner in Price & Myers and Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Stephen Melville was a Director at Whitbybird and Design Director at Ramboll before founding Format Engineers. Format is a practice which considers engineering, geometry, optimisation, fabrication and research as an seamless entity and a bridge between science, art, architecture and design. Stephen is a CABE expert and a member of the Bristol Design Forum. He sits on the IStructE Digital Workflows and Computational Design Panel and the RIBA education board. He is a member of the 2013 RIBA awards jury and the 2018 RIBA Rising stars jury.
Engineering art and guerrilla tactics