The BBC have broadcast a lovely documentary about the Irish structural engineer, Peter Rice. You can watch the film, here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007zg7/peter-rice-an-engineer-imagines
You may not have heard of Peter Rice…who has? But he is probably one of the most significant figures in modern architecture; and not even an architect!
Rice was structural engineer on a whole series of landmark building that have shaped modern architecture and how we respond to it…Sidney Opera House, Pompidou Centre, Lloyd’s of London, Cite des Sciences, Paris, Mound Stand, etc etc.
Rice was able to develop the self-supporting geodesic principle developed by Buckminster Fuller and apply the same principles to vertical surfaces, through tensioned cables and so-on. Rice didn’t invent the glass wall, but he developed it so that it became more-or-less self supporting. Later in his career he was able to do the same thing with heavier materials.
The other really important aspect of Rice’s work is that he was always sensitive to the sculptural quality of very large building parts…for example, that the visible structural elements of, say, the Pompidou, should be, however massive, elegant and refined. It’s this thoughtfulness that allows the Pompidou to sit comfortably amongst its historic neighbours.
Using massive cast-steel parts for the frame of the building expressed functionality through solidity and refinement. This is characteristic of the best modern architecture, at whatever scale.
I am old enough, and lucky enough, to have been able to experience the Pompidou Centre from more-or-less when it first opened. I can honestly say, that that building changed my life…it expressed a space into which I could move, and in which I could combine all my various interests. I especially liked the fact that the whole building expressed itself a system of communication design.
I’ve written about Richard Rogers, here
and the Pompidou, here
and about the connection between functionalism and pleasure, here
and the Fun Palace, here
and the architecture of experience, here
If you are interested in Rice, you may also be interested in Jean Prouve. I’ve posted about him, here
Every one of the people mentioned in these posts, and especially Peter Rice, understood that the unity of art, design and architecture, can provide a transformative experience.