Dirk and Ivan

12 Nov '10: We were honoured to have a half day Structures symposium as part of our HRI course, provided by Dirk Krolikowski of Rogers Stirk Harbour, supported by two of his very good friends, Ozan Yanlis and Falco Schmidt, both of Arups: with whom he has worked on many real projects, competition entries and educational initiatives. Dirk has worked on the Leadenhall St tower ('Cheesegrater') and we are glad to hear that the covers have been lifted off this project, and it is rising again after a layoff of a couple of years. Dirk has done some structural visioneering that is so seductive that all the clients now expect this sort of imagery! With such an expensive building it helps to have every component thoroughly modelled to fine detail before cutting metal. Ozan is a senior engineer at Arups and has a very good presentation of the integration of architectural ideas with structural realisation. Falco has worked at RMJM, and presented a very detailed explanation of the St Petersburg Tower. Dirk and Falco have run an advanced buildings design unit at Aachen University.
  Ozan had to return to London at lunchtime, but Dirk and Falco stayed for a whole afternoon of tutorials on structure, giving the students some of the toughest structural questioning they have yet experienced, resulting in many vastly improved schemes by the following Thursday - a legacy of the symposium that we are all grateful for.

 I will write about Ivan's visit next time I get time to spend on the blog.