Making the difficult easy and the heavy light: Jörg Schlaich – structural artist and teacher

Abstract

What is it that attracts engineers and architects to Jörg Schlaich's lectures all over the world (Fig. 1)? Is it his open, interdisciplinary way of thinking and the vividness with which he explains complex structures? Or is it the fascination of his light, minimalistic creations? It certainly is the same curiosity and fascination that attracted students, research assistants and visitors to his institute at the University of Stuttgart as David Billington and Annette Bögle, the authors of this paper, were allowed to experience at first hand.Fellow engineer and lecturer David Billington met Jörg Schlaich as long ago as 1978, at a conference on shell structures, and what followed was a most stimulating discussion on aesthetics in engineering -quite exceptional at that time -which led to a close collegial friendship. Later, in 1986, Billington was invited to give a series of lectures at Stuttgart. Schlaich was very busy but promised to come to the first of the four; in the end he stayed for all of them! Their "conversation" continued with mutual visits -in 1992 Schlaich's public lecture in Princeton was a high point of such events and later that year he gave Billington and his wife an elegant tour of his footbridge structures in Stuttgart. Since their first meeting more than 30 years ago, and not least due to their impact on the engineering community, much has changed in the engineering profession. Today, it is accepted that there is an engineering aesthetic exemplified by 20th century artists such as Robert Maillart, Othman Amman, Felix Candela, Christian Menn, Heinz Isler and, in particular, Jörg Schlaich, who has just celebrated his 75th birthday.On the other hand, for a student, Schlaich's lectures were among the few in which facts, formulae and laws took real shape, as Annette Bögle experienced herself as a student and research assistant in Stuttgart. The fascination of a future career filled the lecture theatres, the wide variety of structures demonstrated a playful attitude to physical laws and the limits of what could be achieved, and Schlaich's joy in designing both the overall picture and the details was tangible and communicated itself to all present. Suddenly, everything was making sense -facts, formulae and laws -and the theories no longer existed for their own sake, but were given meaning by the way they fitted into the overall picture. Schlaich demonstrated why it was worth studying the hard facts of structural engineering. He showed how, with knowledge, ability and imagination, it was possible to design and realize structures that illustrate the finer culture of structural engineering.The basis for Schlaich's approach seems to lie deep in his personality and appears almost as a natural by-product of his all-round, self-imposed education. While graduating from high school he also passed his final journeyman's examination as a carpenter, and took a preliminary degree in architecture and civil engineering in Stuttgart before deciding to study engineering in Berlin. At this point, we can sense the alternat...

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“…Im Vordergrund von S CHLAICH s Handeln stand auch immer die Suche nach optimalen und so auch häufig neuartigen Tragwerkslösungen. Die Synthese dessen zeigt auch seine Zugehörigkeit zu den sogenannten Structural Artists [13]. Es ist seine Überzeugung, dass dazu nicht nur ein fundierts Wissen der Theorie und der Zusammenhänge notwendig ist.…”

Structural art: Past, present and future

“…Schlaich [48] showed several examples of footbridges that have an attractive yet efficient structural form which is influenced by performance-oriented principles, functionality, and the imagination of structural engineers. A variety of interesting pedestrian bridges of his design can be also found in [49]. Draper et al [50] revealed that the structural efficiency of Felix Candela's Cuernavaca Chapel was achieved by the understanding structural principle of shell.…”

“…Schlaich's career illustrated the importance of practicing the profession in addition to only theoretical academics during the engineering education [49]. In addition, he also received inspiration through observing elegant bridges and buildings in Switzerland.…”

“…Candela engineered his designs, formed them to be elegant, and built them [103]. Bögle and Billington [49] credited Schlaich as a structural artist after reviewing his career as a designer and teacher. As a designer, he co-founded the design company Schlaich Bergermann and Partner.…”