Ada Rutherford lecture: collaboration between engineers and architects
University of Canterbury’s architect-in-residence Tim Nees.
The inaugural Ada Rutherford free public lecture will be held at 12:30pm on Friday, 31 July at the University of Canterbury. Respected design engineer Alistair Cattanach will discuss the benefits of collaboration between engineers and architects.
Strengthening links between engineers and architects is a topic of special significance to Christchurch following the 2010/11 quakes. The Royal Commission report on the earthquakes identified the need for architects and engineers to collaborate more effectively, right from the concept design stages of a building project.
Alistair Cattanach from Wellington’s Dunning Thornton Consultants has engineered buildings to withstand ground shaking and acceleration greater than that produced in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. He blends his passion for architecture and structural design to create practical engineering solutions for significant projects like the Waitomo Caves Visitor Centre.
The event is hosted by University of Canterbury’s architect-in-residence, Tim Nees, and will launch a new postgraduate course in architectural engineering. The architect-in-residence within University of Canterbury’s College of Engineering is funded by The Warren Education Trust and the Ada Rutherford Trust.
Since his appointment, Mr Nees has been busy establishing the new Postgraduate Architectural Engineering course ‘Integrated Design’, which will begin in August. The course is for graduate engineers to develop an understanding of architecture and architectural design principles, and how they can be applied to the collaborative model of professional engineering design.
The next step for University of Canterbury is to establish the Ada Rutherford Professorship in architectural engineering, which it hopes to fill in early 2016. This has been made possible with a significant endowment from the estate of Jim Rutherford in memory of his mother.
These initiatives all aim to expand the awareness, teaching, research and dissemination of architectural engineering.
This is a free public event. For further information see here.