18 September 2002
Ian Liddell awarded IABSE International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering
Ian Liddell, founding partner, Buro Happold, has been cited as the next engineer to receive the IABSE International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering 2002. The Award will be presented by Manabu Ito, President of IABSE, at a ceremony at the IABSE Permanent Committee meeting in Melbourne, Australia, on September 10th 2002.
Ian Liddell, one of the best known engineers in the UK, was responsible for the concept and design of the Millennium Dome, for which he was awarded the CBE.
Padraic Kelly, managing partner, Buro Happold, commented, “We are all delighted to see Ian’s career recognised with the IABSE International Award of Merit. This distinguished award confirms Ian’s recognised status as one of the leading engineers of our times. It is a reflection not only of his innovative work, but his commitment to share his great knowledge and experience with his colleagues in Buro Happold and, through the University of Cambridge, the next generation of engineers.“
A founding partner of consultancy Buro Happold, Ian Liddell is currently also Royal Academy of Engineering visiting Professor in the principles of engineering design at the University of Cambridge. A world expert on lightweight tension and fabric structures, projects currently on his desk include the roof of the new stadium for Arsenal FC, waterbags the size of oil tankers that can be towed across oceans to transport fresh water and a shell form roof for the United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC.
Career Summary
After leaving Cambridge, Ian Liddell joined Ove Arup and Partners to work on the roof of the Sydney Opera House, Australia, and the South Bank Arts Centre, London. After two years he took a post-graduate course at Imperial College, concentrating on pre-stressed concrete and shell structures.
Ian then joined contractors Holst and Company and was engineer for a number of industrial concrete structures, including the West Burton and Drax power station chimneys. He spent a year on site building concrete cooling towers and also worked in the tender office preparing designs and estimates.
He returned to Ove Arup and Partners to work on the Intercontinental Hotel and Conference Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1974 he was the engineer in charge of the timber lattice shell at Mannheim, Germany, and since then moved into the field of lightweight tension and fabric structures.
In1976 he became a founding Partner of Buro Happold, and since then has been responsible for a wide range of projects. In 1980 he pushed forward the development of software for the form-finding and analysis of fabric structures and designed a number of fabric projects with special innovatory structural engineering features. Ian was also responsible for introducing ETFE foil as a cladding material for environmental enclosures.
A major project he was recently responsible for was the cable hall for the Millennium Exhibition at Greenwich as well as stadia and atrium structures. He has recently been appointed Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in the principles of engineering design at the University of Cambridge and is a recognised expert on wide span light weight fabric, steel and cable structures.
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Buro Happold is a multi-disciplinary international practice of consulting engineers established in 1976 offering civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, quantity surveying, building services and environmental engineering, infrastructure and traffic engineering, geotechnical engineering, façade engineering, fire engineering, computational fluid dynamics analysis, access consultancy, project management, urban design and a range of specialist CAD services.