CONCRETE IMMATERIAL STRUCTURES

Bjørn N. Sandaker has a background in structural engineering (M.Sc.) from the Norwegian Institute of Technology, as well as from studies of art history and architectural history and theory. His Ph.D. was received at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
Sandaker’s particular academic interest focuses on the borderline between architecture and engineering, that somewhat blurred but identifiable frontier both uniting and separating the requirements for utility, space and architectural expression and the needs for strength, stability and stiffness.
Sandaker is Professor of architectural technology at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and has for over twenty years specialized in the cross-over discipline of structural design in architecture, teaching undergraduate courses as well as master courses in which structural mechanics are taught alongside studio work aimed at architectural design. A number of international book publications have resulted from this research and teaching area: The Structural Basis of Architecture with Arne P. Eggen, The Whitney Library of Design, New York (1992) (also published in Oslo, London, Basel and Milan); Steel, Structure and Architecture with Arne P. Eggen. The Whitney Library of Design, New York (1995) (also published in Stuttgart); On Span and Space. Exploring Structures in Architecture. Routledge, Oxford (2008). 

Ian Ritchie   

Ian Ritchie Architects Ltd  
London, England  

Ian Ritchie is an architect with an international reputation for design and innovation, particularly in materials and construction technique. He has his own practice based in London (est. 1981) with a network of sister offices in Europe, and he co-founded Rice Francis Ritchie (RFR) design engineers, Paris (est. 1981). In addition to architectural projects, Ian is often asked to act as masterplanner for national institutions and cities as well as conceiving and designing international exhibitions for major European galleries.
He has received innumerable national and international awards for his work including many RIBA Awards, the last four of which have been on the Stirling Prize shortlist, and personally honoured with a CBE, the French Academie d’Architecture Silver Medal for Innovation, the Italian Iritecna Prize for Europe, Eric Lyons Memorial Award for European Housing and the Commonwealth Association of Architects Award for the Advancement of Architecture.

AESTHETICS AND FORM IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Julio Martínez Calzón   

Prof. Dr. Civil Engineer   
   Director of MC2    
Madrid-Spain   

Robert Off was born on 1957 in Augsburg, Germany. In 1984 he obtained his BAI diploma in Architecture at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, being awarded with a Special Prize for the BAI for Diploma Thesis “Integrated Living in Spatial Polyeder Structures”. In 1987 he obtained his diploma in architecture at the Technical University Berlin and in 1995 he concluded his PhD in Architecture at the TU-Berlin Faculty of Architecture.  Between 1988 and 2004 he was the director of the architectural consultancy practice - Atelier 1, Augsburg, Germany. 
Lecturer of Architectural Theory at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, (1987-1994). Researcher Assistant at the TU-Berlin (1990-1994). Lecturer of Membrane Structures at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences (1998-2002). Professor at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences (2002). Professor in-charge for developing the International Master Course on Membranes Structures at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Surveying, Dessau, Germany (2004). In 2006 he started the first ever academic Master course in Membrane Structures in the world. Professor in-charge for the organization and conducting of the Master course. 
Founder member and director of the non profitable Institute for Membrane and Shell Technologies - I.M.S .e.V, Bobingen, Germany (1999).  Since 2005 this institution became an Associated Institute of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences.Author of several patents related with membrane structures such as: a composite membrane-foam building method (1998) and buildings with stiffened membrane structures as outer skin (2003). Author of some several projects in that field: Membranptur - Augsburg University of applied sciences (Augsburg), Art Acoustic Membrane - Hauptschule (Bobingen), Bat-Sail Kloster (Hülfensberg), Bat-Sail Kindertafel (Berlin), UFO-Wing - Shopping Centre Konsument (Dessau), Car Park Cover (Dessau) and Bus Terminal (Königsbrunn).

Yves Weinand obtained his architecture diploma in 1986 at the Institut supérieur d’architecture Saint-Luc in Liège/Belgium. After having worked as independent architect in Helsinki/Finland, in New York/USA and in Brussels/Belgium, he studied civil engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, obtaining his diploma in 1994. Assistant at the chair of structures at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany, he presented his PhD-thesis “Sichtbare Spannungen“, in 1998.
Since 1996, Yves Weinand is owner of the Bureau d’Etudes Weinand, structural engineers and architects consulting in Liège/Belgium. In 2001, he was nominated ordinary professor at the Institute of Structures, Faculty of Architecture at the Technische Universität Graz/Austria. Since 2004, he is professor and head of the Laboratory for timber constructions IBOIS at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne/Switzerland.