Chris Wise
Engineer Chris Wise co-founded Expedition in 1999, after a successful career with Arup during which he became their youngest director. Expedition has a trail-blazing ethos and runs as part of the Useful Simple Trust, an employee-benefit trust without human shareholders, which Chris chairs. Either as design lead or with many of the world鈥檚 leading architects including Rogers, Foster, Hopkins and Renzo Piano, his is the guiding hand on the engineering of many projects including the 2012 Olympic Velodrome; American Air Museum, Duxford; Barcelona Bullring; London Millennium Bridge; Barcelona Communications Tower; Channel 4 HQ, London, Las Arenas Barcelona. His approach to projects was captured by Richard Rogers, who said said 鈥淐hris thinks like an artist and acts like an engineer鈥�. In 2009, under Chris鈥� leadership, Expedition won the IStructE鈥檚 Supreme Award for the Infinity Bridge over the River Tees, and in 2011 won the Supreme Award again for the Velodrome. In academia, he has been design professor first at Imperial College, London, where he co-founded the Constructionarium, then Yale, and since September 2012, at UCL, London. He served for nine years as a trustee for the Design Council. He was master (president) of the RSA鈥檚 Royal Designers from 2007 to 2009, a position once held by Barnes Wallis. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA. In October 2012 he was awarded an unprecedented double, winning Gold Medals for his outstanding contribution to the engineering profession from both the IStructE and the ICE.
CommentWet behind the ears
It turns out that the problem of flood protection, which has flummoxed generations of politicians, can be solved in an afternoon by some engineering undergraduates. But will the government listen?
CommentA riff on the luxury of time
The Royal Designers Summer School inspires Chris Wise to reflect on the civilising quality of time and buy a flamenco guitar
CommentDesigner's putty
Interactive design tools offer architects and engineers accurate, fast control of the materials they work with and allow their clients to see the building responding before their eyes
CommentA moving experience
Why wasn鈥檛 construction at the Royal Academy of Engineering鈥檚 Global Grand Challenges Summit?
CommentSustainability is for sharing
Establishing a new educational model for sustainable building design could be a smart idea, but only if the whole industry works on it together, says Chris Wise
CommentRecycling materials: The great recovery
Some of the core materials construction uses have become scarce - eventually everything we use will be. We have to stop jettisoning materials and design so they can all be recycled
CommentNissan's supercar: Time to test-drive some buildings
Nissan鈥檚 new supercar, the Delta Wing, will be subject to public scrutiny and objective testing at Le Mans. Why don鈥檛 we have more 鈥榯est-drives鈥� for buildings?
CommentUK education standards: Move over Mr Gove
With the UK falling down the world rankings at an alarming rate, we can鈥檛 leave the education of our recruits to the government - it鈥檚 time for our industry to step in
CommentUrban design for developing countries: The art of mastery
Urban designs for developing countries demand the perspective and foresight of one of today鈥檚 great minds - not the clumsy first attempt of a novice
CommentWe need small engineering companies
Small engineering companies have been pushed to the edge of extinction by the conforming imperatives of big business. But we need their talent and guts for our own survival
CommentArchitectual competitions: Judgement day
Those judging architectural competitions need to be wise, ethical and very well informed. That鈥檚 why the tittle-tattle of public opinion should be ignored
CommentInfrastructure: A thing of beauty?
Infrastructure can be seen everywhere so it鈥檚 a shame it鈥檚 often so ugly. Let鈥檚 hope for some inspired entries in the energy department鈥檚 competition to update the UK鈥檚 pylons
CommentCAD images: Where have all the humans gone?
There鈥檚 nothing so seductive as a CAD image of your dream project, computer-generated visualisations of how we want the world to be. Trouble is, they鈥檙e divorced from reality
CommentUnderstanding nature
The Japanese earthquake and tsunami have reminded us that the environment is core to contemporary architecture. The pity is, we needed reminding
CommentA fine romance: Cabe and the Design Council
Some may grumble about the match but bringing Cabe and the Design Council together might be the best thing to have happened to design for 60 years
CommentLow-carbon: A trillion miles begins with a single step
Paul Morrell鈥檚 ideas for getting construction to help deliver a low carbon future are light on design, says Chris Wise. Odd, because in fact we can design out much of our carbon footprint
CommentAcademia isn鈥檛 up to the job
University research consistently fails to address the practical realities of construction. What we need is industry people in academic posts controlling the purse strings
CommentWhat the pooping man told us
Engineers鈥� wizardry is beyond question, but they still suffer from a cultural cringe when it comes to the question of creativity. Luckily, Chris Wise met someone who explained the whole thing
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Take it to the bridge: Where engineering meets music
If only our ears were as big as parachutes, we鈥檇 be able to hear the built environment, says Chris Wise, and then we鈥檇 discover that a building can be every bit as musical as a violin
CommentWhat if everything we did was wrong?
For example, we use much more material than we need to keep a building up, and we follow codes that make absurd demands on design. Fortunately, there鈥檚 a simple remedy