Peter Rice was an Irish structural engineer who worked on
famous buildings including the Sydney Opera House, Lloyd's of London, the
Louvre Pyramid, and several airports.
Rice was born in Dundalk, County Louth on June 16,
1935. He graduated from the Queen's
University of Belfast and was also educated at Imperial College and Cornell
University. His degree was in civil
engineering but he originally studied aeronautical engineering.
The first job Rice had was with Ove Arup &
Partners. He assisted with the roof of
the Sydney Opera House by working on the geometry of the design. He wrote a computer program to locate the
segments of the shells. When his
supervisor Ian MacKenzie was hospitalized, Rice was in charge of the project at
age 28 with one month of experience. Rice
worked on the project for seven years.
In his work Rice wanted to help create buildings that made
people feel good. He felt that the
industrialization of the building process led to a lack of expression in the
buildings. To counteract this, Rice
favored ordinary building materials as well as new ones used in a rationally
considered context. He was careful not
to allow rational argument to kill creativity and innovation; he considered
projects from all angles.
Rice was praised for his close work with architects and
contributions to design when he received the Royal Gold Medal for
Architecture. It is the highest accolade
offered in the architecture profession.
He died on October 25, 1991, shortly after being diagnosed with a brain
tumor.
Resources:
Engineers on the Web:
Peter
Rice (1935-1992)
The Independent - Architecture:
Genius expressed in nuts and bolts: Peter Rice is an engineer revered by the
world's top architects. Jonathan Glancey met him
Structure: The Imaginative
Engineer: Peter Rice (1935-1992)
Wikipedia - Peter
Rice
http://www.architecturetoday.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/peter_rice-400x266.jpg [image]
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