Today, shared Building Information Models (BIM), rather than just physical models, as with Otto’s early projects, allow for feedback and integration between all the building professions, including that of the construction team. Adams Kara Taylor (AKT), a London-based structural and civil engineering firm of 40 people, will engage an architect’s ideas for a project design, but, as engineer Hanif Kara says, they “do not pretend to be the architect.” Key to the firm is teamwork and a constant dialogue with the architect. An in-house mathematics think tank with computational specialists assists teams, and it is common to see five engineers from five countries hunched over one computer as they jointly solve problems. AKT’s nonhierarchical studio encourages creative thinking and innovation, but not at the cost of technical competence, achieving what Kara calls “great engineering rather than bad architecture.” For its work on the Peckham Library in London (2000), with Alsop & Stormer Architects, the concrete-filled steel columns angle to support a cantilevered upper volume. Appearing like an upside down L-shaped volume, the building’s structure freed Alsop from traditional constraints, opening the library’s base to allow for public space. Kara, who worked for Anthony Hunt and also teaches at the Architectural Association in London, engineered Zaha Hadid’s Phaeno Science Center in Germany (2005), where structural redundancy was eliminated so that the walls and concrete slab could combine as a continuous shell to achieve the fluid space the architect desired. Currently, Kara is collaborating on the design with Foreign Office Architects (FOA) of the John Lewis department store in Leicester, England (2007), that will also include retail and a cinema. AKT’s proposed structural design enables FOA to foreground an intricate lacy glass facade by engineering large spans for an atrium, an auditorium, and loading dock areas, in addition to glass walkways through the atrium.
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