engineering.
Since our founding 25 years ago, AKT II has forged an international practice that unifies the cultures and disciplines of architecture and structural engineering, and now we have captured the essence of this in our latest book.
Structured into five discursive domains – scale, variability, attitude, reverse engineering, and the craftsmanship of engineering – Matters of Engineering Design presents a robust selection of our endeavours, which together demonstrate a vast range of encounters and processes in design. Common among them is a desire to understand and reshape the boundaries of structural engineering disciplines, along with its links to fields such as philosophy, computer science, and geography.
“This book is an engine for critical reflection on the scope, potential, and limits of what AKT II has come to define as Design Engineering.”
Interlaced with the projects, texts by contributors from varying fields engage the theoretical discussions and social conditions that bind contemporary practice. Matters of Engineering Design balances structural concerns that require an equilibrium of internal and external forces, a clear understanding of boundary conditions, and knowledge of the properties of material with the overarching challenges that society faces today, including advances in technology, changing economic orders, and ecological responsibility.
With contributions by William Baker, David Basulto, Hanif Kara OBE, Jayne Kelley, Priya Khanchandani, Adrian Lahoud, Lesley Lokko, Ibrahim Mahama, Stephen Parnell, Vicky Richardson, David Watson, and Ellis Woodman.
