About this talk

Running time: 36 minutes

The Scottish engineer Ian Liddell trained at St. John's College, Cambridge and Imperial College, London. In between he was for 3 years at Ove Arup & Partners, where he was one of the group working on the design of the Sydney Opera House. He then spent 5 years doing industrial concrete structures for contractors Holst & Co. before returning to Arup's in 1968.

In 1976 he and Ted Happold (see The Nature Of Engineering: Part 1 and Part 2) left to set up Buro Happold in Bath.

Liddell is one of the world's leading experts in the field of lightweight tension and fabric structures, and he describes some of these, culminating in the giant Millennium Dome on the Greenwich peninsula, an 'umbrella' to shelter the exhibition which opened on January 1 2000.

The architect is Mike Davies (see Intelligent Buildings) of Richard Rogers & Partners.

Please note that a transcript of this talk is available - please contact us for further details.