Buro Happold Launch with Hugh Pearman

Former Sunday Times Architecture Critic Hugh Pearman for Buro Happold: Engineering, Design and Advisory

“Engineering is, at its best, an art grounded in social responsibility.”

So said the late Sir Edmund ‘Ted’ Happold, founder of Bath-based Buro Happold, an engineering and design firm with over 3,500 employees in 37 different global locations.  Sir Ted moved to Bath in 1976, taking a role as Chair of Engineering at the University of Bath, alongside starting up his practice.  The seven-person team started at 14 Gay Street, moved to Quiet Street, then Trim Street, before moving to Camden Mill by the river. The 600-person office is now in Pinesgate West.

Join author Hugh Pearman for an illustrated talk about his book Buro Happold - Engineering, Design and Advisory/ 50 Years of Courage and Care where he explores the full scope of engineering innovation through 50 key engineering projects, including The Millenium Dome, football stadia for Arsenal, Spurs and Everton and the High Line Park in Manhattan.

The book also examines how fast-developing technology, from early computers to AI, has transformed what engineers can do and unleashed real innovation, as well as outlining the practical steps Buro Happold has taken with its construction and urban design in vigorously tackling the causes of climate change in construction and urban design. The book concludes by assessing what needs to be done to plan for the next 50 years, with an informed look into the towns and cities of the future.

Writer, editor and consultant Hugh Pearman, is a warm speaker with a deep knowledge of engineering and architecture.  He is the author of several books including About Architecture: An Essential Guide in 55 Buildings (Yale University Press), Airports: A Century of Architecture (Laurence King and Abrams), Charcoalblue: Designing for Performance and Cullinan Studio in the 21st Century (both Lund Humphries). He was architecture and design critic for The Sunday Times, 1986-2016, Editor of the RIBA Journal, 2006-2020, and was Chair of the Twentieth Century Society 2023-2026.