Traces of Peter Rice

One of my favorite books is An Engineer Imagines by Peter Rice, who was responsible for the distinctive structure of the Centre Pompidou, among numerous other buildings. Wikipedia has a nice quote from Jonathan Glancey's obituary of Rice that captures his influence: "Rice was, perhaps, the James Joyce of structural engineering. His poetic invention, his ability to turn accepted ideas on their head and his rigorous mathematical and philosophical logic made him one of the most sought-after engineers of our times."

In the below 32-minute video by Arup, where Rice worked for a number of years, his approach to architecture and engineering is celebrated 20 years after his untimely death at the age of 57.



The film has been made on the occasion of the exhibition "Traces of Peter Rice" at Arup's Phase 2 gallery in London and a companion book of the same name.