It’s all very well coming up with a stunning architectural concept like Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House or Maurice Koechlin’s Parisian tower, but when it comes to the crunch, even the most inspiring of forms need to be rationalized in order to become a reality. This means that architects owe much to the world’s best engineers, whose ingenuity can help ensure that a building is stable without diluting the architect’s original vision.
In a rich homage to engineers’ vital role in bringing great buildings to fruition, structural engineer Guy Nordenson has released Reading Structures: 39 Projects and Built Works, a compendium of drawings and 3D models that reveals his part in the construction of countless architectural landmarks. Architect Steven Holl — who designed many of the buildings below — dubbed Nordenson “the Picasso of Engineers,” highlighting the fact that the author not only translates the ideas of architects but is an artist in his own right, actively inventing systems that allow entirely new formal concepts to emerge.
In celebration of Nordenson’s inspiring collaborations with architects around the globe, we invite you to take this test — how many of these landmark buildings can you identify from this series of animated structural models? Grab a pen and write down the name of the building for each of the models below, then click on the link at the foot of the article to see how many you got right. Let us know how you got on in the comments!
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Share this with your fellow students and colleagues to see how your architectural knowledge compares! Then, when you’re ready, you can check out the answers here. (No cheating!)
All models © Guy Nordenson and Associates; model production and animation by Sam Stewart-Halevy
