Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
The place of the structural engineer
in society
Chris Wise
Director, Expedition Engineering, UK
doi
:
10.1680/mosd.41448.0001
CONTENTS
1.1 Our challenge
1
1.2 Context
1
1.3 What structural
engineering is 3
1.4 The changing way we work 3
1.5 The balance between
theory and practice
An examination of the historical purpose and origins of engineering as a professional activity,
developing into the contextual role of the engineer today. Looking beyond problem solving
and the application of theory to a consideration of the role and tasks of the structural engineer
in contemporary society. Contains a review of the relevance and traction of the stated aims
of the professional educational system. Constructive criticism of these requirements in the
context of the needs of twenty-first century society and changing demographics of technology,
ageing, globalisation and sustainability. Describes the kind of mindset a structural engineer
needs to develop and the future place of structural engineers in society.
6
1.6 The engineer's relationship
to key stakeholders
8
1.7 Conclusion
8
1.8 Note
9
1.9 References
9
1.1 Our challenge
Over thousands of years, the craft of designing and building
elegant and safe structures has remained a core challenge for
post-nomadic human society. For millennia, our structures
were provided by those who gained knowledge and skill from
their elders and by studying precedent, by following lore and
rules of thumb, and by learning on the job, by experience,
failure, success and feedback. The last 100 years of profes-
sional structural engineering have seen this ad hoc approach
regularised with the development of safeguarded minimum
standards, so that overt structural failure has become less and
less common. But in the entirely reasonable attempt to regulate
out the dangerous, we have also seen a disconnection between
structural engineers and the people we serve, coupled with the
broader development of disciplinary protectionism and, given
the money to be made, the emergence of some powerful vested
interests.
Today we have a raft of locked-in rules and behaviours. Many
are useful, but we have many sacred cows that we defend even
though, regrettably, we can no longer remember their justifi-
cation. Take safety factors, office floor loading and deflection
limits, to name but three. Nowadays, the professional struc-
tural world is big business, and it has a huge inertia. Yet the
delicate challenge we face has never been more human as the
world develops, and we find ourselves needing to do more,
for more people, with fewer resources. So it is a challenge to
describe the core knowledge a structural engineer might need
today and in the future. There may not be a single answer, but
each engineer, be they diligent analyst, careful experimenter,
inquisitive thinker or free spirit, needs to find his or her own
understanding, with the ultimate goal not of competence but
of mastery. Only through mastery will we be able to move the
world forward. This is a task that requires great and continuing
study and effort.
Unfortunately, I certainly cannot say that if you learn this
fact, or this theorem, this code or this stratagem, you will
become a good structural engineer. But I can say that without
a basic knowledge of engineering science and its application
you may end up designing unsafe structures.
In addition, in order to maximise the profession's chance of
making a meaningful contribution to the world as structural
engineers we will need to concentrate as much on behaviour
and context, the natural environment and societal changes as
on technical wizardry.
This is not the first time I have tried to capture this pre-
cious thing called knowledge. While teaching a few years ago
at London's Imperial College with my partner Ed McCann, we
dreamt up a list of the sort of things an engineer might want
to know, and our list is shown updated in
Table 1.1
. You may
be surprised to see there is little about the sizing of beams, but
quite a lot about behaviour, awareness and attitude. On closer
inspection, you will see that very little of this knowledge is
subject to formal education or formal professional training, but
nevertheless for our sustainability I believe we need it. There
are at least six areas which are outlined in
Table 1.1
.
1.2 Context
To begin at the beginning: What is the need to which today's
structural engineer is the answer?
It is traditional to say we need structural engineers because
'they stop things falling down' or, tellingly rarely but perhaps
more positively, 'they keep things standing up'.
Or how about the structural engineer's role as skilled prob-
lem solver, 'they do for a penny what any fool can do for a
pound'…but that could equally apply to a painter/decorator.
The activity of structural engineering is actually rather
important. It underpins human history, and is one of the things
that separates us from the apes. Everybody does it, whether
they call themselves an engineer or not. Of course some peo-
ple are better at engineering than others, and some of us even
do it professionally. Structural engineering is one of the old-
est professions…in every town, in every country, in every era
the ubiquitous structural engineer is there, diligently sizing the
beams and testing out the foundations in response to natural
