‘Everyone involved in construction must finally recognise their responsibility as a community and get involved!’

The IASS Symposium (International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures) is a historic symposium; it was first held in 1959. What makes it special is that it is a very broad community of structural engineers from all over the world. It brings together people from science and practice to share their innovations. The IASS symposiums have always welcomed new ideas. Here, young students meet star engineers from all over the world. The last IASS symposium was held in Melbourne, and during the Covid period there has been no comparable event. Normally we expect around 300 to 400 participants, but this year we have realised that the entire community wants to meet again – we even had to increase the registrations.

I think that the appeal of Zurich for many lies in the fact that there are many innovations here in the field of structural engineering and in connection with fabrication. As far as the programme is concerned, there will be a large exhibition about the Swiss structural engineer Heinz Isler. The exhibition ‘Heinz Isler Models’ is based on Giulia Boller's dissertation. She has analysed his work not from a historical or archival perspective, but rather at the level of constructive design. There will also be workshops on the first weekend and all-day technical tours of concrete and timber innovations on the last day of the symposium.

The organiser of this year's IASS is the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication (DFAB). In the session ‘NCCR DFAB Local Heroes’, we invite researchers from the NCCR DFAB to the stage who have become role models in digital fabrication with their research projects and their engagement. We will show some important highlights of our work. After all, the guests stay with us for several days and we want to give them a look behind the scenes. For example, the truly spectacular roof in the HIB building at ETH Zurich will be presented, and EMPA's NEST will also be the subject of the programme. As part of the programme, guests can really get to know our work.

Well, as I said, the IASS is a special case here because less mature research also gets a place in the programme. We have filtered the submissions into working groups so that we can cover as broad a spectrum of subject areas as possible. In the end, we will give a plattform to over 400 publications over the four days, some shorter, some longer. Because the reality is that at many universities you have to give a presentation in order to receive funding – of course we don't want to stand in the way of that.

Yes, exactly. Under the theme ‘Reimagining and Redefining the Art of Structural Design’, we also refer to the Swiss heritage of greats such as Menn, Isler and Maillard, which David P. Billington talks about in ‘The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy’. All of these architects emphasised cost efficiency, material economy and elegance in their work. I find it remarkable that this was a term that engineers used early on to give meaning to their building.

This is another reason why we have expanded the conference to include environmental and ethical issues. The environmental theme is clear, because our industry obviously has an impact on the climate. On ethics, I want to be provocative: I don't think it's five to 12, but already five past 12 when it comes to all these environmental issues. And that engineers, especially civil engineers, can no longer remain in a passive role, but must become active. Everyone involved in construction must finally recognise their responsibility as a community and get involved!

As keynote speakers, we have invited Anupama Kundoo, Laurent Ney and Mariam Issoufou, personalities who already fulfil this responsibility. Of course, some talks will be more about ethics, others about the environment or elegance. This is understandable, as they all have different backgrounds, which will show us listeners the great diversity of the topic.

That's exactly the point we need to think about, yes. What does it mean to act in different contexts and to be both responsible and economical. I think it's particularly important for the IASS community to think about this.

The IASS was originally founded as the International Association for Shell Structures. At the first conference, Heinz Isler presented his very first ideas for shell structures before he was even famous. Candela also belonged to this community, and today the next generation of young creators comes together with us. People meet here who are not only interested in designing beams, but also in spatial configurations. You could say that the nerds of the scene meet here, who are highly specialised, who want to reflect on their work and incorporate it into a larger whole.

That is the case, yes, sometimes at such events ‘the converted are among themselves’. However, many of the participants also teach, and they pass on their knowledge to the next generation. Teaching the basics of engineering may not be that spectacular, but it is probably one of the most effective ways of embedding important concepts and providing food for thought. Because one thing is clear: we also have a great responsibility when it comes to teaching the basics and everyone should be aware that this can no longer be done in the same way as it was 10, 20 or 50 years ago.

I simply hope that we can create a broad awareness among young people. Be it through the presentations or through the keynote speakers, who are absolutely inspiring. And we use the beautiful Zurich and the exciting campus to bring people together. Let's make sure that we can have all these encounters and exciting exchanges! Then the participants will go home with new ideas and approaches and be able to spread the knowledge further. If we can do that for some of them, then I think we will have been very successful.