Architecture and Engineering - education of Form and Force

Paper in proceedings, 2019

Inspired by the work and attitudes of architects and engineers like Jorg Schlaich, Renzo Piano, Piero Luigi Nervi, Sverre Fehn, Ted Happold, and environments like ILEK in Stuttgart and ETH in Zurich, a vision of a new kind of architects and engineers arose at Chalmers University of Technology in the early 2000. With support from the university and the branch, a double degree Architecture and Engineering programme was developed. Since the programme started in 2006 it has been a very popular programme, and among all Swedish MSc in Engineering and Master of Architecture programmes it has almost every year been the most difficult programme to get admitted to. The concept of the programme is a 180 ects (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) bachelor's degree, where the fundamentals from the engineering science: mathematics, mechanics, physics and materials, is combined with history of architecture and engineering, artistic explorative courses, and the fundamentals of the architectural design process. After three years the students can choose to continue for a Master of Science in Engineering with different possible directions, from mathematics and data science to industrial ecology, acoustics, management, structural engineering, and building technology, or to continue for a Master of Architecture. For the latter they need 150 etcs minimum in pure architectural design projects. In this paper the basic concepts of the programme, the culture developed around it and the strengths we can experience in the examined students will be discussed and reflected. Today students from the programme can be found at architecture and engineering companies all over the world and are appreciated for their ability to address complex architectural and engineering design issues with attitudes, insights and skills from the both professions.