peter rice

THE COLLABORATOR'S VIEW
Making Architecture, since the very
beginning of the profession, has been
an inter-disciplinary adventure - one
with no boundaries between concept
and action, dream and pragmatism,
between design and engineering.
And since the beginning, architecture
has been achieved not only with the
involvement of architects, but with the
contributions of builders,
philosophers, historians and, of
course, engineers.
The time has come for us now to
recognise the inter-active spirit which
is the very origin of our discipline.
Peter Rice is one of those engineers
who has greatly contributed to
architecture, re-affirming the deep
creative interconnection between
humanism and science, between art
and technology.
Architecture is art: a 'contaminated'
one. Life, society, tradition,
modernity, technology and science
are the 'contaminants' that go
together to make this art alive. This is
the reason why architecture provokes
the interest and passion of so many
people, and this is why it is closer to
the public than any other discipline.
Peter Rice has made a great
contribution to anchor the art of
architecture to real life, real science
and real modernity.
Renzo Piano, Architect,
Genoa, Italy
I cannot remember when I first met
Peter. Frei Otto gave me his name
back in the late '60s when we tried to
persuade Chelsea Football Club that
what they really needed was not just
a new East Stand but a lightweight
retractable tent enclosing the whole
ground. The result was an unmitigated
disaster but it led some two years
later to Peter and Ted Happold, the
leader of Arups lightweight research
group, asking Renzo and I to enter
the Beaubourg competition. And so it
began. Since then there has hardly
been a week when I haven't worked
or talked with Peter.
Peter is not like any other engineer.
He does not wait for the architect to
develop his ideas and then offer
options of how to prop them up. He is
a strategist who is at his best working
on understanding the nature of the
client's wishes. He is there at the first
meeting listening, thinking and
questioning. His drawn and spoken
responses are elegant and concise.
I have witnessed Peter time and time
again convincing the most sceptical
client that a more innovative solution
would carry less risk than a mundane
one because to innovate one must
start from basic principles with
nothing taken for granted.
Peter is a true virtuoso. Optimistic and
open to new challenges, always
pushing the boundaries a little further
yet totally conscious of his
professional responsibilities. Steel,
stone, wood, plastic, concrete or
carbon fibre are all his materials.
Like his great predecessors whether
Brunel or Brunelleschi, Peter is able to
step outside the confines of his
professional training, transferring
technical problems into poetical
solutions. His design combines order
with delight, science with art. He is so
much a part of the design team that it
is invidious to highlight specific areas
where his involvement changed the
direction of our thinking but I will
isolate a few; Beaubourg's original
double column and steel structure was
developed into a single column with
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