The Art of Structural Design:at Smith College Museum of Art

Monday, 28 August 2006 11:27

Northampton, MA – The Smith College Museum of Art is pleased to announce The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy, an exhibition of models, notebooks, photographs, and interactive media highlighting the aesthetics and accomplishments of a group of 20^th -century Swiss engineers.  The exhibition will be on view through Sunday, December 10.

The Art of Structural Design features the work of Robert Maillart, Othmar Ammann, Heinz Isler, and Christian Menn, who attended the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich where they were taught by Wilhelm Ritter and Pierre Lardy.  There they were inspired to create structures that were both technically and aesthetically well designed.  Organized by the Princeton University Art Museum and the Princeton University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, led by Professor David P. Billington, this is the first exhibition to showcase the work of these four designers and their revolutionary teachers.

Professor Billington creates curricula in engineering that involve a multidisciplinary approach that includes history and art.  The eight scale models in the exhibition were built and designed by Princeton students and staff.  They illustrate the philosophy shared by Professor Billington and the Swiss engineers of the integration of an artistic design with structural science.  The models are accompanied by photographs of the built structures in their environment, original notebooks containing designs, and an interactive CD-ROM presentation that elucidates the building process of the scale models.

According to Professor Billington, “Engineers and especially academics often argue that aesthetics are not part of their profession.  If you want beauty, hire an architect or, more radically, a sculptor.  One major objective of education in engineering should be to encourage students to see, accept, and begin to use that elemental sense of aesthetics.”  The Art of Structural Design is a testament to the contributions of Professor Billington to the engineering curriculum in his 45 years at Princeton University. 

This unique exhibition showcases the philosophies of engineers who are applauded by artists and architects alike.  The Art of Structural Design communicates the Swiss legacy of an emphasis on aesthetics by expressing its importance in engineering education.  It is being shown at the Smith College Museum of Art to support engineering, architecture, and art courses at Smith and the Five Colleges.

Widely recognized as one of the leading college museums in the country, SCMA is particularly noted for its strong holdings of European and American art of the 19th and 20th centuries and for the depth and quality of its collections of prints, drawings, and photographs.  For detailed information visit: www.smith.edu/artmuseum