Ove Arup | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1895-04-16)16 April 1895 Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
| Died | 5 February 1988(1988-02-05) (aged 92) London, England |
| Education | Sorø Academy University of Copenhagen Polyteknisk Læreanstalt |
| Spouse | Ruth Sørensen |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Structural engineer |
| Institutions | Institution of Structural Engineers |
| Practice name | Arup |
| Projects | Sydney Opera House Centre Pompidou Kingsgate Bridge Highpoint I Labworth Café |
| Awards | IStructE Gold Medal RIBA Gold Medal |
Sir Ove Nyquist Arup (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was a British engineer with Danish heritage[1] who foundedArup Group Limited, amultinational corporation offering engineering, design,planning,project management, andconsulting services for building systems.[2] Ove Arup is considered to be among the foremost architecturalstructural engineers of his time.
Arup was born inNewcastle, England, in 1895,[3] to the Danish veterinary surgeon Jens Simon Johannes Arup and his Norwegian wife, Mathilde Bolette Nyquist.
Arup attended theSorø Academy in Denmark, a boarding school influenced byThomas Arnold ofRugby School in the United Kingdom.
In 1913, he began studying philosophy at theUniversity of Copenhagen and in 1918 enrolled in an engineering degree at theTechnical University of Denmark, Copenhagen,[4] specializing in reinforced concrete. He completed his studies in 1922. At this time, Ove Arup was influenced byLe Corbusier and his publicationVers une architecture, published that year, as well as byWalter Gropius, the founder of theBauhaus movement.[citation needed]
Arup married Ruth Sørensen, known as Li, on 13 August 1925.[5]
In 1922, Ove Arup began working with the Danish firmChristiani & Nielsen in Hamburg, and in December 1923, he moved to their London office as chief engineer.[6]
He designed theLabworth Café—a café with two integrated shelters located on the promenade of the Essex seaside resort ofCanvey Island. The café remains the only building solely designed by Arup.[7]
Arup then worked as a structural consultant for theTecton partnership, notably on thePenguin Pool at London'sRegent's Park Zoo,[8] as well as on projects atWhipsnade Zoo,Dudley Zoo, a villa in Heath Drive, Romford, Essex, andHighpoint I in Highgate—a building he later criticized. The close working relationship that Arup developed with Tecton's senior partnerBerthold Lubetkin proved highly significant in advancing both men's careers.[6]
He subsequently joined the London construction companyJ. L. Kier & Co. as director and chief designer from 1934 to 1938. During the 1930s, Arup also collaborated with notable architects such asErnő Goldfinger,Wells Coates,Maxwell Fry,Yorke, Rosenberg & Mardall, andMarcel Breuer.[6]
In 1935, he became a member of the executive committee of theMARS Group. In 1938, he and his cousin Arne foundedArup & Arup Limited, a firm of engineers andcontractors.[6]
Before World War II, Ove Arup was a member of theAir Raid Precautions (ARP) organising committee, where he advised Finsbury Council on the provision of bomb shelters. During the war, he published several papers on shelter policy and designs, advocating for reinforced concrete mass shelters as opposed to the government’s policy of dispersing the population in small domestic shelters. However, most of his recommendations were not adopted due to political reasons, though some affluent Londoners were able to build concrete shelters based on his designs.
Arup played a significant role in the design of theMulberry temporary harbours used during theD-Day landings.[6] The Mulberry Harbour was a type of temporaryharbour developed to offload cargo on the beaches during theAllied invasion of Normandy. The sections for two prefabricated or artificial military harbours were transported with the invading army fromBritain across theEnglish Channel and assembled off the coast ofNormandy as part of theD-Day invasion of France in 1944.
In 1946, after dissolving Arup & Arup Ltd, Ove Arup created a team of civil and structural engineering consultants. In the same year, he formed his first partnership withRonald Jenkins,Geoffrey Wood, and Andrew Young, calledArup and Partners.
In 1963, a further company,Arup Associates,[9] was formed as a new partnership. This body included architects and engineers working on an equal basis as building designers, including the engineer Ove Arup, the architects Francis Pym andPhilip Dowson, and the former partners of Arup and Partners. It was a multidisciplinary company providing engineering, architectural, and other services for the built environment. Arup himself noted that ultimately, all of the Arup entities resulted in a firm known simply asArup.[6]
Highpoint I, built in 1935, was an important experiment in high-rise residential design and one of Arup's most significant collaborations withBerthold Lubetkin. However, Arup later criticized the project, noting that it had significant flaws.[2]
Ove Arup personally supervised the design and construction of Durham'sKingsgate Bridge in 1963. As the firm's first bridge project, Arup held a particular attachment to it, and after his death, his ashes were scattered from the bridge. A bust of Arup, placed at one end of the bridge, was stolen in the summer of 2006 but has since been replaced.[3] Kingsgate Bridge was the last structure designed by Arup.[10]
The mid-centuryVan Ginkel Footbridge is located in Bowring Park,St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is a cantilever bridge, meaning it is anchored to the ground on one end, while the other end extends outward, unsupported. The bridge was granted heritage designation in 2020.[11] The architect of the bridge wasBlanche Lemco van Ginkel, who received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Gold Medal for lifetime achievement.[11]
Arup served as the design engineer for theSydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, from the project's inception in 1957 until its completion in 1973.[4] This iconic building, which made groundbreaking use ofprecast concrete, structuralglue, andcomputer analysis,[12] significantly bolstered Arup's reputation, as well as that of his firm, despite the extremely challenging working relationship with the architect,Jørn Utzon.
