This was my first year attending the annual IASS symposium. It was held at ETH Zurich, a school with a long history of "redefining the art of structural design", which was also the theme of this year's conference. Swiss engineers have a great legacy of this tradition: Heinz Isler, Robert Maillart, Othmar Amman, Maurice Koechlin, and more. Here are some documented memories from a disposable camera.
Horses on the way to ETH Hönggerberg campus
My symposium experience began with a workshop about Form Finding with the Force Density Method taught by Professor Kai-Uwe Bletzinger of TUM. It was a lot to take in, but throughout the week I continued to have conversations with a previous professor of mine, Ed Saliklis, and it started to make more sense in my head.
Robotic Fabrication Lab at ETH
The rest of the week was filled with incredible keynote lectures, paper presentations, and interactive exhibits. I enjoyed every keynote speaker, particularly Professor John Ochsendorf's kickoff speech. He expanded the three E's of structural design (elegance, efficiency, economy) to seven (+ environment, ethics, education, entrepreneurship). I was inspired by all of the masonry vaults and arches shown throughout the conference. I hope to incorporate these structures into my career and further education in life.
One of the exhibitions showed different pavilions. Myself as the scale factor
There was a special curation exhibit of Heinz Isler models on display. I was told that out of 450 models in the archive, only 40 were shown in this exhibition.
Testing models, form finding models, historic photos, and documents on display
The symposium ended with an incredible Heinz Isler historical tour throughout Switzerland.
F. Kilcher AG: Recherswil, production hall
Heinz Isler Office and surrounding buildings "Waldwiese"
Tennis Center, Burgdorf
Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit
Wyss GartenHaus Zuchwil
Autobahn-Center, BP petrol station
I am incredibly grateful for this experience. I met some extraordinary people, learned so many new things, and have many stories to tell as I recount my memories of this trip. I hope to continue my studies in these topics and hopefully in the future I can contribute to the conference by way of paper, pavilion, or presence alone!
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