Some of the most acclaimed bridges in the United States are products of Swiss design, including Boston's own Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, which was designed by Swiss-born Christian Menn. The photo above shows the Chandoline Bridge over the Rhone River, Switzerland, another of Menn's designs. Friday, Sept. 17, the MIT Museum begins a celebration of the work of a group of Swiss engineers who are widely recognized as the most innovative structural designers of the 20th century. "The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy" runs through the end of the year. "Swiss Legacy" focuses on the work of four Swiss designers, two of their teachers and the educational philosophy of the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. These designers revolutionized the engineering field, creating new forms that elegantly integrated technology and aesthetics, and thus set in motion the modern relationship between form and function. The exhibition spotlights some of the designers' most widely recognized and acclaimed projects. A talk will be given by the exhibition's curator, David P. Billington, the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering at Princeton University, at 6 p.m. on Sept. 17 in Room 10-250. The talk and reception that follows it are open to the public. President Charles M. Vest will introduce Billington; the consul general of Switzerland, Christoph von Arb, will host the reception in the Bush Room.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 15, 2004 (download PDF).
