What is it that attracts engineers and architects to Jörg Schlaich's lectures all over the world (Fig. 1)? Is it his open, interdisciplinary way of thinking and the vividness with which he explains complex structures? Or is it the fascination of his light, minimalistic creations? It certainly is the same curiosity and fascination that attracted students, research assistants and visitors to his institute at the University of Stuttgart as David Billington and Annette Bögle, the authors of this paper, were allowed to experience at first hand.Fellow engineer and lecturer David Billington met Jörg Schlaich as long ago as 1978, at a conference on shell structures, and what followed was a most stimulating discussion on aesthetics in engineering -quite exceptional at that time -which led to a close collegial friendship. Later, in 1986, Billington was invited to give a series of lectures at Stuttgart. Schlaich was very busy but promised to come to the first of the four; in the end he stayed for all of them! Their "conversation" continued with mutual visits -in 1992 Schlaich's public lecture in Princeton was a high point of such events and later that year he gave Billington and his wife an elegant tour of his footbridge structures in Stuttgart. Since their first meeting more than 30 years ago, and not least due to their impact on the engineering community, much has changed in the engineering profession. Today, it is accepted that there is an engineering aesthetic exemplified by 20th century artists such as Robert Maillart, Othman Amman, Felix Candela, Christian Menn, Heinz Isler and, in particular, Jörg Schlaich, who has just celebrated his 75th birthday.On the other hand, for a student, Schlaich's lectures were among the few in which facts, formulae and laws took real shape, as Annette Bögle experienced herself as a student and research assistant in Stuttgart. The fascination of a future career filled the lecture theatres, the wide variety of structures demonstrated a playful attitude to physical laws and the limits of what could be achieved, and Schlaich's joy in designing both the overall picture and the details was tangible and communicated itself to all present. Suddenly, everything was making sense -facts, formulae and laws -and the theories no longer existed for their own sake, but were given meaning by the way they fitted into the overall picture. Schlaich demonstrated why it was worth studying the hard facts of structural engineering. He showed how, with knowledge, ability and imagination, it was possible to design and realize structures that illustrate the finer culture of structural engineering.The basis for Schlaich's approach seems to lie deep in his personality and appears almost as a natural by-product of his all-round, self-imposed education. While graduating from high school he also passed his final journeyman's examination as a carpenter, and took a preliminary degree in architecture and civil engineering in Stuttgart before deciding to study engineering in Berlin. At this point, we can sense the alternat...

Eine neue Ausrichtung der akademischen Curricula ist angesichts der heutigen technologischen, ökologischen und gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen an das Bauingenieurwesen unerlässlich. Der hier beschriebene Ansatz der werkstoffübergrei-fenden Lehre des Entwerfens und Konstruierens, wie er an der TU Berlin umgesetzt wird, bietet eine Möglichkeit Bauingenieurnachwuchs auszubilden, der sich im konstruktiven Bereich den Herausforderungen der Zeit stellen kann. Teaching Conceptual and Structural Design in a holistic and materialcomprehensive wayDue to todays technological, ecological and social challenges a new approach of the academic curricula essential is concerning structural and civil engineering. This paper describes the concept of materialcomprehensive conceptual and structural design as it is taught at the TU Berlin. This is one possibility to educate the next generation of structural engineers, to make them ready for facing the challenges to come.

Efficient double curved structures like reinforced concrete shells, membrane- and cable-net-structures are less well represented in contemporary structural engineering. To apply these structures sensibly in practice, dominated by short planning phases, rapid construction and tremendous financial pressure, an in-depth knowledge of these complex structures is needed. Dealing with large open areas and three-dimensional shapes requires an extensive insight already during the design-process with creative freedom being restricted by technical and economical as well as functional and aesthetical aspects, due to the relationship between shape, function and structure.

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