Bill Addis
Biography
Bill Addis studied both engineering and philosophy at the University of Cambridge in England before becoming a design engineer in the aerospace industry. He later joined the academic world, lecturing on materials science and structural analysis in the Department of Construction Management & Engineering at the University of Reading, UK.
His research into the development of structural engineering design led, in 1986, to the award of a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis Theory and Design in Civil and Structural Engineering - a study in the History and Philosophy of Engineering.
The scope of his lecturing and research developed to include nearly all aspects of building engineering design – the nature of engineering design, the epistemology of engineering, progress in engineering design, engineering pedagogy and aesthetics in engineering design.
During more than fifteen years at the University of Reading Bill Addis also gave lectures on building engineering design and its history, to students of architecture and engineering at many universities, especially the Universities of Cambridge and Bath, and University College London.
During the 1990s he curated a number of exhibitions on building engineering including three on The Engineers’ Contribution to Contemporary Architecture at the Building Centre in London, and he helped curate the exhibition L’art de l’ingénieur, tracing the development of building engineering from about 1750 to the present today, held at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1997.
Since 2000 Bill Addis works as a consulting engineer in London, working to help the delivery of environmentally-responsible technologies in major developments.
Bibliography
Works
Addis, Bill, The Crystal Palace and its Place in Structural History, “International Journal of Space Structures”, vol. 21, n. 1, 2006, pp. 3-19.
Addis, Bill, Report on the State of Construction History in Britain, in A. Becchi, M. Corradi, F. Foce, O. Pedemonte (eds.), Construction History. Research Perspectives in Europe, Kim Williams Books, Firenze 2004, pp. 11-21.