Tom Peters on Demountable Construction Details

The SXL has the pleasure to invite you to its next lecture by Prof. Tom Peters: "Function and Form: a history of the multiple criteria for construction details".

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Monday, January 23^rd, 4pm
Halle Bleue, smart living lab, EPFL Fribourg.
Passage du Cardinal 13b,
CH-1700 Fribourg
(5 minutes' walk from the train station)

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Traditional temporary structures were always demountable - they were meant to be moved, and they were usually, but not always made of temporary materials. When iron became a construction material the situation changed. Instead of constructing a structure from basic materials on site, buildings were assembled from prefabricated parts. At the same time, the verb to connect became the noun connection, and a connector became a component of a system. This changed the nature of construction details and introduced many new criteria that connections had to fulfill. From then on most demountable structures were only inadvertently so - the goal was always to design as a good a connection as possible.

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Peters is Lehigh University Emeritus Professor of Architecture and History. His writing ranges from the theory of technological thinking in civil engineering and architectural design, cultural theory in structural engineering, and pedagogical studies on teaching construction and materials, to treatises on construction history, a field he helped develop from the mid 1970s. He is the author of many influential books, reports and articles and is known for his expertise in antiquarian books that deal with civil engineering and construction.

Born in Berkeley, California, Peters was educated in Rochester NY, Mumbai, and Zurich, before training as an architect at the ETH Zurich with a focus in construction and materials. He subsequently worked as an architect in Denmark, England, and Switzerland before turning to teaching construction and research. He holds a masters degree and a doctorate in Architecture from the ETH Zurich and a Habilitation in the history of technology from the TH Darmstadt. From 1982-2007 he taught architectural technology and history at the University of California at Berkeley, Cornell University and Lehigh University, and served as Director of the Building and Technology Institute there from 1989-2007, and as Chair Professor and Chairman of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong 1998-2000. He lectures in Europe, China, and North and South America and has worked with schools or professional groups worldwide, serving as advisor to several undergraduate and graduate architecture programs.