Cecil Balmond

Cecil Balmond is a structural engineer, teacher, and author. He is the deputy chairman of Ove Arup and Partners and one of the firm's Fellows, and in that capacity has collaborated with many of the world's leading architects over the past three decades on some of the planet's most celebrated and daring projects. His expertise and participation have lead to the completion of Alvaro Siza's design for the Portuguese National Pavilion for Expo '98 in Lisbon and Anish Kapoor's installation, "Marysas", at the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern in 2002. He continues to have a particularly close working relationship with Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture for more than twenty years. The Japanese architect Toyo Ito cites Balmond's contribution to the Serpentine Pavilion, built in London in 2002, as integral to its execution and having a profound effect on his practice. Balmond completed the first of his own projects in November 2006, a footbridge in Coimbra, Portugal, claiming credit as the architect instead of the engineer.

Cecil Balmond was born in Sri Lanka in 1943, and studied engineering at Imperial College, London, where he went to work for Arup and lives today.

Balmond directs the Advanced Geometry Unit, a research and experimental arm of Arup. Balmond is also executive director of the Non-Linear Systems Organization, a material and structural research initiative at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where he is the Cret professor of practice in the Master of Architecture graduate program. He is also the author of three books: "Number 9: The Search for the Sigma Code" (1998), "Informal" (2007), "Element" (2008), all of which review his projects and collaborations, and discuss his design theories and philosophy.

References

* The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_owen
* The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/arts/design/26ouro.html?scp=2&sq=cecil+balmond&st=nyt
* Metropolis Magazine: http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2455
* University of Pennsylvania School of Design: http://www.design.upenn.edu/new/arch/facultybio.php?fid=267
* Ove Arup and Partners: http://www.arup.com/arup/people.cfm?pageid=4373