Tristram carfrae biography template
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Magician of mass
Tristram Carfrae, newly-elected master of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry and deputy chair of Arup, is talking about one of his favourite projects. It’s a unique one: helping complete Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona. Among much else, this means devising ingenious ways to make what seemed at one time near-impossible: the 170m Jesus Tower at the centre of Gaudi’s composition – tallest of what will eventually be 18 spires – light enough to build safely and rapidly. He’s working as the only external consultant with a highly-motivated Spanish design and construction team, and the upshot is that Gaudi’s ‘expiatory temple’, one of the greatest buildings in the world, will finally be structurally finished by the centenary of his death in 2026.
‘The tower and the foundations didn’t match up,’ says Carfrae, pointing out that Gaudi himself was not the first architect on the pro
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20 April 2011 – Tristram Carfrae, leader global building design for the international engineering and design company, Arup, recently returned to London after 20 years in Australia.
He leaves behind an impressive body of work both in this country and elsewhere, much of it representing breakthroughs in technology and design and always with a firm eye on sustainability.
In Carfrae’s view the definition of a “good” building is one that “consumes less materials, energy, time and money while at the same time providing greater amenity and being beautiful.”
Among his best known work has been the design of The vatten Cube – Beijing’s National Aquatics Centre for the 2008 Olympics, the Helix Bridge, Singapore, the AAMI Stadium in Melbourne, 1 Shelley Street in Sydney and Kurilpa Bridge in Brisbane. His collaborations include with many of the world’s leading architects, including Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Philip Cox.