Ove Arup

Sir Ove Nyquist Arup,

Arup was born in Newcastle, England, in 1895,^[2] to the Danish veterinary surgeon Jens Simon Johannes Arup and his Norwegian wife, Mathilde Bolette Nyquist.

Arup attended the Sorø Academy in Denmark, a boarding school with many influences from Thomas Arnold of the Rugby School in the United Kingdom.

In 1913, he began studying philosophy at University of Copenhagen and in 1918 enrolled for an engineering degree at the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen,^[3] specialising in reinforced concrete. He completed his studies in 1922. At this time Ove Arup was influenced by Le Corbusier and his publication Vers une architecture, published that year; and also by Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus movement.^{[citation needed]}

Arup married Ruth Sørensen, known as Li, on 13 August 1925.^[4]

Working life

Before WWII

In 1922, Ove Arup began work with a Danish firm in Hamburg called Christiani & Nielsen, and in December 1923 he moved to their London office as chief engineer.^[5]

He designed the Labworth Café—a café with two integrated shelters set on the promenade of the neighbouring Essex seaside resort of Canvey Island. The café exists as the only building solely designed by Arup.^[6]

He then worked as a structural consultant to the

He moved next to a London construction company, J. L. Kier & Co. in London, as director and chief designer from 1934 to 1938, and during the 1930s he also worked with Ernő Goldfinger, Wells Coates, Maxwell Fry, Yorke, Rosenberg & Mardall and Marcel Breuer.^[5]

He became a member of the executive committee of the

Before the war, Ove Arup was on the Air Raid Precautions organising committee and he advised Finsbury Council on the provision of bomb shelters. During the war he published a number of papers on shelter policy and designs, mainly advocating reinforced concrete mass shelters, rather than the government policy of dispersing the population in small domestic shelters. Largely for political reasons most of his recommendations were never adopted, although some wealthy Londoners were able to build concrete shelters according to his design.

Arup played a significant part in the design of the

In 1946, after dissolving Arup & Arup Ltd, he created a team of Civil and Structural Engineering consultants. In the same year, he formed his first partnership with Ronald Jenkins, Geoffrey Wood and Andrew Young called Arup and Partners.

A further company, Arup Associates,

Ove Arup personally supervised the design and construction of Durham's Kingsgate Bridge in 1963. The firm's first bridge, Arup was particularly attached to the project and had his ashes scattered from it following his death. A bust of Arup that was placed at one end of the Bridge was stolen in the summer of 2006 but has since been replaced.^[2] Kingsgate Bridge was the last structure designed by Arup.^[10]

Van Ginkel Footbridge

The mid-century Van Ginkel Footbridge is in Bowring Park, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is a cantilever bridge, meaning it is anchored to the ground on only one end while the other side hovers. The bridge received heritage designation in 2020.^[11] The architect of the bridge was Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, who received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's gold medal for lifetime achievement.^[11]

Sydney Opera House

Arup was the design engineer for the

• 1953
  Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)^[13]
• 1965 Knight First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog
• 1966 Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects
• 1971 Knight Bachelor (United Kingdom)^[14]
• 1973 Gold Medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers
• 1975 Knight Commander First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog
• 1976 Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University^[15]
• 1987
  Royal Academician

Notes

References

• Arup, Ove Nyquist (1989). Liengaard, Anja (ed.). Doodles and doggerel. London:
  Ove Arup Partnership
  .
• Brawne, Michael. (1983). Arup Associates: The biography of an architectural practice. London: Lund Humphries.
  ISBN 0-85331-451-9
  (paperback)
• Bettley, James. (2008). Essex Explored: Essex Architecture. Archived 24 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine Essex County Council. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
• Campbell, Peter; Allan, John; Ahrends, Peter;
  ISBN 0-7277-2066-X
  .
• English Heritage. (2007). National Monuments Records: Images of England. Detailed Record, Details for IoE Number: 461758. Retrieved: 2008-02-18.
• Glynn, Simon. (1998–2006). Penguin Pool London Zoo by Berthold Lubetkin. Galinsky. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
• Jones, Peter (2006). Ove Arup : Masterbuilder of the Twentieth Century. New Haven, CT and London:
  ISBN 978-0-300-11296-2
  .
• Ove Arup & Partners 1946–1986. London: Academy Editions. 1986.
  ISBN 0-85670-898-4
  .

• Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Sir Ove Arup, ARUP.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ove Arup.

• Twentieth Century Society: article on Dudley Zoo
• Short film on the reinforced concrete buildings that Ove Arup helped design for Dudley Zoo in the 1930s on
  YouTube