The Engineering Season at the V&A (18 May – 6 November 2016) celebrated the 'unsung heroes' of design that create and shape the built world. The programme included a major retrospective of the engineering legend Ove Arup, a display highlighting the global impact of contemporary British engineers, a garden pavilion woven by a robot, and a packed events programme exploring some of the most advanced engineering taking place in the world today.
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Exhibition: Engineering the World
Discovering the design philosophy of Ove Arup (1895-1988), the most significant engineer of the 20th century. With previously unseen archival materials and immersive digital displays, this major retrospective showcased some of the world’s most iconic buildings, including the Sydney Opera House and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Installation: Elytra Filament Pavilion
The V&A Garden was transformed with a newly-commissioned installation from pioneering architects and engineers at University of Stuttgart. Inspired by nature and fabricated by robots, the Elytra Filament Pavilion explored the impact of emerging robotic technologies on architectural design, engineering and making.
Display: Mind Over Matter
Presented by the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership, Mind over Matter showcased a series of global cutting-edge engineering projects by British firms, reflecting London's status as an engineering capital and Britain as a world leader in creativity and design.
The Power of Simple Engineering
Find out how an innovative bridge-building project in Rwanda has been connecting isolated communities and creating safer environments.
Engineers in focus
As part of the Engineering Season at the V&A, we interviewed leading engineers and architects to find out about their inspiration, design principles and how some of the most iconic buildings in the world were conceived.
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