Ture Wester receives the Torroja Medal

Recently deceased Associate Professor and researcher at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture for more than 40 years, Ture Wester, has been awarded the prestigious award The Torroja Medal. Ture Wester is the first Danish Engineer to receive this medal.

The Torroja Medal was established as an award in 1971 by the Executive Council of IASS (International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures) and it is given for exceptional contributions to knowledge in the field of Engineering and Architecture. The medal represents the highest individual recognition given by the Association to members who embody the ideals and accomplishments of the founder of the IASS, Eduardo Torroja.

In the last 32 years only 13 individuals have been awarded the medal, including the Swiss concrete engineer Heinz Isler, German lightweight structures engineer Jorg Schlaich and Japanese researcher and engineer Mamoru Kawaguchi.

Ture Wester devoted his life to  the field of Structural Morphology. His research moved forward the boundaries of knowledge of nature inspired design, bionic structures, tensegrities and three dimensional plate structures.

In his early career (1963- 1972) Ture Wester worked as a consulting engineer but his real contribution to Structural Engineering is in the research field. He contributed to a great number of research projects in the field of three dimensional structures and he was recognized and respected by his peers as a world-class researcher. The list of publications either by him or wich he contributed to is long and thorough: Ture is author of 3 books, 7 scientific reports, 9 chapters in books, 10 compendia, 55 technical papers. As a result of his inspiring lectures, he was invited to speak at universities and schools of architecture all over the world.
 
At the end of this month Ture’s wife and daughter will travel to Valencia, Spain to receive the medal from the Executive Council of IASS. The award ceremony will take place on 29 ^th September 2009.