Peter Rice (Peter Ronan Rice, 16 June 1935 – 25 October 1992) was an Irish

structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research List of structural elements, structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants. Their work takes account mainly of ...

. Born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, he grew up in 52 Castle Road,

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

County Louth County Louth ( ; ) is a coastal Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Louth is bordered by the counties of County Meath, Meath to the ...

, and spent his childhood between the town of Dundalk, and the villages of

Gyles' Quay Gyles' Quay is an isolated stretch of beach located 1 km south of the R173 road, R173/R175 road, R175 road on the Cooley Peninsula in the north of County Louth in Ireland. It was named after Ross Gyles who built a wood structure there in ...

and

Inniskeen Inniskeen, officially Inishkeen (), is a small village, townland and parish in County Monaghan, Ireland, close to the County Louth and County Armagh borders. The village is located about from Dundalk, from Carrickmacross, and from Crossmagl ...

. He was educated at

Queen's University of Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

where he received his primary degree and spent a year at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. Rice acted as Structural Engineer on three of the most important architectural works of the 20th century: the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

(with

Ove Arup Sir Ove Nyquist Arup (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation offering engineering, design, planning, project management, and consultant, consulting services for bu ...

Pompidou Centre The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

and the

Lloyd's Building The Lloyd's building (sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London. It is located on the former site of East India House in Lime Street, London, Lime Street, in London's main financial d ...

and was renowned for his innate ability to act as both engineer and designer. He originally studied

Aeronautical Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

but switched to

Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

. Taken on by

Ove Arup & Partners Arup Group Limited, trading as Arup, is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. ...

, his first job was the roof of the Sydney Opera House. He married Sylvia Watson in 1960 and they had one son (who became an engineer) and three daughters.

Jonathan Glancey Jonathan Glancey, is an architectural critic and writer who was the architecture and design editor at ''The Guardian'', a position he held from 1997 to February 2012. He previously held the same post at ''The Independent''. He also has been in ...

in his obituary said "Rice was, perhaps, the

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

of structural engineering. His poetic invention, his ability to turn accepted ideas on their head and his rigorous mathematical and philosophical logic made him one of the most sought-after engineers of our times".

Philosophy

He believed the best buildings result from the symbiotic relationship between the architect and the engineer where the engineer is the objective inventor and the architect the creative input. He found the Anglo-Saxon understanding of the work of an engineer restrictive and preferred the French and Italian interpretation of the role.

Work

Among the notable buildings on whose design he worked are the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, the

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...

, the

Louvre Pyramid The Louvre Pyramid () is a large glass-and-metal entrance way and skylight designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. The pyramid is in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smaller pyr ...

, the Mound Stand at

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

Kansai International Airport Kansai International Airport (), commonly known as Kankū (; ), is the primary international airport in the Keihanshin, Greater Osaka Area of Japan and the closest international airport to the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is located on ...

and

Stansted Airport Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's third-busiest airport, Stan ...

. Towards the end of his life he was largely responsible for the new façade of

Lille Cathedral Lille Cathedral, the Basilica of Notre Dame de la Treille (), is a Roman Catholic church and basilica in Lille, France, and the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Lille. An example of Gothic Revival architecture, the cathedral is considered a nat ...

Career

Sydney Opera House

In 1956, he joined Ove Arup & Partners. In 1957, he took leave to pursue post-graduate studies at

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

, rejoining Arup in 1958. After three years working on

Jørn Utzon Jørn Oberg Utzon (; 9 April 191829 November 2008) was a Danish architect. In 1957, he won an international design competition for his design of the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Utzon's revised design, which he completed in 1961, was the b ...

shells for the roof of the

in London, where he is credited with having done the geometry for the challenging design, he moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

to be an assistant engineer to Ian MacKenzie. After one month MacKenzie fell ill and was hospitalised, leaving Rice in total charge at the age of 28. On-site his geometrical knowledge enabled him to write a

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and other intangibl ...

to locate the segments of the shells correctly. In total he spent seven years working on the project. Afterwards, he spent 18 months in the United States, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and as a visiting scholar at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Pompidou Centre (Beaubourg)

In 1971, he was part of the winning team competing in the French government's competition for the centre of Paris at

Beaubourg The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, partnering with

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British-Italian architect noted for his modernist and constructivist designs in high-tech architecture. He was the founder at Rogers Stirk Harbour + ...

and

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable works include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), Kansai International Airport in Osaka (1994), the Whitney ...

. Edmund Happold was the senior Arup engineer for the competition. Rice became the engineer for the built project which was greatly modified from the initial design. Art and technology were intertwined in the design enabling him to experiment with materials. He brought the concepts of humanity, tactility and scale to the project. His team developed the which enabled the counterbalancing of the weight of the building with light tubing, lightening the external appearance. He specified that these were to be made in cast steel. After the

, Rice set up his own company in 1977—" RFR"—along with Martin Francis and Ian Ritchie although he continued with Arup as a partner. In 1978 he was involved with Rogers again, this time on

, completed in 1984. During this time his other projects encompassed the Fleetguard Factory at

Quimper Quimper (, ; ; or ) is a Communes of France, commune and Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Finistère Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the ...

in France, and

in London.

1980s and 1990s

Although Rice was based in London, where he worked with Michael Hopkins on the tented Mound Stand at Lord's, much of his work was in Paris, including the great glass walls of the Cité des Sciences at La Villette and the tent-like canopy that softens the monumentality of the Grand Arche at

La Défense La Défense () is a major business district in France's Paris metropolitan area, west of the city limits. It is located in Île-de-France region's Departments of France, department of Hauts-de-Seine in the Communes of France, communes of Courbe ...

. In 1985 I. M. Pei asked his help with projects at the Louvre in Paris, namely the shell structures for the glass roofs that Pei planned to cover inner courtyards. By then he was in great demand continuing to work with architects such as Richard Rogers, I. M. Pei,

Norman Foster Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. Hi ...

, Ian Ritchie, Kenzo Tange,

Paul Andreu Paul Andreu (10 July 1938 – 11 October 2018) was a French architect, known for his designs of multiple airports such as Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and multiple prestigious projects in China, including the National Centre for the Per ...

, and Renzo Piano. The projects he worked on ranged from Toronto's unbuilt Opera House by

Moshe Safdie Moshe Safdie (; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author. He is well known for incorporating principles of socially responsible design throughout his six-decade career. His projects include cultural, ed ...

to Kansai's International Airport, one of many projects with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. In addition to his huge output, he was known for his sympathetic attitude to design, his strategic approach, a cool head and managing to realise ambitious artistic designs in concrete reality. One of his marks as an engineer was the length of time he allowed to complete a project. During his relatively short career, Rice's contribution to the

built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ac ...

can be seen in the work of the

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment which has produced consisten ...

winners, including

I. M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

Kenzō Tange was a Japanese architect. Born in Sakai and raised in China, Tange was inspired from an early age by the work of Le Corbusier and designed his first buildings under Imperial Japan. He first achieved recognition for his projects to reconstruct t ...

Frei Otto Frei Paul Otto (; 31 May 1925 – 9 March 2015) was a German architect and structural engineer noted for his use of lightweight structures, in particular tensile and membrane structures, including the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich for t ...

, and

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...

Innovative techniques

* During the Sydney Opera House project, was among the first to use advanced computer modelling. * One of the key advances in building the Sydney Opera House was the use of post-tensioned concrete to reinforce the components of the shells. * In his design for the

Seville Expo '92 The Universal Exhibition of Seville 1992 – Expo '92 (officially: ) was a universal exhibition held from Monday 20 April to Monday 12 October 1992, at the , in Seville, Spain. The theme for the expo was "The Age of Discoveries", celebrating the ...

, Rice used post-tensioned stone to construct the arcade.

Awards

Peter Rice was made an honorary Fellow of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

(HonFRIBA) in 1988. In 1992, he was the second engineer to be awarded the

Royal Gold Medal The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...

for Architecture by the

(the first was

), and the second Irishman after

Michael Scott Michael Scott, Michael Scot, or Mike Scott may refer to: Academics * Michael Scot (1175 – c. 1232), mathematician and astrologer * Michael L. Scott (born 1959), American academic and computer scientist * Mike Scott, British linguist and designer ...

. The award is conferred by the Sovereign annually for work that has "promoted, either directly or indirectly, the advancement of architecture."

Death

He was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1991 and died the following year aged 57. A sign has been put up outside his childhood home, 52 Castle Road,

, saying "Birthplace of Peter Rice, Engineer, 1935–1992". The plaque was erected privately by the (then) Dundalk Town Architect, Paul Clancy.

Legacy

Peter Rice has been influential in the development of building technology; he thus contributed to extend

architectural engineering Architectural engineering or architecture engineering, also known as building engineering, is a discipline that deals with the engineering and construction of buildings, such as environmental, structural, mechanical, electrical, computational, e ...

as a professional field. Rice has intricately tied the disciplines of structural engineering and architectural technology. Among Rice's major achievements are his contribution to the development of structural glazing and the optimisation of tensile structures using steel, glass and wood. Through his mathematical insight, Rice refined the engineering methods applied to slender, lightweight structures. Rice's book, ''An Engineer Imagines'', was posthumously published and came to be considered an important work in the history of building design. The Peter Rice Prize was established at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) in 1994 in recognition of the ideals and principles represented by the late eminent engineer. The Peter R. Rice Scholarship Fund at the GSD, established in 2000 in Peter's memory, also provides fellowships to support students at the school from Ireland. The Peter Rice Silver Medal competition was established at Dundalk Institute of Technology (his home town) in 1996 under the patronage of Ove Arup and Engineers Ireland (Institution of Engineers of Ireland). This medal is awarded annually, to the best presentation by an engineering student of the institute on their practical project activity. In 2019, a documentary by Marcus Robinson, ''An Engineer Imagines'', was screened by Channel 4 and in cinemas. In 2012-2013, to celebrate Rice's 20-year anniversary, Arup organised the exhibition ''Traces of Peter Rice'' with a documentary. In 2023 on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House, the Irish postal service, A Post, issued a stamp to mark the contribution of Rice to its opening. David McRedmond, the Chief Executive of the Irish Post said, “Ireland has been slow to recognise its contribution to Modernism. The 50th anniversary of Sydney Opera House is the perfect time to celebrate the role of Irish people, and of engineer Peter Rice in particular, to the great canon of world-class architecture and engineering.”

Bibliography

* ''An Engineer Imagines'', Peter Rice (Artemis, 1994; Ellipsis Press, 1996) * ''Structural Glass'', Hugh Dutton, Peter Rice (Routledge; 2001) * ''Transparente Architektur'', Glasfassaden mit Structural Glazing, by H. Dutton, P. Rice (Birkhäuser Verlag; 1995) * ''Yutaka Saito in: Space design'', 8/1992,335 by Y. Saito, O. Murai, K. Nanba, M. Ueda, P. Rice, T. Shinoda (p. 5 – 188) * ''Building a show: The Bastille Dances'', by Station House Opera in: The Architects' Journal, 6/1989, by P. Rice (p. 72–73) – performance review * ''Design for better assembly'', case study: Rogers' and Arup's in: The Architects' Journal, 36/1984, by J. Young, P. Rice, J. Thornton (p. 87–94) * ''Menil Collection Museum roof: evolving the form in: Arup journal'', 2/1987, by P. Rice (p. 2–5) * ''Rogers revolution: Lloyd's remarkable new headquarters in: Building Design'', 1986,807, by P. Rice (p. 32–33) * ''Il punto di vista di Peter Rice , An engineer's view in: L'Arca'', 1987,5, by P. Rice (p. 70–75) * ''Unstable structures in: Columbia documents of architecture and theory'', 1992, by P. Rice (p. 71–89) * ''Stratégie de l'araignée in: L'architecture d'aujourd'hui'', 1987,252, by P. Rice (p. 78–79) * ''Menil Collection museum roof: evolving the form in: Offramp'', 1991,4 by P. Rice (p. 117–119) * ''Gleichgewicht und Spannung , Equilibre et tension in: Archithese'', 2/1990, by P. Rice (p. 84–96) * ''Konstruktive Intelligenz in: arch+: Rhetorik des Machens'', 1990,102, by G. Behnisch, C. Vasconi, O. Aicher, J. Nouvel, H. C. Schulitz, P. Rice, R. Rogers, S. Polónyi, H. von Malotki (p. 42–52) * ''Peter Rice: Performing Instability'', 2015, by Dr Greg Kerr, Enlighten Publications, University of Glasgow * ''Traces of Peter Rice'', Kevin Barry (ed) (Lilliput Press, 2017)

Projects

* ''

, Sydney, Australia; 1957'' * ''Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England; 1967'' * ''Amberly Road Children's Home, London, England; 1969'' * ''National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, London, England; 1970'' * ''Arts Centre,

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

, Coventry, England; 1970'' * ''Perspex spiral staircase,

Andrew Grima Andrew Grima (31 May 1921 – 26 December 2007) was an Anglo-Italian jewellery designern. Grima was born in Rome to Italian-Maltese parents and grew up in London, where he attended Salesian College, Battersea and St Joseph's College, Upper N ...

jewellery shop, 80 Jermyn Street, London, England; 1970'' * ''Super Grimentz Ski Village, Valais, Switzerland; 1970'' * ''Conference Centre,

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

, Saudi Arabia; 1971'' * ''Special structures advice to Frei Otto and others on pneumatic and cable structures including "The City in the Arctic"; 1971'' * ''

(Beaubourg), Paris-4^ième, France; 1971'' * ''Jumbo jet hangar, Johannesburg, South Africa; 1976'' * ''Residential complex in Corciano, Italy; 1978–82'' * ''

Lloyd's building The Lloyd's building (sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London. It is located on the former site of East India House in Lime Street, London, Lime Street, in London's main financial d ...

, London; 1978-86'' * ''"Quartierslaboratorium" für Stadterneuerung Otranto, Italy; 1979'' * ''IBM Traveling Pavillon; 1980–84'' * ''

Menil Collection The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs a ...

, Houston; 1981–86'' * ''

Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (, "City of Science and Industry", abbreviated la CSI) or simply CSI is a large science museum in Europe. Located in the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is one of the three dozen French Cultural ...

Paris-19^ième, France; 1986'' * ''

, Paris-1^er, France; 1988–93'' * ''

London Stansted Airport Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's Airports of London, third-bu ...

; 1988-91'' * ''Canopy "Le Nuage" at La Défense, Nanterre, France; 1986–89'' * ''Roof of the postal coach station in Chur, Switzerland; 1989–92'' * ''The Full Moon Theatre; Gourgoubès, France; 1991–92'' * ''Pabellón del Futuro; Seville, Spain; 1991–92'' * '' Japan Bridge (passerelle Kupka) at La Défense, Nanterre, France; 1990–93; project completed posthumously by collaborating engineers Kate Purver, Lionel Pennison and Pat Dallard and by collaborating architectural technologist Hugh Dutton'' * ''Elektronikfabrik Thomson Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France; 1990'' * ''West facade of Lille cathedral, France; 1991–99; project completed posthumously'' * ''TGV Station Roissy, France; 1991–94'' * ''Mobiles Zelt in London, England; 1992'' * ''TGV Station Lille, France; 1994''

References

External links

RFR

Peter Rice Exhibition at Arup Phase 2 Gallery, London

The Imaginative Engineer

* ttp://www.thedsproject.com/portfolio/peter-rice-performing-instability/ G. Kerr, ‘Peter Rice: Performing Instability’ {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Peter 1935 births 1992 deaths Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering 20th-century Irish engineers Ove Arup Engineers from Dublin (city) People from Dundalk Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Structural engineers Military personnel from County Louth Engineers from County Louth