Jörg Schlaich at 80

The Stuttgart School was the first movement to combine the style of and training in architecture, taught and supported at the Stuttgart College of Technology. The Stuttgart School of Building Design is losing visibility just as the profile of architects in society is rising. However, a thoroughgoing analysis of its particular qualities is overdue, especially in the context of creative construction engineering. For example, Bill Baker (*1953), a Structural and Civil Engineering Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), Chicago, USA and winner of the 2009 Fritz Leonhardt prize, has described the creative approach as a key element in (civil engineering) training at the University of Stuttgart. Towards the end of the 20th century, the Stuttgart School of Building Design was greatly influenced by Jörg Schlaich (*17th October 1934), whose working, teaching and research methods also helped inspire the creative approach praised above.