Since I have conducted pioneering research in both structural engineering as well as in construction, my perspective of various aspects differs from most theorists and practitioners who only specialize in one of these areas.

Since I practice, teach, and research, I am able to provide students with skills claimed by architects, such as subjectivity and aesthetics, whilst at the same time I am also able to communicate in depth structural and technical knowledge. My research and design focuses on technical, design, material-based, and structural issues that — with some exceptions since the Renaissance — have been neglected or delegated by architects in favor of achieving their aesthetic aims.

I take into account the fundamental links between art and science, as well as the specific constraints of the observed phenomena and their concrete implementation. The effect of scale is often simply ignored in the field of structural analysis for building construction.

My approach regards the mechanical requirements of form and structure as attributes that can gain full meaning and sense only in the context of the geometrically scaled phenomenon on which they depend.

I consider the use of the digital representation of architecture as an invaluable tool that ought to strengthen the integration of structure, form, and material within our design concept. However, digital modeling cannot replace the study of physical reality, which is crucial when designing form and space and, integral to them, structure.

All this leads to new construction methods made out of timber applied at one to one scaled buildings.

Yves Weinand