Edmund Happold

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Professor Sir Edmund Happold (1930 - 1996), better known as Ted Happold, was a structural engineer and founder of Buro Happold.

Happold studied Geology at the University of Leeds before achieving a BSc in Civil Engineering there in 1957. A lifelong Quaker, he registered as a conscientious objector when called to do National Service. After graduation, he spent a short time in the office of Alvar Aalto before joining Ove Arup and Partners on the recommendation of architect Basil Spence.

As the head of Structures 3 at Arups, he worked on such landmark buildings as Sydney Opera House and the Pompidou Centre. He collaborated with Frei Otto, setting up a laboratory to study lightweight tensile structures. Leaving Arups in 1976, he became professor of Architecture and Engineering Design at the University of Bath and founded Buro Happold with seven colleagues. He helped set up the Centre for Window and Cladding Technology at Bath, as well as a research group in air-supported structures.

He was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry, a member of the Design Council, vice-president of the Royal Society of Arts, and Master of the Royal Designer for Industry. He also founded the Building Industry Council, later to become the Construction Industry Council, and was President of the Institution of Structural Engineers.