IAAC Winter Lecture Series 2015
Thursday 12th of February 2015
Andrew Watts
Lecture: Façade System Design
@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium
Open to the Public
ANDREW WATTS
Andrew Watts graduated from Central London Polytechnic in architecture, and from Cambridge University with a Masters’ Degree in Interdisciplinary Design, developing an interest in the interface between the traditional fields of architecture and engineering through the design of the external envelope. He is a member of the Institution of Engineering Designers, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He is a facade designer with over 25 years’ experience and leads, alongside Yasmin Watts, Newtecnic, facade designers for innovative and technically complex projects. The firm works internationally, collaborating with both leading architects and facade contractors. The company’s work is research based, where facade systems are developed individually for projects.
Completed projects to which Newtecnic have contributed include a cultural centre in Baku, Azerbaijan with Zaha Hadid, a wing for Great Ormond Street Hospital, London with Ken Yeang, the Burjuman Dubai with KPF, Holland Park School London with Aedas, a care centre with Snohetta, and the Angel Centre with AHMM. The Wangjing project in Beijing is being completed, a theatre in Morocco and an arts centre in China are now on site, with Zaha Hadid Architects. A headquarters tower and a retail mall in Kuwait, with Gensler, are currently under construction.
Prior to founding Newtecnic with Yasmin Watts, Andrew worked for Jean Nouvel in Paris and Foster and Partners in London. At Jean Nouvel he led the building envelope design for the Triangle des Gares at Lille from inception to completion. At Foster and Partners he worked on the Millennium Bridge and Albion Wharf housing, London. Andrew began independent consultancy with the design of the envelope systems for Federation Square, Melbourne, led by LAB Architects.
Andrew is involved with building envelope-based research in collaboration with the Engineering Department of Cambridge University, which informs both project work and serves as a basis for textbooks authored by Newtecnic. Andrew and Newtecnic are the authors of the Modern Construction Series of textbooks published by Springer/Ambra. He has also written the Facades Technical Review for RIBA Publications, and a 3rd edition of the Modern Construction Handbook, published in 2013. Modern Construction Envelopes, another large scale textbook, was published in 2010, favourably reviewed in Detail and Domus magazines. He is currently a Course Tutor in the Departments of Engineering and Architecture at Cambridge University, and is a Visiting Technical Lecturer at the University of Westminster. Andrew previously led the Year 5 Studio at Bath University for three years. He has also delivered papers for facade-related conferences such as PLEA and The Future Envelope.