2002 Structural Engineering Traveling Fellowship
Erik Lin

I traveled to Europe in the spring of 2003 as the recipient of the SOM Foundation 2002 Structural Engineering Traveling Fellowship. The trip provided me with the opportunity to visit and photograph many structures, meet with a few leading European engineers and architects, and spend some time studying and thinking about bridges, buildings, and structural engineering. I traveled for three months from the beginning of March until the end of May. In three months, I covered a lot of ground—journeying through Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and England. By traveling to a number of different countries, I had the opportunity to meet with designers from a wide variety of educational and cultural backgrounds, from Spanish engineers to Danish architects. I saw a very diverse set of structures. Overall, I visited and photographed over a hundred structures on about fifty rolls of film. While focusing primarily on bridges, I did manage to see a number of buildings, as well as specialty use structures such as stadiums, towers, and roofs.

This document summarizes my journey through Europe and the traveling fellowship as a whole. It describes my general experiences visiting structures and interviewing designers. More specific information on each individual structure and interview is included in the “Structures” and “Interviews” sections of my Final Report. In addition, this travel summary will discuss my experiences on the road, the role the SOM Foundation played in the fellowship, and the influence of the SOM Foundation fellowship on my career as an engineer.

Fellow Experience

My time spent in Europe as an SOM Foundation fellow will certainly help my career as a structural engineer. Perhaps the most important thing that came out of it was that I gained exposure to a lot of different structures. I saw over one hundred different bridges, buildings, and other structures. They all differed in style, quality, and overall merit, but I learned a great deal about what is possible in design. I learned about what works well from some inspiring structures—from the late-nineteenth-century designs of Antoni Gaudí to recently erected designs from the last few years. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to distill this down to a list of design rules, but I now have a mental database of diverse, inspiring structures to call upon next time I design a structure.

Another great thing about the fellowship was the amount of time it afforded me to think about these new ideas and assimilate some of what I had seen. It was nice that I had the time to spend two-three hours examining and photographing the Salginatobel Bridge, for example. The photographs I took will also serve as a reminder of what I saw.

The experience of talking to a number of European designers was also very influential. They didn’t give me the answers I expected, and they made me think about things in new ways. There really are no easy answers or unfailing guidelines in the design process, and one must be flexible and adapt to the situation at hand. One of the most important things that I was told is that in most cases, the public is ultimately who you’re building a structure for. With this in mind, it’s important to make the structure safe, aesthetically pleasing, and an altogether good experience for the user.