Architectural engineer, England Ove Arup was arguably one of the greatest engineers of the 20th century. Born in 1895 in Newcastle upon Tyne in England to Scandinavian parents, he first studied philosophy and graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1916. Six years later, he received a second degree in engineering. This wide-ranging interest and curiosity was to influence both his own work and that of others with whom he consulted. Throughout his life—his practice Ove Arup and Partners grew to include more than 50 offices in 40 countries with a staff of almost 4,000—he retained a speculative yet rigorously questioning approach to design. Having qualified as a civil engineer and with a special interest in reinforced concrete, Arup joined the Danish company Christiani and Nielsen in 1922, a company that designed and built civil engineering structures. He worked in Hamburg before moving to their London office, where he became chief designer in 1925. With this experience not only in ...