Prof. Dr.-Ing. Drs. h.c. Jörg Schlaich (born 1934) is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 structural engineer

Structural engineer

Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants...

. He later founded his own firm Schlaich Bergermann & Partner

Schlaich Bergermann & Partner

Schlaich Bergermann & Partner, based in Stuttgart, Germany is a world-renowned structural engineering firm. It was founded in 1980 by Jörg Schlaich and Rudolf Bergermann.-Projects:* 1978-1992: Vidyasagar Setu , Kolkata, India...

.

Early career

Jörg Schlaich studied architecture and civil engineering from 1953 to 1955 at Stuttgart University before completing his studies at the Technical University of Berlin

Technical University of Berlin

The Technische Universität Berlin is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. Translating the name into English is discouraged by the university, however paraphrasing as Berlin Institute of Technology is recommended by the university if necessary .The TU Berlin was founded...

 in 1959. He spent 1959-60 at the Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...

 in Cleveland, USA.

In 1963 he joined the firm Leonhardt & Andrä, the firm founded by Fritz Leonhardt

Fritz Leonhardt

Fritz Leonhardt was a German structural engineer who made major contributions to 20th century bridge engineering, especially in the development of cable-stayed bridges...

.

Later career

Schlaich was made a partner and was responsible for the Olympic Stadium, Munich. He stayed with the firm until 1969.

In 1974 he became an academic at Stuttgart University, and in 1980 he founded his own firm, Schlaich Bergermann & Partner

Schlaich Bergermann & Partner

Schlaich Bergermann & Partner, based in Stuttgart, Germany is a world-renowned structural engineering firm. It was founded in 1980 by Jörg Schlaich and Rudolf Bergermann.-Projects:* 1978-1992: Vidyasagar Setu , Kolkata, India...

.

In 1993, with the roof of the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion

Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion

The Mercedes-Benz Arena is a stadium located in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and home to German Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart.Before 1993 it was called Neckarstadion, named after the nearby river Neckar and between 1993 and July 2008 it was called Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion...

 (since 2008 Mercedes-Benz-Arena) in Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

, he introduced the "speichenrad" principle to structural engineering

Structural engineering

Structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right....

. Indeed, this principle was employed the first time in the history of Structural Engineering by the Italian engineer Massimo Majowiecki, the designer of the roof of the Olympic Stadium, Rome (built in 1990, three years before the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion). Since then, his company successfully employed it to stadium projects across the globe. Other structures include the observation tower at the Killesbergpark

Killesbergpark

The Killesbergpark is an urban public park of half a square kilometre in Stuttgart, Germany. It is just north of the state capital, and borders the city's fairgrounds. The park dates back to the horticultural show of 1939. Before the show, a large area of the park had been a quarry...

 in Stuttgart. Most of his work as well of that of his company is documented on their website. He is also the developer of the solar tower

Solar updraft tower

The solar updraft tower is a renewable-energy power plant. It combines the chimney effect, the greenhouse effect and the wind turbine. Air is heated by sunshine and contained in a very large greenhouse-like structure around the base of a tall chimney, and the resulting convection causes air to...

 (or solar chimney) and is largely credited with inventing the strut and tie model for reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

.

Further reading

• Schlaich, Jörg; Bergermann, Rudolf. Leicht Weit (Light Structures) ISBN 3791329189.
• Holgate, Alan. The Art of Structural Engineering: The Work of Jorg Schlaich and his Team (Books Britain, 1996) ISBN 3930698676.
• Schlaich, Jörg. The Solar Chimney: Electricity from the Sun ISBN 3930698692.
• Schlaich, Jörg; Rudolf Bergermann, Wolfgang Schiel & Gerhard Weinrebe (February 2005). "". Journal of Solar Energy Engineering 127 (1): 117-124. DOI
  Digital object identifier
  A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an object such as an electronic document. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found...
  
  :10.1115/1.1823493. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.