Tony Hunt

In the third episode of 'Inside the Archive' series Tony Hunt, structural engineer, conveyed his records on the projects he was involved in during his time working with Norman Foster.

Back in the 1970’s, estructural engineer Tony Hunt was working with the architect Paul Manousso when he met Norman Foster. The project ‘Creek Vean House’ in Cornwall marked the beginning of the collaboration between Tony Hunt and Foster, along with Team 4, and was the simplest possible in terms of pieces of structure. 

After creating Anthony Hunt associates in 1962, Hunt worked with Foster as a structural engineer on buildings such as Reliance Controls in Swindon (1966), the IBM Pilot Head Office in Cosham (1975), the Sainsbury Centre in University of East Anglia (1978) and the Willis Faber Dumas HQ in Ipswich (1995). He would always sit down with the architects and sketch things during his collaborations. Looking back over the projects he has worked on, one of the lessons Hunt has drawn is pushing things to the limit, structurally, privileging the concept before the calculation. The understanding of the concept, exploring the various different concept the structure might take, the forms and the tools you might use, as well as the combination of materials is the first step into the process of building.