Hanif Kara BSc (Hon) MI StructE, Adams Kara Taylor, London

The role of the curator is the head of competition and master class and co-editor of the book on plastic-OPACITY.

Hanif Kara is one of the founders and directors of Adams Kara Taylor, a progressive, design led structural and civil engineering consultancy based in London. Their office has quickly become one of the leading practices in the world, collaborating with many of the best architects, developers and contractors. In recent projects they worked with Foreign Office Architects, Foster and Partners, Sir Richard MacCormac, William Alsop, Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel, among others, with projects ranging form bridges and art to housing and museums.

‘The contribution of structural engineers to the process of 'design' can easily be underestimated as a side attraction - hard to measure, hard to master and easy to neglect. The great engineers of the past always combined efficiency with innovation and elegance; but it was, and remains, the ability to create a good working relationship with the design team that set them apart. We are a practice in this mould who particularly relish the dialogue between architect, other designers and client as the hallmark to quality.’

When Hanif and Albert Williamson-Taylor founded Adams Kara Taylor in 1995, both brought a proven record in delivering innovative structural design at all stages of the construction process, from competition winning concepts to realisation of complex buildings. This broad experience showed Hanif how a consulting firm might be based around an ethos of innovative and proactive structural design, because he understood how and where engineering expertise might best serve the aspirations of clients and fit with the intentions of other team members. Accordingly Hanif shares overall responsibility for design with Albert, and develops relationships with clients. This structure means the firm’s experimental edge, including a growing expertise in parametric design and advanced geometry, remains focused on practical ends.

At AKT Hanif has led design teams on ground-breaking buildings like the Peckham Library, designed by Will Alsop, Zaha Hadid’s Wolfsburg Science Centre and the Tesco’s store in Ludlow, where MacCormac Jamieson and Prichard designed a striking contemporary building in a historic setting. The success of these projects has brought wide recognition; he is an examiner for the Institute of Structural Engineers, co-tutor of a unit at the Architectural Association and a visiting tutor at several other schools of architecture (Harvard, MIT, Cornell). He is currently a member of the Design Review Panel for the Commission for Architecture and the built environment. In 2003 he was invited to join the master jury for the Aga Khan’s awards for architecture. And in 2005 he became an Honorary Fellow at the RIBA.

Hanif’s career prior to founding AKT brought wide experience together with opportunities which led him to realise how his interests and skills might best contribute to a new firm. While working for steel fabricators Joseph Parks and Sons, he saw how engineering might be applied to component production; from there, after graduating from Salford University with an honours degree in civil engineering in 1981, he went to consulting engineers Allot and Lomax, where he worked on offshore oil platforms, power stations and fairground structures before leading the structural team on the Battersea Power Station leisure complex. Realising that his interests lay in creative structural design, in 1989 Hanif joined Anthony Hunt Associates. At Hunt’s his projects included BA’s combined operations centre at Heathrow, designed by Grimshaw’s, and the acclaimed Lloyds Register of Shipping, where Hanif satisfied the demands of the architects, the Richard Rogers Partnership, for a structure which used concrete to provide thermal mass, but which matched the aesthetic elegance of steel. Later he began to take on responsibility for developing new relationships with clients and other team members, notably at Brindleyplace in Birmingham.