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The internationally renowned structural engineer and partner and Global Head of Design, Technology & Innovation at Buro Happold in New York (USA) clearly supports the integration of structural design and architecture. Quality in architecture is already determined by the inventiveness of structural engineering, but it will become even more necessary and urgent in the future. The selection of building materials to be used is just one of many issues that make the transdisciplinary collaboration and cross-disciplinary interaction of architectural design and structural design clearly visible.Trained as an architect and civil engineer, he has worked extensively on the optimal interplay between architecture and structural design, which has a direct impact on the built environment, for example, at Kyoto University in Japan and the University of Karlsruhe, among other institutions.

“With the challenges of climate change and rapid urbanization, architecture must seek out and find new human-centered and sustainable forms of design. The design process must become more transdisciplinary and questions regarding materials, structure, form and formal expression must be redefined. I see the Angewandte playing a key role in this and I am looking forward to being a part of it in my new role,” explained Wolf Mangelsdorf. 

For the Structural Design department at the Angewandte’s Institute of Architecture (IoA), the call for applications explicitly sought a person with international experience and a strong interest in the future-oriented advancement of built architecture and urban planning, based on an awareness of the major social, political, demographic and technological challenges of urban spaces. The willingness to develop artistic-scientific research projects – nationally as well as beyond – also played a significant role in the appointment process, as research is already one of the focal points at the Institute of Architecture (IoA) and will continue to be pushed. ​“With Wolf Mangelsdorf, our students, who strive to go beyond national and disciplinary borders, are getting a visionary and internationally distinguished lecturer who will provide them with excellent support,” Rector Gerald Bast was pleased to say. Mangelsdorf will succeed Klaus Bollinger in this position, who led the department with great commitment and success from 1994 till now and has retired after more than 25 years at the Angewandte.