Function v. Rhetoric 
Peter Campbell
It is difficult to work out who gets the credit for a building – so many people are involved, from owners, contractors and governments to bricklayers and roofers – but it is particularly hard to decide what is due to the architect and what to the engineer. Andrew Saint, in his new book, sees them as sibling rivals, and in tracing how their relations have changed over time, looks for answers to three questions. Was there a time when the roles of architect and engineer were indistinguishable? If so, how and why did they separate? And, finally, have they now been reconciled?
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Peter Campbell is the London Review’s resident designer and art critic.
Other articles by this contributor:
At the British Museum · Dürer
In Port Sunlight · Peter Campbell visits the art collection of a soap magnate
At the Royal Academy · Philip Guston fouls the nest
In Russell Square · Peter Campbell explores Bloomsbury
At Salford Quays · Daniel Libeskind
At the Royal Academy · Frank Auerbach
At The Whitechapel · Gerhard Richter
At the Royal Academy · the art of William Nicholson
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