There are some feats of engineering that are so visually pleasing we instinctively call them works of art. And yet, when we make this statement in the 21st century, it seems that we are crossing the frontier into a different land. There’s this idea that science is objective while art is subjective, the former a function of logical reasoning, the latter of interpretation.
But there are, it seems, artist and engineers who never got the memo about these allegedly non-overlapping domains, as is proven by the existence of some breath-taking industrial aesthetics. The UK’s largest sculpture – the ArcelorMittal Orbit – is recognisably a feat of complex engineering, while some of the most stylish of our electronic gadgetry was designed by a man who went on to become chancellor of the Royal College of Art.
Some engineers were artists at heart. Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge is as much the product of aesthetic sensibilities as it is of an engineering...