INTERVIEW
WITH NAEEM HUSSAIN
Magdaléna Sobotková
First and probably most frequently occurring question: Why bridges? Why did you get involved in
bridge engineering? You mentioned that it was the M5 project you were working on at your early
career when you start thinking on bridges, and that it was also the chance to combine architecture
and engineering, was it the only reason?
My father was a civil engineer working on Pakistan railways and as a child I remember accompanying
him on inspection tours of track, tunnels and bridges and being fascinated by them, especially in the
high mountainous area of Baluchistan, and as far as I can remember I have always wanted to build
structures. In my teens I actually wanted to be an architect but at that time there were no recognised
architectural schools in Pakistan so I studied civil engineering instead at the West Pakistan University of
Engineering and Technology.
After graduation in 1962 I worked in what was then East Pakistan on all sorts of buildings before
coming to London in 1964 to work at Kenchington Little and Partners - the forerunners of WSP. I
worked on a variety of building projects including the Shaw Theatre and Euston Library and tower
block, but still had this craving to be an architect so I enlisted for the architectural course at the
Architectural School of Architecture in London in 1966.
I had a great first year there as it opened up my mind to free flowing sculptural forms and ideas and
not being inhibited by the precise logic of engineering. In the second year I realised that I could not
learn much more from an architectural course and in order to get site experience for engineering
chartership I worked on M5 Midlands viaducts which was my introduction to bridges.
I realised that what I really wanted to do was to design and build bridges as I could be a designer who
could combine sculptural shapes and engineering to hopefully create visually interesting bridges which
also respected sound engineering principles.
1/2018