Erik Reitzel was a Danish civil engineer who started work in 1964 and was for many years a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and at the Technical University of Denmark, in the disciplines of bearing structures and structural design. His research enabled him to discover the fundamental correlation between fracture, minimal structures and growth. This discovery makes it possible to obtain considerable savings in construction materials. Erik Reitzel is the author of books and articles on the outcomes of his research and on their practical application. Several prizes have been awarded to Erik Reitzel in Denmark and abroad for his research and work on architectural minimal structures, as well as for interesting and original solutions to major engineering projects. It was for this reason that he was awarded the Légion d’honneur at the request of French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand. In 1988 he was awarded the Nykredit Architecture Prize. Since 1971, Erik Reitzel, in partnership with his wife Inge Reitzel, has been a consultant engineer.
First prize projects
With various architects, he has participated in competitions and won several prizes, for example:
The New Parliament in Stockholm, 1972
Grande Arche in Paris, 1983; originally planned as an International Communications Centre
The transport over 2 kilometres of the Terminal VL 39 building from the Kastrup Airport to Maglebylille
Publications
The Symbolic Globe UNESCO Publishing, Paris 2006. and
Structural Design of tall Buildings with a minimal Risk of Collapse CIB-CTBUH Proceedings to the international conference on Tall Buildings 2003, Kuala Lumpur, Publication 290, 2003.
The Society seen through a Civil Engineer’s Glasses Danish Civil and Structural Science and Engineering. 2003.
Fra sæbebobler til store bygninger chapter in VIDENSKABERFREMTIDEN, Villum Kann Rasmussen Fonden og Experimentarium 2003.
Hur Nya Former Kan Uppstå Arkitekttidningen nr. 9, Stockholm 2001
Les forces dont resultent quelques monuments Parisiens de la Fin du XXe siècle LE POUVOIR ET LA VILLE À L’ÉPOQUE MODERNE ET CONTEMPORAINE, Sorbonne 2001.
De la rupture à la structure Colloque franco-danois sur Représentation de l'espace, répartition dans l'espace - sur différentes manières d'habiter, 2000.
Grundtræk af Bærende Konstruktioner i Arkitekturen together with the architect Hans Friis Mathiasen, Kunstakademiets Arkitektskoles Forlag, 1999.
Tectonics in Practice Communication at the European conference, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 1996
Musikk og Konstruktjoner Article in the book: Tversnit av et Øjeblik, Oslo 1992.
Rupture - Structure Conférence internationale sur l'Ingénieur et l'Art, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1991
Konkurrence om Tête Défense, Paris, og projektets videre bearbejdning Arkitekten no 23, 1984
Le Cube ouvert. Structures and foundations International conference on tall buildings. Singapore, 1984.
