Pyramidal folded plate roof featured at Canterbury

The structure featured in this issue of Old Growth should be familiar to all Canterbury Engineering graduates. To behonest, at the time I was at the School in the early 1970's, I had no idea we were having breaks underneath a folded platetimber and plywood roof. Unfortunately the original photograph showing the plywood before application of the roofingmembrane is a small and poor quality black and white, so we hope the recent photograph still conveys the essence of thebuilding.Otto Glogau became one of the more senior and well regarded engineers at the Ministry of works and was one of themany European immigrants who came in the 1950's to fill technical skills gaps in New Zealand's burgeoningeconomy. So this is an example of a folded plate structure that still stands after 50 years of service, and it is still anattractive feature of the engineering concourse at Canterbury University. The plywood was kahikatea (native "WhitePine") almost certainly manufactured in the absence of a standard for Structural Plywood. Today's engineers have morehistory of use to draw on and there are now well established systems for using Structural plywood according to JointAustralian New Zealand Standards.