IABSE Annual Lecture 2026: Lucas Epp

The 2026 IABSE Annual Lecture will be given by Lucas Epp of StructureCraft.

Design + Build, Reconnected

Design and construction have bifurcated.  What might buildings look like if we returned to shaping natural materials in their rawest form? Designers and builders, reunited in the pursuit of efficiency and beauty amid an increasingly code-constrained, risk-averse era.

Lucas Epp

Vice President & Head of Engineering, StructureCraft

Lucas Epp is a structural engineer whose work sits at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and craft. His work advances timber and natural materials as primary, high-performance structural systems – from mass timber to long-span, free-form geometries. He has pioneered modern all-wood structural systems and joinery techniques at the new National Performing Arts Centre in Barbados and the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas, blending ancient craft with state-of-the-art computational design and robotics – and opening new possibilities for timber architecture. 

In 2021 he founded Branch, an in-house software venture creating the next generation of digital tools for structural design-to-manufacture, informed by direct feedback from engineers, fabricators, and field crews. 
 
Epp has practiced across the UK, New Zealand, China, the United States, and Canada. He has taught at ETH Zurich, the Architectural Association, and MIT; serves on Canadian and American timber code committees; and has authored multiple industry guidelines. His practice points toward a near future in which structural engineering, fabrication, and software merge – a return to the master builder mindset. 

Dinner