James Solly (MEng, CEng MICE) IS a Director at Format Engineers, an office of engineering designers with backgrounds in structures, coding, mathematics and architecture. Format believe in the day-to-day exploitation of digital technology as a creative tool for the production of designs that are appropriate, lean and beautiful. James previously held engineering roles at Ramboll UK and BuroHappold, working on projects alongside architectural practises RSHP, Herzog & de Meuron and Zaha Hadid Architects among others before moving to an academic role at the University of Stuttgart. Here he was a tutor and lecturer on the ITECH M.Sc. programme as well as a member of the Horizon-Funded Innochain Network where his research focussed on the structural use of robotically-manufactured composite fibre structures. On his return to the UK to join Format he also became a Senior Lecturer at the Bartlett School of, teaching on the MEng Engineering and Architectural Design and MArch Design for Manufacture courses until 2021. James’s interests lie in the use of current computational engineering techniques to support architectural design, reduce the use of excess material and enable human ability and craft to remain part of modern construction.