Looking back, going forward

Bob's price to paint the study was a bargain - provided I cleared the bookshelves. He's smart, because there are so many shelves that, in pretentious moments, I've called it 'the library'.

The top shelf offends tradition through a total absence of 'gentlemen's smoking materials'. Instead it stocks journals – prominently BSj's. The collection dates from September 1978 – former copies having been victims of my wife's early pogroms on clutter.

In clearing the shelves it wasn't very long before I started reading old BSj's. I justified this interlude to my (same) wife by pleading the material was a source for this column. A winning line because she doesn't appreciate why it takes so long and so much wine to draft them. I had in mind an exposé of white elephants: contrasting technical articles of hyper-expectations with small notices of impeding litigation posted a decade or so later. Heaven knows there must be a lot of material!

But BSj's from 1978 gave some fascinating titbits on our Institution's formative years post-charter. In 78 we were CIBS (no E) – but no longer IHVE. Opponents of our claim to be engineers were concerned that much of what we did was too subjective and immeasurable to classify as engineering. And our President seemed to be uncertain about our analytical competence! In an interview he told BSj, "…perhaps only the architect will weigh up [and decide the] options of building systems and choice of fuels"…[Hello??] But he must have been right – because the RIBA President agreed "…Energy is our [architects'] ball game… nothing to do with services engineers" …[Hello??]

So 25 years ago we were somewhere below the Institute of Lard in professional evolution, although my distant memories aren't quite so dismal. But we weren't helping our cause. In November 78, Sideliner, the much-missed Ted Happold, trashed the decision to deny Prof Bill Allen membership transfer to CIBS from the subsumed IES. Our current President suggests we rebrand as architectural engineers. Who knows, if Bill, the principal of architects Bickerdike Allen, had joined us 25 years ago whether we might not be there already?

There was a time when CIBS members weren’t even considered engineers. The next generation should remember those who brought us this far.

In January 1981 Ted was still frustrated – this time about CIBS's image, "Services engineering has an awesome role to play in our society … and at the moment the public is totally unaware of it". Ted understood the importance of profile.

Things then began to be more upbeat and a vision started to emerge. In June 81, our new President's address included 'modern' truths like "..good energy outcomes arise from good building design. Prefabrication makes site works simpler and more reliable. We should focus on cpd". The May 1982 editorial said "adapt and survive will be the watchwords for the next century". Both prophesised the more clearly drawn 'Adapt or die' Presidential manifesto 22 years later.

We also began to acknowledge our own heroes. In Jan 81 Bill Bordass was mentioned in despatches for running a CIBS/RIBA collaboration to measure building energy performance. In September 1982 Ted describes Max Fordham as one of the most creative engineers he'd met. Good on Bill and Max – they are now both RIBA medallists, (if I remember rightly). Something certainly did happen!

The finale belongs to the editor, Stephen Ashley, in April 85 when we became Engineers. "The truth is that a bs engineer is an Engineer Plus….. No wonder [our] problems often leave other engineers unsure of their ground…. The hurdle of E has now been overcome and congratulations are due to those whose patient hours of lobbying and strategic planning achieved it".