Unified Design

Is the present obsession with the icon and the promotion of image over substance symptomatic of a general trend in contemporary architecture? Arup Associates provides the alternative: unified design. This straightforward, critical reflection on contemporary architecture -- a manifesto of sorts, polemical in parts, philosophical; and determined to set an honest agenda -- is divided into three sections. First, an explanation of unified design. Next, a demonstration of the sustainable agenda that is a the heart of this practice. Finally, a complementary series of essays by respected commentators outside of the practice place the vision of people-focused design in the context of other critical social thought. Foreword (Gary Lawrence).

Introduction (Jonathan Glancey).

ONE: UNIFIED THINKING.

Unified Design: A Radical Wholeness (Jay Merrick in conversation with Declan O'Carroll)

Plantation Lane: Time and Tide (Arup Associates: Dialogue with Memory)

Sustaining Design (Herbert Girardet n conversation with Michael Beaven)

Vauxhall Cross Transport Interchange, London (Arup Associates: Sustainable Regeneration.

TWO: THE WORLD OF THE SENSES.

Unifying the Senses: Architecture as Lived Experience (Juhani Pallasmaa)

Druk White Lotus School, Ladakh, Northern Himalayas (Arup Associates: Holistic Design in a Climate Extremes).

Spatial Intelligence and Place-Making (Leon van Schaik).

THREE: DESIGNING THE WHOLE.

Collaborative Engineering (Arup Associates).

Arup Associates: Themes and Ideas.

Picture Credits and Acknowledgements.

Arup Associates 2000-08.

Paul Brislin is a principal at Arup Associates, the London-based architectural design studio of Arup Group, the multinational consulting engineering company. Arup Associates is internationally renowned for its multidisciplinary approach to design: architects work alongside structural and environmental engineers in integrated teams.?

The book includes contributions from: Jonathan Glancey, the architectural correspondent of The Guardian; Jay Merrick the architectural correspondent of The Independent; architectural authors Juhani Pallasmaa and Leon van Schaik; as well as from Mike Bevan and Declan O'Carroll, principals of Arup Associates. In the present obsession with the icon and the promotion of image over substance symptomatic of a general trend in contemporary architecture?
Arup Associates provides the alternative: unified design, a radical pan-disciplinary approach that focuses on people from the outset, through the united vision of architects, engineers, artists and social scientists. Arup Associates rejects the imposition of an external image: there can be no standard solutions and no predefined styles. Instead, design must evolve from fundamental research and experiential goals, to form a holistic architecture entirely driven by a 'whole life sustainability that maintains human culture - tradition, religion, the intangible components of humanity - in the face of modernity.

The work is introduced by The Guardian's architecture critic Jonathan Glancey. The Independent's Jay Merrick examines the meaning of unified design with Declan O'Carroll of Arup Associates, while leading environmental expert and author Herbert Girardet discusses with Michael Beaven of Arup Associates the sustainable agenda that is at the heart of the practice. Author and architect Juhani Pallasmaa reprioritises the importance of the senses in the design of the built environment while Professor Leon van Schaik of RMIT explores memory and spatial intelligence in the creation of architecture.

Arup Associates was started by Sir Ove Arup more than four decades ago. it is the architectural design studio of the multinational consulting engineering group Arup. The studio has always practised multidisciplinary design, where engineers and architects work side by side. Unified design takes this philosophy into the 21st century.

"Unified design is a way of today's iconic arms race.' - Hans Ibelings

'Unified design proclaims a vital truth for the 21st century, that our most effective designs are achieved as synchronous and synthesising acts of human will and imagination.' - Robert Ivy