arup design school

Arup Design

SchoolSeattle, 2010

Benson Choy, Sustainability,

Brisbane

Facts

35 participants

4 principals

3 days

6 teams

1 competition

Objectives

Learn about design thinking

Teamwork

Creating relationships

Understanding clients

Fun

Theme

This year’s design school theme was ‘Oceans’.

In particular – coastal inundation and flooding due to climate change in the city of Charleston, South Carolina.

Task

Design a floating mobile emergency response clinic that could be rapidly deployed in flood situations throughout Charleston.

ChallengesLimited budget (Ovabucks)

Ambiguous brief

Clients (Arup principals)

Sneaky competition

Design and build

4 minute pitch and Q&A

Floatation and wave test

1 day to do it all!

Design

Build

Team 1

Concept: Modular outrigger

Features: You can actually take it apart

Did it float: of course it did (sort of)

Team 2

Concept: Platform

Features: Large community area

Did it float: It stood on 4 poles

Team 3

Concept: Modular floating rooms

Features: Solar panels on the roof

Did it float: Yes, quite well actually

Team 4

Concept: Inflatable clinic

Features: Uses balloon technology

Did it float: Yes, lopsidedly

Team 5

Concept: Floating truck

Features: Drives on land and in water

Did it float: Yes

Winner

Lessons Learned

1. Talk to the client

One hour after the teams were given the task and set off into design mode, it was noted that no team had actually thought of talking to the client.

Lessons Learned

2. Understand the client’s budget and how it is spent.

All teams focussed on cost minimisation (which potentially impacted on quality). In reality a client be motivated to spend their allocated budget.

Lessons Learned

3. In reality if you follow the specification/rules to the letter of the law, you will not win.

The client may not be able to articulate their REAL issue in the brief. In a competitive environment, being flexible, creative and applying innovative ‘kick-ass’ ways to solve these issues for clients is how we can deliver value to them and put us ahead.

The Take-home MessageAll of the Arup leaders have been in situations that put themselves out of their comfort zone and needed to be rescued at some point.

We should challenge ourselves and know that we have the full backing of Arup so we won’t be in the panic zone.

Conclusion