Practicing Strategic Design
We are all part of Studio, Arup’s strategic design team that shapes new experiences in the built environment by exploring the relationship between people, place and technology. Established in 2015 as a part of Arup’s 15,000-strong global network of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists in the built environment, the Studio has been working to transform design in the sector, centred on the human experience.
The built environment sector is famously inert — and for good reason: after all, its processes, standards and methods are often in place to make things stand up or to avoid catastrophe, rather than to innovatively reimagine outcomes and purpose. Over the last twenty years however, the introduction of digital technology has dramatically changed the way cities and spaces are experienced. As residents, commuters, visitors — as citizens — we often feel the friction between the fast layers of change we know from the digital world, and the slow moving layers of our built environment. Our interdisciplinary practice has emerged in this problem space, helping clients to navigate this complex but rewarding territory — spanning across scales, media, organisational and experiential layers: from the city to the cellphone.
We are a values driven team, and pull on the playbook of digital design in the context of planning, architecture and engineering to drive our broader ambitions: to make the built environment more socially, environmentally and economically just. While we support our clients in creating better experiences— for instance, to attract new audiences to a tourist destination, to attract and retain staff in a new office, or to improve the student experience and ranking at a university — we also use the human experience as an anchor to nudge better behaviours that lead to more equitable, sustainable or inclusive outcomes.
Although our expertise is in the built environment, the questions we ask our clients and the people they serve often looks beyond architecture and engineering, towards organisational purpose, values and core service offerings. In this way, we have the tools to help our clients understand both the environment they want to create, as well as why that environment is important to them and what they hope to achieve with it.
What we do
In the Arup Studio, we deploy our human-centred expertise and multidisciplinary systems-thinking approach brought from our diverse team to design strategies, services and spaces. Our three core services, as described below, can be delivered separately or as a continuous process that utilises explorative research, synthesised to form a strategy, and in turn drives concept development and prototyping. This approach is malleable and adaptable: we stretch or condense it to sit within our clients’ or built environment methodologies, such as the RIBA plan of work. Our outputs can range from user experience strategies to architectural concepts, but our process will always rely on our deep understanding of people, place and technology.
1. We are truth-seekers — People, space and technology study
We study how people, space, and technology interact to derive insights that unlock new, unique project opportunities.
A rapidly changing world and uncertain future can sometimes present our clients with hundreds of possible problems, solutions, and scenarios, leading to a decision-making paralysis. Before getting to a strategy or concept, we conduct people, space and technology studies, reframing our clients’ view of their context.
We help our clients understand both the people that make up their organisation, as well as the people they serve or impact. We do this through novel forms of engagement and user research, from participatory installations to web data analytics, and everything in between. It is with our deep understanding of behaviours, motivations and experiences that we can ground organisational, spatial or service strategy and concepts.
We help our clients understand the space that they own, manage, design or experience. We do this through observational methods developed in both ethnographic and architectural research, we understand how other people experience the space or similar spaces, and we explore space typologies to draw on examples around the world. We use the extended network in Arup and our deep understanding of the built environment to reframe our clients’ understanding of their assets, infrastructure and spaces.
Technology is the answer, but what is the question? - Cedric Price
We help our clients understand the existing and potential impact of technology on their customers, staff, communities or spaces. We use methods founded in digital development to understand how technology impacts experience. This helps clients centre on the purpose of technology, rather than just what it is.
2. We are path-finders — Vision and strategy
We develop integrated project visions and shape holistic design strategies across organisational, physical, and digital space.
Our world is complex, and our clients face multifaceted challenges. A great experience needs to consider front of house (or user) experience, as well as back of house (or organisational) experience; it needs to combine digital, physical and interpersonal elements seamlessly; and it should drive broader organisational vision and values. When designing these experiences, it can be challenging to coordinate between vastly different design disciplines, or conflicting stakeholder needs and ambitions.
We create integrated visions, grounded in deep user research and driven by tangible strategy. We design these strategies to consider both the organisational purpose and needs, as well as the needs of users and customers, considering holistic experiences across physical and digital spaces. We then design the tools to embed the vision and strategy within our client’s organisation:in this could be engagement tools to use in future designs, or illustrated personas and user journeys to be shared with every member of staff. This helps our clients design strategies with purpose, as well as evaluate and test the success of the messaging with their organisations.
3. We are idea-explorers — Experience concepts
We create innovative design concepts that define new interactions between people, places, and services.
Even once we understand a problem area, there is an endless list of growing ‘innovations’ in the built environment that can address some of the opportunities and challenges our clients face. Knowing when to develop an app, design a building, or hire staff can be challenging. Sometimes, the most innovative of ideas can fall short if they are not desired by users, feasible to implement, or viable for organisations.
We help clients realise their vision by creating spatial, service and product concepts. These concepts are grounded in research and strategy, and can be tested by lightweight prototyping. We illustrate these concepts through drawings, blueprints and roadmaps, covering the physical, digital, and service design. We benefit from being able to tap into Arup’s diverse technical expertise to create integrated solutions and roadmaps. This helps our clients prioritise concepts, develop speculative scenarios for the future, and ultimately deliver new experiences.
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This publication will be a combination of stories from the field, musings from our practice, and perspective pieces on the future of our lived environment. If you are interested in a past project, in collaborating or want to employ our services please get in touch with the team: studio@arup.com
With love,
Studio
