We are…
… a multidisciplinary group of interaction designers, service designers, planners, architects and researchers. Our ability to transition scales of design, as well as disciplines, embeds Arup’s founding philosophy of Total Design in our practice and our team. Our practice is global, shared by Arup offices around the world but has a stronghold in London with 9 team members who will contribute to future articles on this publication.
[We must make] effective use of the new knowledge and resources at our disposal. We must do more with less and this is exactly what engineering, what technology means … This total design must nowadays be the work of many people, each contributing his [sic] particular knowledge. Without this the technological potential will not be realized and without this, artistic unity cannot be created.
— Ove Arup
Agostino Nickl
Agostino is a spatial and strategic designer interested in the intersection between physical, digital and lived environments with a background in architecture. Over the last years, he developed a myriad of innovative concepts for both the public and the private sector, from cultural institutions to city councils. His academic background includes a master’s in architecture from the Bartlett School of Architecture, as well as teaching design and design theory at Oxford School of Architecture and the Bartlett, UCL.
Anastasia Vikhornova
Anastasia is a user experience designer and researcher with a strong interest in how technology can be democratised to drive communal value and inclusivity in its all forms. Anastasia has previously worked at the Future Cities Catapult researching and designing citizen-centred products and services for local and international governments. Anastasia has received a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art, and a bachelor from London College of Communication.
Andres Mendoza
Andres leverages service design and smart building technology in pursuit of human-centred solutions to complex problems. He uses an array of tools — market trends analysis, user research, persona development, user journey mapping, prototyping — in order to address wide-ranging challenges, from business change in the age of digital platforms to healthcare in the era of smart buildings.
Camilla Andersen
Camilla thrives on solving complex challenges in the built environment by bringing together knowledge from different industries to create new innovative solutions with better social and environmental outcomes. Camilla previously worked at Gehl, urban quality consultancy, and has a Master of Architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Arts.
Oli Whittington
Oli is a systems thinker and draws on a diverse background to help him transcend scales when researching, strategising or designing. This includes engineering and technology design for city-scale technology masterplans to the design of a catering service. Oli is passionate about understanding and designing for the human experience in the built environment, driving transformational change both for our clients and broader social and environmental challenges.
Paul McConnell
Paul is a strategy and design leader focused on using design methods and technology to solve human, business, and civic problems. As the head of Arup’s Digital Studio team, he guides multidisciplinary teams toward breakthrough solutions that take shape in digital products, services, and physical spaces. Paul joins Arup from Intersection (Sidewalk Labs), where he established advisory and product design practices across while leading award winning efforts for cultural, mobility, civic services, corporate, and community projects.
Rebecca Chau
Rebecca’s work is founded in a deep understanding of users and their context, to reimagine buildings, spaces, neighbourhoods, places, and cities. Her experience across design research, urban planning, transport planning, and data analytics assists her to stitch together holistic solutions across disciplines and scales. Having worked across the UK, Australia, the United States, and Singapore, Rebecca has led research and strategy work across a breadth of social, governmental, and business contexts for the Education, Culture, City, and Property sectors.
Zung Nguyen Vu
Zung combines the power of user data, design, with an understanding of urban policy and organisational strategy to drive transformational change. Prior to Arup, she was an innovation consultant serving Fortune 500 companies and a research academic at the LSE. She serves on an advisory panel to the GLA on infrastructure, focusing on tech/data adoption and user engagement.
We also have team members Chris Green and Carmen Lopez located in New York, and Nicola Hudson, Cameron McIntosh, Lucy O’Connor and Kate Ramchurn located in Sydney and Melbourne.
