arup design school
DESCRIPTION
This is a summary of the key learnings from Arup Design School Americas 2010.TRANSCRIPT
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