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.