Case study: Novel design for tomorrow

None of the 800 occupants of the Chicken Shed, a large wood-and-glass building near Solihull in the West Midlands, manufactures anything, yet all are intimately involved in “advanced manufacturing” .

Nearly all are engineers, and they work on projects ranging from manipulating the shapes of people’s faces on computer screens – for work on a new type of cosmetic implant – to designing railway stations.

The building is part of Arup, a London-based technology and design company whose specialists frequently create products ranging from structural parts for a new shopping centre made from novel sorts of plastic, to components for a car engine or lighting system.

Colin Stewart, an Arup director who works at the Solihull centre, says one of the strengths of UK engineers is their interest in challenging preconceived ways of doing things.

“If people here are given a job such as designing a bridge, their first thought is to work out how it would be done using conventional methods – and then to try to think of an improvement,” he says.

The work at the centre is split into 75 different technical fields, including geotechnology, acoustics, structural engineering and forensic science.

“Making links between these different fields to come up with a novel product or way to design a building is a vital part of what we do,” says David Storer, another Arup director.

In the past the results of such efforts – involving a pooling of know-how in stress mechanics, new materials and structural engineering – have led to the development of special damping devices that enable specific buildings to withstand earthquakes.