Heydar Aliyev Centre, Azerbaijan

The quest for innovative cutting-edge design and advancements in technology over the past few decades has pushed the disciplines of architecture and engineering towards a new era of collaborative design or ‘Designed Engineering’ as discussed by Hanif Kara, Design Director and co-founder of AKT II, a design led structural engineering practice in the UK. This shift towards an interdependent existence of the two professions has led not only to the realisation of previously unimaginable architectural projects in terms of design, engineering and construction, but also to a new way of working, collaborating and delivering design.

This two way process of working provides exciting opportunities for innovation in design, with a constant flow of ideas and solutions between the architect and the engineering team. It also means that today structural engineers become a part of the design process at a very early stage rather than at the end, as was the norm previously. For structural engineers such as Kara and his team this gives their work a new dimension as it allows them to develop a more emphatic approach to the design process and also to analyse projects from the standpoint of both the engineer and the designer at the same time.

Engineering firms such as AKT II have thus managed to create a new model of working by initiating an adaptive and collaborative approach to design engineering. It highlights the fact that today no single profession can truly exist and deliver groundbreaking solutions without adopting a collaborative approach with other disciplines.

• Priya is a student on the MSc Advanced Landscape and Urbanism