Taking the next step

With over half of the world’s infrastructure investment now taking place in emerging economies – where over $1.2 trillion will be spent on infrastructure projects during 2009 – the need to increase awareness as to the importance of sustainability is growing. Keith Clarke, CEO of design and engineering firm Atkins, explains why.

Investment in infrastructure has always played a leading role in economic development, from the roads and aqueducts of ancient Rome to the railway boom in Britain in the mid-19th century. Basic infrastructure – roads, railways, airports, energy generation and distribution, water supply and sanitation – underpins the sustainable development and economic transformation of emerging economies. Morgan Stanley predicts emerging economies will spend almost $22 trillion on infrastructure over the next 10 years, of which China will account for 43 percent, India 13 percent, Russia 10 percent, Brazil five percent and the Middle East four percent. In fact, over half of the world's infrastructure investment is now taking place in emerging economies.

Clearly, the global engineering community has a huge role to play in this development – particularly given the increasing importance of sustainability on the global development agenda. Rapid worldwide urbanisation is increasing the demands for urban infrastructure, and by 2025 the percentage of the world's growing population living in urban environments will have increased from 40 to 60 percent. This and the expected growth in income will substantially increase urban electricity requirements, communications and demand for airports, roads, rail and mass urban transport infrastructure as travel becomes more popular and accessible. Developing such networks in a sustainable way will be imperative as the world continues to address the climate change challenge and the increased need for energy and resource efficient solutions.

"I think it's probably the biggest challenge we've ever had as an industry," says Keith Clarke, CEO of design and engineering giant Atkins. "But if we can crack it, some of the age-old chestnuts for the construction industry will get changed as well-interdisciplinary working, knowledge transfer, communication down the supply chains, etc. You can't get to a sustainable future without doing all those things better than we've ever done before."

Atkins is approaching the issue in a number from a number of different perspectives. "We're doing four streams of work," says Clarke. "The first is an education process to make people aware of why climate change and sustainability is important. The next stream is researching certain outcome models in order to give people tools that they can use to try and calculate the value of decarbonising projects. The third stream is about using different types of teams, because you can't necessarily accomplish carbon reduction with your traditional skill sets; it's about knowledge transfer and teamwork. And then the last stream is how to talk to clients about that. And what we've found is that you need to make a journey down each of those four streams simultaneously, and you can't necessarily give people a definitive answer to any one of those streams right now because the answer doesn't exist yet. We've got to invent it."

Such an approach is challenging, but Clarke maintains that the pace at which sustainability is becoming established in the mindsets and agendas of the business community is also incredibly exciting. "I think it's an accelerating curve," he says. "Two years ago, you wouldn't see a special page on green technology in the Sunday Times business section as a matter of course. But it's becoming mainstream at such a rate that you can see in a year's time there won't be a 'green' page for the business section at all. It'll be embedded in all aspects of business."

But this doesn't mean that every company will be able to embrace the concept of sustainability successfully; Clarke believes it will take hard work and a real commitment to changing the status quo. In short, it will require construction and engineering firms to be more innovative than they have ever been before. "The thing about innovation is that the companies that do it, do it regardless; those that don't either don't do it because there's a recession on or they don't do it because they're too busy – and if you want an excuse not to change, there's always an excuse not to change. That's the brutal reality of it," he says. "We've had a good market for 10 years now, and if you haven't innovated in that period you sure as hell aren't going to suddenly start now."

However, Clarke feels that innovation will be essential to business success over the next few years. "I think companies are beginning, if anything, to realise that a long-term recession means if you don't improve your business, you won't get through it," he says. "If anything, it's a spur towards the poorer performing companies disappearing. And I'm not saying whether that's a good bad or a bad thing. It's just an observation that tough markets tend to show who has the ability to adapt and cope with them. And if you've got a major design determinant like decarbonisation coming in, those that can cope with that are going to do well, and those that wait for someone else to do all the hard work, well, there's nowhere for them to hide."

According to Clarke, Atkins is taking the view that the current economic conditions could be around for a while. "It's not a 'hold your breath' recession," he says. "You can't just hope it will go away and defer training courses and conferences and hope it will be alright in six months. It won't be. Your business has to perform in this environment, which could be the environment for another couple of years. And in those couple of years, you need to improve your product because the world is changing fast. It's time to manage. It's not time to watch."

The recession is also having an impact on the industry in other ways, too - not least in terms of human resources. "Last October I was going to the Middle East to tell clients why we didn't have the capacity to do any more work – largely because we couldn't grow quickly enough to service the market at the quality we demanded of ourselves," says Clarke. "We were resource constrained. In November, we were no longer resource constrained."

The Middle East is clearly a key market for the UK-headquartered Atkins, on of the world's largest multi-disciplinary design and engineering firms. As well as its pioneering work on the iconic Burj Al Arab – the design and construction of which helped put Dubai on the map and heralded the dawn of a 'golden age' of architectural innovation for the tiny Gulf state – the firm has also worked on a number of other key projects across the region, such as Bahrain's World Trade Centre and the Dubai International Finance Centre's Lighthouse Tower. Sustainable design and construction has been a feature of all three projects, and permeates Atkins approach to the region.

"We started investing in the carbon issue a number of years ago in the Middle East, before we did it anywhere else," he explains. "For instance, we sponsor a chair of sustainability at a university in Dubai. We've done it for four years, and we did it there because we thought that this region was capable of changing the question quicker than anybody else. Firstly, they have a vested interest. At some point, most of those economies are going to run out of oil, so they have a resource issue. Secondly, if you look at Abu Dhabi and the ruler's statement on the environment, he wants to be a world leader on environmental issues. He staked his ground with Masdar and other developments. Dubai is not far behind. Oman's waking up to environmental codes and most of the emirates are on the journey of seeing it as an integral part of being a world destination - and if you're going to play in the global marketplace, you've got to be seen to be responsible.

"I also don't think they get credit for what they've done," he continues. "Many in the West still see them as oil-rich Arabs, driving big cars. Well, actually Masdar's the only project like that being done in the world. There isn't one being done in China, for instance. I know they get a lot of things wrong. But they also get an awful lot of things right, and they do it quicker than rest of us. So I think sustainability is on the agenda. And it will remain on the agenda when liquidity comes back."

Atkins at a glance

Established: 1938
Headquarters: UK
Locations: More than 200 permanent offices worldwide
Workforce: 18,000 employees (as of April 2009)
Turnover: $2.4 billion
Chief executive: Keith Clarke
Fast fact: Atkins is the fourth largest multidisciplinary consultancy in the world

DIFC Lighthouse Tower

Atkins provided architecture, civil and structural engineering, MEP engineering, sustainable design and construction supervision services for this 400m-high, 64-storey office tower for Dubai International Finance Centre. Atkins designed the Lighthouse Tower to be the world's first hot-climate, low-carbon, high-rise tower to aspire to a LEED Platinum rating. It integrates multiple active and passive solutions into the fabric of the building – passive solar architecture, low water engineering solutions and photovoltaic panels. Atkins' solution will result in up to 50 percent reduction in energy consumption and up to 40 percent reduction in water consumption when compared to a typical Dubai design. The project was commended for demonstrating that high-rise buildings have significant potential to be designed and constructed to meet sustainability targets.

Designing the Burj

With a long established and proven track record as a major consultant in the Gulf region, Atkins was approached by a key client in the early 1990s to design and deliver a unique project – an iconic hotel that would be instantly recognised as an architectural icon. What followed was five years of design and build activity resulting in a technically challenging, aesthetic masterpiece that has thrust Dubai forward onto the world stage and, even today, stands as a measure of excellence and innovation.

To win the commission, Atkins had to prove that its concept design was going to deliver a building with an identity commensurate with the aspirations of a leading developing regional economy, guided by a ruler with vision and ambition for even greater things to come. Tough questions had to be answered: What makes a building iconic? What will truly reflect not only Dubai's heritage, but also Dubai's forward thinking and modern ambitions? "We wanted to create a building that would match the rate of buoyant expansion and stylish culture synonymous with Dubai," says Clarke.

The defining criteria for an international icon were deemed to be style and uniqueness of form, which would made a bold statement and be instantly recognisable. This had to be tempered against the demanding specification to deliver a building that could stand the test of time not only aesthetically, but also technically. Dubai's seafaring history played an inspirational part in the design concept, but it was left to the creative talent of Atkins' architects and engineers to devise a solution that delivered a structure matching all these requirements.

In drawing upon Dubai's nautical past, the concept solution was based on a large sail – that of a modern high-tech spinnaker of a J Class Yacht. With client approval of this innovative concept in empathy with the nation's seafaring origins the company began the design and delivery of the 321-metre tall structure with a dedicated multidisciplinary team based in Dubai. Imposingly set on a man made island 300m out to sea, the first challenges were to assess the impact of such a feature on the existing shoreline and to develop a solution for the construction within a confined cofferdam. Atkins incorporated concrete armour units that present a sloping surface to the sea to absorb wave impact without throwing water onto the island.

A steelwork exoskeleton, with trusses as long as 85m, provides wind bracing and defines the building's dramatic triangular shape. The sail theme is continued in the unique geometric double skinned fabric wall, which insulates the building from solar gain as well as allowing diffused natural light to the interior. Encapsulated behind this is one of the most defining elements of the building – a 182-metre high atrium, the tallest in the world, which sets the internal ambience of the duplex-floored interior.

"Our concept and structural designs set the precedent for what was expected to be delivered within the interior of the building," says Clarke. In accomplishing this, the material specification for the hotel interiors is unparalleled in its quality: the same marble as that used by Michelangelo to create his sculpture of David, and 8000 square metres of 22 carat gold leaf integrated into the interior design are but a few examples. Hidden from the casual observer are some of the most sophisticated system technologies in the electromechanical designs, which ensure the fastest lifts and a level of guest service facilities that remain uncontested anywhere else in the world.

Commensurate with the innovation within the building, there were also several water and lighting effects that were incorporated into the design to ensure that the Burj Al Arab's aesthetics were as stunning as it's architectural design. These include an animated display of water and fire that greets guests at the entrance, and an internal atrium water sculpture composed of fibre optic lit water arches complemented by a 50-metre high water shooter.

Today, the Burj Al Arab still holds the record for being the tallest all-suite hotel in the world. It has gained international media exposure throughout the world, forming a backdrop for innumerable global events and has been featured in the National Geographic TV Series Megastructures. "Most importantly, because of the performance of our designers, project managers and other professionals associated with its delivery, the Atkins name is now synonymous with internationally acclaimed architecture and design, delivered in a very challenging environment to a most discerning client," says Clarke. "It has been one of the springboards for our current reputation as a designer of excellence and has established a platform from which numerous high profile commissions have followed."