Arup has a long, star-studded track record in Arts and Culture building design.
Galleries, museums and spaces for music, dance, opera and theatre are all buildings informed by performance. The space and facilities must perform as well as the artists, from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, the De Young Museum in San Francisco, and the Casa da Musica in Porto, to the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne.
Sydney Opera House, one of the most iconic buildings in the world, continues to reward Arup's passionate commitment to its initial design. In an award-winning application of Building Modelling, Arup has mapped the entire structure and its assets.
Museums and Galleries
Having worked with major institutions from the Louvre and Tate Modern to the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and the Guggenheim, Arup knows what makes a museum building work. Visitor experience, security and conservation concerns are finely balanced in all its projects from major new buildings to smaller scale refurbishments.
In spaces where constant humidity and temperature levels must be maintained around the clock, Arup's skills meet the need to also reduce energy usage head on. Projects such as the California Academy of Sciences, in the USA, set new standards in live exhibits, while the whole building is part of the sustainability story in both design and operation.
Performing Arts
Arup designs elegant, functional and sustainable buildings to host performing arts. Arup's acoustic specialists are highly acclaimed, as can be heard as far and wide as Oslo Opera House in Norway and Melbourne Recital Centre in Australia. In auditorium and backstage, the needs of audience, performers and operators are equally prioritised.
Urban cultural facilities, such as King's Place in London, and the Lincoln Center in New York, present particular challenges of traffic noise and vibration from local transport infrastructure. They need skilled and innovative mitigation designed by people who are passionate about technical performance.
Libraries and Archives
Exceptional libraries large and small feature in Arup's portfolio of important recent buildings from Seattle Central Library to the British Library Conservation Centre and the Idea Stores in London. Designs for modern libraries such as Amsterdam Library and Singapore’s National Library respond to the need to preserve books and documents, and embrace multimedia information sharing, while also providing welcoming social spaces.