Ove Arup at V&A

The Victoria & Albert Museum staged the first ever major retrospective on Ove Arup (1895–1988), the most influential engineer of the 20th century, as part of the Engineering Season.

Sydney Opera House under construction, 1966. © Robert Baudin for Hornibrook Ltd. Courtesy Australian Air Photos

Revealing the untold design stories behind some of the world’s most famous buildings, such as the Sydney Opera House and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, to recent projects such as Crossrail, the V&A staged the first ever major retrospective on Ove Arup (1895–1988), the most influential engineer of the 20th century, as part of the V&A Engineering Season.

**Top:** Sydney Opera House under construction, 1966. © Robert Baudin for Hornibrook Ltd. Courtesy Australian Air Photos
**Above:** View of Kingsgate Bridge, 1963. Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library

Engineering the World: Ove Arup and the Philosophy of Total Design, staged in cooperation with the global engineering and design consultancy Arup, will survey the life, work and legacy of the firm’s Anglo-Danish founder featuring over 150 previously unseen prototypes, models, archival materials, drawings, film and photography, as well as new immersive digital displays featuring animations, simulations and virtual reality.

Ship docked at Mulberry harbour, 1944. © Imperial War Museum

Ove Arup was the pioneer of a multidisciplinary approach to design that has defined the way engineering is understood and practiced today. His theories on ‘Total Design’ centred on bringing all professions involved in a project together from the start and also advocated closer collaboration between architects, engineers and builders.

Training first in philosophy, and with a highly poetic and imaginative sense of design, Ove revolutionised the fields of civil and structural engineering. Arranged chronologically and spanning around 100 years of engineering and architectural design, the exhibition will present a selection of Arup’s groundbreaking projects over the last century, including collaborations with leading architects like Berthold Lubetkin, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster.

Crossrail Tunnel Boring Machine Jessica breaks through into Stepney Green cavern, February 2014. Photo Robby Whitfield © Crossrail Ltd

The exhibition will also explore the pioneering work undertaken by Arup worldwide today, including major infrastructure projects like Crossrail, currently Europe’s largest underground railway, innovative technologies for acoustics studies like SoundLab®, and SolarLeaf, an experimental bio-reactive façade system that uses microalgae to generate renewable energy. The exhibition will immerse visitors in the creative and collaborative work of engineers, architects and designers who, together, design our buildings, cities and urban systems.

Private Ove, Ove Arup and Partners Christmas Party Pamphlet, 1963. © Private Collection — *Private Ove* (detail), Ove Arup and Partners Christmas Party Pamphlet, 1963. © Private Collection

until 6 November 2016
Engineering the World: Ove Arup and the Philosophy of Total Design
Part of the Engineering Season
Graphic design: Zak Group
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road, London

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