Company Profile
Arup
Company Overview
We are an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services. Through our work we make a positive difference in the world.
Come to Arup and you will be joining a unique, independent organisation with a diverse mix of people who love what they do. You will have opportunities to collaborate with colleagues around the world on projects that shape the built environment and make a positive difference.
We are owned in trust for the benefit of our employees and their dependants; with no shareholders or external investors we determine our own business priorities and direction.
Company History
In 1946, philosopher and engineer Ove Arup set up his consulting engineering business in London. In the more than 60 years that have followed, the business has grown into an international consulting firm of unparalleled scope, owned in trust for its employees and using the business principles that Ove Arup first set out – and which he articulated for posterity in 1970 in his forward-looking ‘key speech’.
Right from the start, Arup was known for its close and exceptionally productive collaborations with leading and avant-garde architects. In its first two decades, the firm expanded rapidly, and earned a formidable reputation for devising advanced and economical solutions for buildings – a reputation it still enjoys today.
By 1976, Arup’s reputation had become truly global with the completion of the Sydney Opera House. By this time, the firm had opened offices in Northern Europe, Southern Africa, South East Asia and Australia. Its breadth of expertise was already considerable: this ranged from offshore engineering, acoustics, facades, and specialist skills such as impact, blast, risk and seismic engineering, to relatively-niche areas such as designing transportation containers for nuclear waste.
The firm’s portfolio today is broad and wide-ranging. Many of the world’s most iconic sports stadia are Arup projects – such as Beijing’s Water Cube, the Singapore Sport's Hub and London Aquatics Centre.
Arup’s work goes beyond buildings and infrastructure, however. We collaborated with car manufacturers on the design of the SuperLight car, which uses considerably less energy than the petrol equivalent. Through our Operational Readiness, Activation and Transition (ORAT) service we help clients and other stakeholders plan for the seamless opening and operation of major facilities like airports and hospitals or for major events. Arup has also developed a range of proprietary computer modelling tools which it sells around the world, as well as innovations such as our SoundLab, an aural-realisation tool with which clients can hear subjectively how different design options perform acoustically – before they are actually built.
Arup now has over 92 offices across Europe, North America, Africa, Australasia and South East Asia. We employ more than 12,000 people globally. Our revenue in the year ending March 2014 exceeded £1bn.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
MCA Award Winners 2015
Benefits
Make a difference:
A career at Arup gives you the chance to make a positive impact on the world. This is because, for us, corporate responsibility is not just a policy; it’s a way of working.
We put sustainability at the heart of our projects. And we invest in research and development that helps tackle issues such as climate change and poverty.
Employee-owned:
Arup is owned in trust for our people and run for our people and clients. With no shareholders or external investors, we can set our own priorities and direction.
Free-thinking:
Our independent ownership structure lets us determine our own destiny. It also gives us the freedom to nurture and value independent thinking from our people.
A healthy mix:
Diversity is essential for Arup as we look for better ways to imagine, re-imagine and shape the environment.
We take on a diverse range of projects for clients around the world – 10,000 of them at any one time. We seek out people with different backgrounds, skills and abilities to join our 12,000-strong community. And we welcome challenging opinions and new and innovative ways of thinking.
Community engagement:
We regularly partner with humanitarian and charitable organisations to help people around the world. During your career you will have opportunities to donate your time and pass on your expertise to make a real difference to communities near and far.
Sharing knowledge:
Our skills networks allow easy collaboration between colleagues, wherever they are. The role of the networks is to bring new experiences and resources within employees reach.
Most people in Arup regularly use these networks to learn more, faster – through open collaboration, through dialogue and by contributing. And our networks are just one element of a wider culture that sees the firm invest heavily in sharing, research and learning through the Arup University.