Arup is looking at ways of championing reuse to repurpose old buildings to give them a second life . Last year the company ’ s Digital Fusion project was the joint winner of an ideas competition to find new uses for the grade II listed St Martin ’ s Church in Brighton . Arup ( alongside Emil Eve Architects ) was picked from 28 diverse responses to the call for creative solutions that would “ respect the integrity ” of the under-used gothic revival structure , while at the same time “ adding new life and economic sustainability ”. The scheme has subsequently won an International Design Award and Arup is in talks with the client to help realise the concept .
Exploration with R & D to learn more about the data centre of the future - whether that ’ s shrinkage to the size of the pen in your pocket , or pods on a building running off a closed network - is a big part of Arup ’ s vision . Atthis and Tolmie ’ s team ’ s goals for 2020 goals will draw on synergies within the business to look at plans to repurpose oil rigs to become data centre facilities
Atthis believes it ’ s important for Arup to challenge conventions in this way as the company strives to be at the forefront of transformation where the future is agile - whether it be on the sea , at the edge or in the cloud . “ I think we ’ re seeing barriers coming down ,” she says . “ Everybody has their own view of the Edge and where it actually is . Whatever that ends up looking like it ’ s going to be closer to you and I . Businesses will require big hubs , whilst there will also increasingly be a move to localise solutions to bring data centre services closer to the end user .”
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