To see optimism in action, talk to an engineer. In the engineering world, every problem has a solution, and it’s often better than first imagined. Just ask Lewis Macdonald, who leads Arup in WA and the engineering team responsible for Perth’s first timber hybrid office tower.

When GDI Property Group purchased Westralia Square 2 (WS2) in 2017, the challenge was complex. How could a new design preserve the five-storey subterranean carpark – with its embodied carbon footprint ‘locked in’ when it was constructed in the 1990s – while delivering a sparkling 12-storey office building above?

Traditional construction would have meant demolishing the carpark and starting from scratch. But Arup’s engineers approached the project with a different mindset. 

By using a steel frame structure with lightweight cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor plates, the existing carpark could be retained, achieving an embodied carbon saving of around 70% when compared to a concrete equivalent building.

“Using timber meant we could build higher and bigger. The building was easy to construct, required far fewer people on site, improved the program and safety, and reduced labour costs,” says Lewis Macdonald, Arup’s WA Lead and President of Engineers Australia in WA.

“WS2 pushes back on the myth that sustainable solutions don’t make economic sense. The challenge of getting more value out of a constrained site was commercially driven. But we found that adaptive reuse sits at the intersection of sustainability and commerciality.”

A future-ready fitout

Arup is the anchor tenant of WS2 and occupies 2,600 sqm across three floors. Arup is pursuing Living Building Challenge certification for the office fitout, which aligns with a firm-wide net zero goal by 2030. The Living Building Challenge ambition required deep collaboration with project partners to embed circular design principles, including to identify low-carbon products and establish new material supply chains. 

The interior, co-designed with Hames Sharley, Noongar Artist Peter Farmer, cultural advisor Miranda Farmer and their family from Peter Farmer Designs, was a “joyful collaboration” Lewis says.

“What I love about this project is that it is engineering-led. WS2 has a simple but beautiful built form, and every element has an authentic purpose. You can point to every element and understand why it’s there. It flips the historical paradigm, of architecture first, on its head.”

Take the void at the centre of the workplace, which was created by removing two levels of the building’s CLT floors. These are now stored in the base of the internal staircase, and a ‘storytelling window’ serves as a daily reminder of Arup’s commitment to material reuse.

“When we leave, we can ‘make good’ by reinstating those two floors with the original materials. Our fitout isn’t just adaptive now; it’s adaptive into the future.” 

Arup is in the process of setting up an online portal to share project insights to “pay it forward” because “there is no advantage to us of keeping what we’ve learnt a secret”.

Engineering and the AI advantage

Digital technology, like sustainability, is driving a fundamental shift in how engineers approach design challenges. Arup is actively exploring how artificial intelligence and automation can improve precision and streamline processes, Lewis says.

But there is an enormous opportunity to leverage AI as more than a productivity powerhouse, Lewis emphasises. “AI can free up time, but it’s our responsibility to use that time wisely – not to produce more, but to produce better.”

McKinsey estimates that automation, supported by generative AI tools, could eliminate work activities that absorb up to 70% of employees’ time today. But that doesn't tell the whole story. McKinsey's latest analysis indicates that demand for high-skill workers, especially those in STEM-related professions, will rise.

Arup is taking an “activities-based approach” to the use of AI to help people “move away from repetitive and manual tasks, and free up our collective brain power for more specialist tasks,” Lewis says.

“We must make time for human ingenuity.” And besides, we can’t automate human curiosity and our innate thirst for learning, or our hardwired drive to connect and collaborate, Lewis adds. Those characteristics – a hallmark of the engineering profession – will be in demand in the years ahead.

The time is right for engineers to step out of the “back room” and into public view. “It’s only natural that engineers should have views and that our voices are heard. Our work influences the fabric of society.”