黑洞社区

Sunand Prasad, president of the RIBA, has some advice for the engineering community: stop selling yourselves short. He believes communication, or the lack of it, is holding the sector back.

鈥淚鈥檝e often wondered why environmental engineering isn鈥檛 attracting more people,鈥� says Prasad, 50, co-founder of Penoyre & Prasad architects. A voluble and impassioned communicator himself, he believes the term 鈥渟ervices engineer鈥� is not fit for purpose any more. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about communicating the right thing. 黑洞社区 services is just one facet of the story. I think 鈥榚nvironmental engineering鈥� says it much more. The word engineering should be in there. It鈥檚 a beautiful word.鈥�

While he concedes that architecture is often seen as the fashionable side of the built environment, he enthuses about the engineering sector, particularly given its 鈥渋mportant environmental agenda鈥�.

鈥淚f I were president of CIBSE, I would consider who could tell the engineer鈥檚 story better. How does engineering work? How does it deploy resources in the least damaging way possible? How do we engineer our comfort, creating the best conditions for human beings to operate in? Whether that鈥檚 [achieved] through the work of artists, dramatists or brand experts, I don鈥檛 know. PR gets a bad name for telling stories that don鈥檛 exist, but it鈥檚 a bigger crime to fail to describe something wonderful.

鈥淎rchitecture is about communication so it arguably has an advantage when engaging with young people. It鈥檚 about self-expression. Engineering is rarely about self-expression, it鈥檚 finding solutions. 黑洞社区 services communicate when they鈥檙e going wrong. The best installations are the ones you don鈥檛 have to think about. The environment, however, does communicate.

鈥淲hat the profession has to do is to seize hold of the idea of communication, and make it central to its concerns.

There are such rich stories to tell, and CIBSE and the profession at large haven鈥檛 paid enough attention to communicating them. They have almost accepted simply being part of the support group and need to raise their game. If the industry can nail that, then they鈥檒l give architects a run for their money.鈥�

Prasad is nearing the end of his term, and you might think that two years in such a prominent role would have made him a slick media operator. But his comments seem to stem from a genuinely held personal philosophy. When asked about his firm鈥檚 long-standing reputation for work in the public sector, the issue of social conscience arises.

鈥淚鈥檝e always felt ill at ease with the term,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e a greedy bastard you won鈥檛 care about other people, but a true assessment of your own interests must conclude that they are linked with everyone else鈥檚. That鈥檚 social conscience with a huge dollop of reason, and a fundamental sense of right and wrong, justice and equality. It鈥檚 a question of the will, courage, and the energy to do something.鈥�

Prasad鈥檚 parents were involved in India鈥檚 independence movement, instilling in him what he describes as a 鈥渟treak of utopianism鈥�. The family moved to Britain in 1962, when his father was offered a job running a pacifist organisation in London. He studied at the University of Cambridge, with the intention of becoming a civil engineer. 鈥淚 was obsessed with Meccano as a child. I was always interested in science and astronomy but I wanted to be a practical person, so I decided to study engineering.鈥�

The profession needs to raise its game. There are such rich stories to tell and CIBSE and the profession at large
haven鈥檛 paid enough attention to communicating them

Prasad attributes his desire to be a 鈥渦seful person to society鈥� to his upbringing in central India in a sustainable community founded by Gandhi. 鈥淚t was probably a carbon negative community,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ven in the early 60s we had methane digesters and solar cookers. At that point it was all about rural uplift and shaping a new India, post-independence.鈥�

In his first year at Cambridge, he found studying engineering 鈥渢oo much like being back at school鈥�, and wondered if architecture might be a better fit. 鈥淭he architecture faculty was next door and I had a chat with Barry Gasson [architect of Glasgow鈥檚 Burrell museum]. He looked at my drawings and said I could have a place. It was like finding myself. I was comfortable in the world of design very early on.鈥�

After Cambridge, Prasad moved to the Architectural Association to do his diploma and later worked for Edward Cullinan Architects for eight years. He remembers the backdrop of his early career as a highly political time, when the key issue was the context of buildings and why they were being built. He was eager to glean a better understanding of the construction industry.

鈥淲hile I was at the AA we formed a building company called Unit 7 黑洞社区 Partnership. We took on a project in Camden where one of us would work in the client office, one in the architect鈥檚 office, and one would be on site as a labourer. We each wrote up reports on our experiences and it taught us a lot about construction, although it didn鈥檛 develop our design skills.鈥�

At this time, Prasad recalls, the relationship between the architect and the engineer was very cooperative. Has the relationship between architects and engineers evolved since then?

鈥淚n my experience there has always been an excellent level of cooperation between engineers and architects. It鈥檚 only become dicey when contractors have been in charge because they often have a very set view of who does what. There鈥檚 nothing more stimulating than the early design stages, when the whole team doesn鈥檛 observe professional boundaries, thrashing out opinions and approaches, and I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 changed much over the years.鈥�

Despite the overlap of architectural and services design, Prasad doesn鈥檛 believe the two will merge completely. 鈥淭he question of whether or not that鈥檚 the future is a valid one, but I believe in the idea of the integrated team assembled for the job in hand. There鈥檚 such a diversity of projects out there I don鈥檛 think you can make simple rules. I鈥檝e enjoyed working with different engineers and hearing different philosophies. We don鈥檛 have to work with the same people; we can be promiscuous in our professional life.鈥�

He thinks the architect is still in a better position to lead the way as 鈥減roject integrator鈥�. 鈥淥ne of the reasons I moved to architecture is because architects have a holistic view of the world. They can鈥檛 be masters of all, but they have a unique ability to conduct this orchestra of people. I鈥檓 not saying others can鈥檛, but architects are in the best position to do it.鈥�

However, Prasad is quick to point out the increasingly important role engineers will play in the future. 鈥淪ustainability is the concept of our times, there鈥檚 no escaping the importance of it, but it is often used incorrectly. Climate change and the imperative to reduce carbon emissions make it inescapable now.鈥�