Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork

One year after qualifying as an architect, Jean Francois Koenig was given the choice between joining a traditional architectural practice with large commissions or a newly formed experimental multi-disciplinary team doing industrial work. Although industrial buildings could be considered a restriction to architectural expression, he chose the latter because the industrial world brought a straightforward rationale to design providing structural and environmental clarity to design within a multi disciplinary framework. Multi disciplinary teams bring together traditionally separated professions, better informing decisions at the earliest stages of the design process.

Jean-Francois Koenig  worked for 4 years between 1981 and 1985 at Rhodar Consultants, the first and only multi-disciplinary practice in South Africa and for 2 years between 1985 and 1987 at Arup Associates under partners David Thomas and Sir Philip Dowson.  At Arup Associates, he worked  on the Embankment tube station for British Rail and the Hasbro Bradley headquarters  at Stockley Park, illustrared here.