Some of the best writing about architecture appears in the pages of the New Yorker. The magazine's June 25 issue features a long-form piece by staff writer David Owen on the structural engineers of London-based international design firm Arup Group. The article is not yet available online, but an abstract is available here.

Balmond

The piece is an excellent overview of where progressive design seems to be going. The lines between architecture and engineering are blurring, if not disappearing, thanks to advances in computer modeling, materials and, most importantly, creativity and collaboration among the world's leading structural engineers and architects. First among equals at Arup is Cecil Balmond. Balmond has earned a reputation over the last quarter century for stunning structural engineering, created in collaboration with some of the world's most innovative architects. Owen's list includes: Rem Koolhaas, Philip Johnson, Daniel Liebeskind, James Stirling, Ben van Berkel, and Toyo Ito. "Good collaboration is an art," Balmond told Owen. "It's better than the two of you separately."

The firm's founder Ove Arup, who supervised Balmond's first major project in 1970, preached collaboration long before it became a buzzword. In a 1970 speech, Arup outlined his philosophy of "Total Architecture…in collaboration with other like minded firms…This means expanding outr field of activity into adjoining fields – architecture, planning, ground engineering, environmental engineering, computer programming, etc. and the planning and organization of work on site."

Ove Arup’s visionary treatise became known as The Key Speech. It is required reading for each new hire at the firm. It should be read by all emerging engineers and architects and re-read every five years by the veterans.

London correspondent Peter Reina led with the Key Speech in a profile of Arup in a July 24, 2006, cover story. And October 23, 2006, Editor in Chief Jan Tuchman and freelance contributor Andrea Ding Kemp wrote about another Arup collaboration, with Swiss architect Herzog & de Meuron: Beijing’s "bird’s nest" stadium, under construction for the 2008 Olympic Games.