Integrated Design: Everything Matters — The Development of Burj Dubai and the New Beijing Poly Plaza

Architectural design and structural engineering have a symbiotic relationship: a close and essential union in which one heavily relies upon the other. In the ideal structure, the lines between science and aesthetic are blurred. By reviewing the development of Burj Dubai Tower and the cable wall of the New Beijing Poly Plaza, this paper will highlight examples of how the successful interplay between architects, structural engineers, MEP engineers and their various consultants influences the design process and ultimately, the structure as a whole. In particular, it will explore how a structural engineer approaches this essential collaboration which, in the best instances, results in situations where one cannot describe the structure without also describing the architecture, and the architecture without its structure.