A day in the life of an Master's in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment student
9 April 2025 - Gloria Wong, Senior Civil and Structural Engineer at Arup, and student on the Master’s in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE), shares her experience of studying the programme and details what a day looks like during the third of her residential workshops in Cambridge, UK.
My day begins with…
A leisurely walk to Maison Clement or Pages Coffee House for coffee and a croissant. I enjoy going into a café early and spending some time getting work or reading done. I meet my course mates either at the café or enroute and walk together to lectures at Engineering Department. The crisp, cold air and lively conversations wake me up, and sets my mind in motion for the day ahead.
The workshop starts with…
An introduction to the day’s activities and themes. It’s the first day of official lectures at my third workshop. We are focusing on infrastructure this week, an area that I am personally and professionally interested in. The first half of the day is lectures on the challenges in Energy, Water and Transportation, followed by the week’s collaborative practical project session for the rest of the day. Contrary to my expectation, the challenges discussed were not all technical, with lecturers providing thought-provoking insights into how the challenges might be approached through systemic frameworks or behavioural shifts.
Between sessions we…
Grab tea at the cafeteria of Engineering Department and make full use of the time we have to socialise. My course mates hail from a diverse range of industries, roles and countries, resulting in interesting discourse on every subject. I’ve personally learned a great deal about how sustainability strategies are implemented in different government sectors and the construction industry, which provides useful insight for my work in design consulting.
After lunch we…
Move away from lectures and go into a collaborative workshop format for the practical project component. We’re provided the master-planning brief to transform an industrial estate, and informed that this is a real project, and ideas could be taken into consideration for further development. The rest of the time is spent with my new practical project group utilising what we have learned so far to develop a sustainable and resilient strategy that revitalises the community and economy. Coming from different professional backgrounds, we initially struggled to understand how to approach the brief but gained better clarity with discussions and the aid of the three guest supervisors from Medway City Council and the urban designers working with them.
We head for the evening session at the Entopia building after dinner with our bellies full of good curry. It is late , but the energy level in the room is high as the lecturer takes us through a fascinating presentation on the evolution of human settlements and urbanisation and its relationship to food, intended to expand our horizons. When asked if we would like her to stop talking when time ran out, an enthusiastic ‘No’ resounded in the room.
After sessions finish, I have the opportunity to…
Catch up with some of my peers over a drink in the newly reopened Wolfson College bar. It was closed during my last workshop, and we are glad to see it open again. With the college bar so close to our accommodations, it has become the default location for social time at night. It is often lively with conversation and the occasional piano music. As the night wears on, I adjourn to my room to do some last-minute pre-reading and wrap up urgent tasks for work.
I am excited by/inspired to…
Drive change in the way we work through both sharing my knowledge and modelling it in my own projects. Although the course is entrenched in sustainability principles, there is an equal emphasis on interdisciplinarity evidenced through the range of knowledge taught alongside strategies for collaboration and design management. The practical aspects of the course combined with theories delivered through lectures and reading have helped me sharpen my own understanding of how Ove Arup’s ‘Total Design’ can be practically achieved. I am eager to experiment with it in my work and hopefully achieve better outcomes for the triple bottom line of planet, people and profession.