BUILDING A WAY FOR THE FUTURE
Ever fancied designing or building a skyscraper in Dubai or perhaps being involved with preparing London for the Olympics? How about creating a cable-stayed bridge such as the Øresund Bridge? Qualify as a structural engineer and you could find yourself working on a variety of projects across the globe.
The buildings and structures that surround our everyday life are the ones which they design. Arguably, they perform one of the most important roles in the construction industry. Without the technical knowledge and skills base that structural engineers encompass, the buildings and structures which we inhabit daily could potentially cause a life threatening situation.
Structural engineers hone in on the framework design that holds a building or structure together to make it strong and flexible enough to withstand the pressures they have to endure over their lifetime without collapsing, bending, twisting or vibrating in undesirable ways. This could range from designing domestic houses, theatres, sports stadia, hospitals and sky-scrapers to bridges, oil rigs and tunnels. In addition to designing new buildings, they also ensure that old buildings maintain their integrity.
Structural engineers work directly with clients, architects, contractors and various other professionals. Through monitoring the progress of an architectural project from its initial idea to its completion, they create preliminary design models using extensive mathematical and scientific knowledge. When construction has commenced, they monitor the work, directing contractors to ensure that the designs are being followed closely. The architect comes up with a building design, and then it's the structural engineer's responsibility to work in tandem with them and fit the structure to the architecture, decide on what structural system is best suited to that particular building and design the beams, the columns, the basic members to make the building stand up. One of the most important factors that a structural engineer has to maintain is the balance between cost budget, allowing the structure to fulfill its function and purpose whilst ensuring it is aesthetically pleasing.
It perhaps comes as no surprise that the majority of structural engineers are male. Many people are surprised when they ask me what my educational background is and what I do for a living. I mean it’s not every day that you see a British Indian female structural engineer. However, there are an increasing number of female engineers nowadays, so the balance of it being a male dominated industry is changing. Furthermore, there are many associations that actively encourage women to apply for positions within the construction industry, particularly those from a BME background.
So what interested me in the field? Well I’ve always been completely fascinated by buildings and architecture, it is something I am unbelievably passionate about. From a young age, I knew that I wanted a career in the construction industry in some shape or form! I had always been creative with a strong passion for architecture and I also succeeded in technical subjects. All it took was for me to make a simple balsa wood model of a music shop in primary school at the age of 9.
I did a lot of research into the different careers I could potentially have in the construction industry whilst at secondary school and considered professions such as landscape architecture, quantity surveying and interior design, but still I came back to the idea of being a structural engineer. This was because I wanted do something in life where I could physically see and touch something that I had helped to create. I geared my A-Level subjects choices towards ensuring I reached this goal.
Over the course of my time at university, I was fortunate to gain three different summer internships with the Health & Safety Executive (my sponsoring organisation for the Windsor Fellowship Leadership Programme), Ad Elem in FYR Macedonia and Waterman Structures. However, it wasn’t easy, placements are very competitive and I worked very hard to ensure that I maintained an edge over my peers.
I finally graduated with a MEng Structural Engineering with Architectural Studies from the University of Sheffield in 2008. I now work for one of the leading engineering consultancies in the world, Arup, as an assistant project manager. This is a firm that I dreamed of working for.
I am currently working on the UK Centre for Medical Research & Innovation, a world class medical research facility which is set to be completed in 2014. At the moment I am involved in procuring services for the project and I am also assisting in managing the overall design process to ensure that we adhere to project programme and deliver on time and to budget.
The majority of UK engineering consultancies and contractor firms are involved with projects overseas, so as a global profession you could expect to be posted on construction project sites anywhere in the world. Arup has over 10,000 staff working in over 90 offices in 37 countries and at any one time, there are over 10,000 projects running. So the possibilities for me to move within the company, and indeed the industry, are endless.
The profession is extremely rewarding and inspirational as you are surrounded by such creative individuals on a daily basis. Furthermore, you get to see a project grow from a sketch on a piece of paper to something build-able. Nevertheless, it is hard work and projects are long haul. They don’t just materialize overnight, or over 6 months, they usually last a fair few years.
If you want to pursue a career in this industry and be successful, you need to be strong-minded and passionate about design, alongside being technically and mathematically competent. If this sounds like something you would be interested in then the best advice I can give to you is to immerse yourself in that environment. There are plenty of construction publications (such as the TARGET Construction magazine) designed for 13-18 years olds that will give you in-depth information. You could also shadow a professional to gain some experience or even sign up to attend engineering experience workshops and clubs (Smallpeice Trust and The London Engineering Project).
So what are the current exciting projects at the forefront of the industry that you could potentially be involved with? Well there are a series of structures being constructed for the 2012 Olympics, the London Shard of Glass (set to be Britain’s biggest skyscraper) and Masdar city, Abu Dhabi, the first ever sustainable development set to achieve a carbon neutral and zero waste community. Just think about how YOU could make your mark….
