When I think back to my first days as a young female engineer, in terms of access to opportunity and the perception of the value that a female engineer can bring in different types of roles, a massive amount of progress has been made.
This should be celebrated but also accelerated. We mustn’t take progress for granted and stop pushing for the change that’s still needed, and quite frankly overdue. We must continue to empower more female engineers to come forward and be a representative part of the engineering community that drive us forward on the key societal issues of the day, otherwise the solutions proposed will not be effective.
When I first joined Buro Happold, a quote printed on the bottom of our mugs really stuck with me – ‘bridging science and society’. I can already see the significant contribution that female engineers across our community provide in the response to the issues of sustainability and climate change that are now more pressing than ever. We must continue to nurture and build on this if we are to meet the challenges of the day.
I am still in the middle of my professional career but I’ve already had quite a few interesting chapters. Some planned, others completely unexpected. I learned and developed from all.
I began my career in Porto, a UNESCO-protected city centre. Surrounded by stunning architecture that transmitted so much of the timeline of the local culture, I quickly developed a passion for historical buildings.
Like many other engineers, I am motivated by problem-solving. Looking at these significant buildings, steeped in history, the challenge of keeping them fit for purpose without compromising their characteristics was instantly appealing. How do we preserve buildings as our cities and the wider world change around us?
Once I found this passion, I never looked back. I identified the skills I needed, found the people that I should be working with and learning from them.
My first work experience was as an Assistant Building Surveyor, in parallel with my Engineering degree where I specialised in the refurbishment of historical buildings. I am a big advocate for internships or student placements and would recommend young engineers take advantage of as many of these opportunities as they can. I got a huge amount of extra value from my work experience that I could take advantage of during my studies.
After graduating, at first I worked on projects in Portugal and then, through my work at Buro Happold, on some of the most interesting retrofit projects here in the UK. Most recently, I have had the privilege of helping to repurpose The Whiteley in Queensway London, helping to preserve the beautiful façade of this iconic Grade II listed building for future generations, whilst upgrading its performance to a new use and contemporary requirements.
Adding to the project work, I took on the leadership of our Façade Engineering team at Buro Happold, which was a challenge and a joy considering the very diverse, innovative and forward-thinking group of people that make this team. This was my opportunity to lead on my own terms, hopefully being the guardian for the great team culture. Not by coincidence, one of my key areas of focus has been to upskill young engineers so they are comfortable working with existing buildings and investing in tools that can help us obtain faster and better understanding of the performance of existing building fabric.
Also advocating for this upskilling in the industry, one of the most positive aspects of the last few years has been the emerging awareness of the need to mobilise all stakeholders in the built environment for large-scale retrofit in order to respond to the current climate crisis. I see the industry coming together to help create guidelines and share information.
My message to young engineers, whatever their background or gender, is simple: find your passion and stick to it. It will be the ingenuity and passion of the next generation of engineers that help us solve the pressing challenges of our time.
On a more personal note, I want to incentivise young engineers to really consider the opportunities available to specialise in retrofitting and historical conservation projects.
The life of an engineer is made of challenges, we need to take it as a natural part of what we do. But we will never struggle for motivation and personal reward when we are doing something we love.
Ana Araujo is partner at Buro Happold
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