42 Roles in the Built Environment

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Real Estate Advisor "The way I was always told earlier in my career to try and understand my own role in the process is to be the ‘ringleader’. Imagine it’s a circus and you’re the one that’s trying to chaperone and cajole and bring everyone together. And on my best day, I like to think that that’s what I do – that’s what I add to the process" -  Nicola Rigby Wi...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Strategic Director of Growth "We have not seen a drop off in demand for commercial space – take up is still really strong – and, if anything, there is an undersupply – but people use the space differently" -  Becca Heron Becca Heron is the Strategic Director of Growth and Development at Manchester City Council. Formerly Director of Economy and Skills at Wigan Co...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Architect Founder "Increasingly, all businesses are recognising the need to show and demonstrate what impact they’re having on the environment, and the community. And there are many ways to do that, from reducing a building’s operational carbon footprint, to improving access to amenities. But in addition to those environmental and social benefits, I think it’s i...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Head of Regeneration "We want to bring people on the journey with us, rather than us as people from outside the borough coming in and saying, ‘this is what you should have in your town’. It’s amazing how many people don’t have that approach" -  Cathy Palmer Cathy is an experienced regeneration specialist managing teams delivering large-scale complex projects to...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Interior Design & Strategy Director "We’re talking about neurodiversity quite significantly these days - every person has a specific requirement from the office. We need to consider that the space is usable for every type of need. And allow people to give their best" -  Atepheh Amid Atepheh is an Associate Director in AECOM Interior Design & Strategy tea...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Sustainability Consultant "Be curious. And stay curious. Keep learning, and if you see something you’re interested in, even if it’s a niche thing, go after it" -  Wendy Broomhead Wendy is a Partner at Ridge and Partners, and was a founding director of Scott Hughes Design. She has over 30 years of experience in construction, as both a Structural Engineer and Sust...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Residential Consultant "The naming of a scheme is the hardest part, and that’s why you have great marketing and creative agencies – the name stays with a building forever" -  Louise Emmott Louise specialises in residential consultancy and her career has spanned over 20 years working for Chesterton, King Sturge and JLL. More recently, Louise has set up her own re...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Health and Safety Advisor "I sit at the table. If it’s a good team, they welcome our professional input. But you don’t always get such a good team. And that’s the frustration; when you walk away and think they’ve heard nothing that I’ve said" -  Karen Bennett-Jones Karen Bennett-Jones MSc is a Chartered Health & Safety Consultant with Rider Levett Bucknall (...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Property Services Manager "One of the biggest challenges we’re facing in the social housing sector is ‘old design’" -  Kerry Whittle Kerry is a building surveyor and social housing refurbishment specialist whose career has spanned over 25 years, working in the social housing sector, having had the opportunity to work both client (housing association) and contrac...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Workplace Strategist "Sometimes, the biggest part of that workplace strategy is just engaging the people and letting them have a voice. That’s key" -  Kathryn Mitchell Kathryn is a leader in workplace strategy and design, balancing her understanding of buildings with insight, engagement, and creativity. She enjoys the transformative design process, delivering au...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Director of Commercial Research "The perception is that affordable workspace is a problem, but I think it’s a solution to a lot of problems. You’ve got all these start-ups coming in to key cities – not just London – so if we can house them, and give them the right space, then we can allow them to grow" -  Clare Bailey Clare Bailey is a Director in Savills' Comme...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Construction Owner "Generally, construction is a hard industry to be in. When it’s going well, it’s so rewarding and it’s such a fabulous sector – you could start as a joiner and become a managing director in 15 years. There is a breadth of different roles you can become, and I don’t think there’s another sector like it. But it is a hard sector. It’s very timebo...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Landscape Architect "There are lots of different skills in landscape architecture. We are the jack of all trades and the master of none. You’ve got to know about horticulture, materials, planning, architecture, lighting and culture" - Kate Weston Kate is a director of Asri, a boutique landscape design studio based in Manchester, UK. Kate is a Chartered Landscape...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Building Services Engineer "Be inquisitive, don’t be afraid to ask a stupid question of another discipline. If you don’t know why an MEP engineer is banging on about something, just ask them" - Ellie Griffiths Ellie is a Senior Associate at Hoare Lea, specialising in Building Services design and leading multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver a range of e...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Heritage Professional "These systems and regulations are there to make sure we have good places to live and work that are good for our well-being and family life and making sure we don’t erode that" - Kate Kendall Kate Kendall is a historic environment professional with a love of conservation and historic buildings. Following 10 years in local government she lef...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Editor "I think curiosity is the most important skill to have as a journalist. I don’t think you learn that you either have it or you don’t" - Samantha McClary Samantha McClary is a real estate journalist with more than 20 years’ experience in the sector. Beginning her career at Caterer & Hotelkeeper, she soon made the jump into pure commercial real estate w...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Safety Lawyer "Experience as much as you can outside of your school environment, try and invest in as many external extra-curricular that you can. The biggest piece of advice I would give, and I wish I knew this more when I was younger, is don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is just a learning experience" - Erin Shoesmith Erin leads the Safety practice at Addles...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Marketing Director Professionally I think I’m quite a good analyst. People think I’m creative because I work with a lot of creative people, but my strength is connecting what I think an audience needs, what I think the brief is and what best fits that brief. I've always thought I’d be a good curator of a gallery, rather than an artist - Katie McLean Katie is UK...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Landscape Engineer "I turned up on site at West Ham Station with my suitcase; they threw it in a dumper truck and took me off to site. I thought, wow this is amazing. I was twenty-one then - the only female onsite with two hundred men" - Lisa Sawyer With over 20 years of experience and gaining chartered engineer status in 2004 Lisa has worked on a wide variety o...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Transformation Director "Transformation, think of it like a three-legged stool. People, process and systems. For all of those things, all of those aspects of transformation you need to have quite a systematic approach" - Kate Morris-Bates Kate is Group Resources & Transformation Director at Harworth Group, a leading sustainable regenerator of land and proper...

42 Roles in the Built Environment - Quantity Surveyor "I think it’s really important to acknowledge that we make mistakes. I try to encourage a really transparent and open environment, but I think one of the main things that I always try to pass down is putting in the processes and the habits that will reduce mistakes being made. If then mistakes are made, I really want people to hold their hand u...

Jess is a Senior Engineer at Sandy Brown and has worked at the company for the past 7 years, starting out as a year in industry student whilst studying at university. Still in the relatively early stages of her career, Jess has worked on a wide variety of both building and environmental acoustic projects, developing an appreciation of acoustic design grounded with good technical knowledge. Example...

Marion is an Architect Director whose career has spanned over 20 years, working in both the London and Manchester markets for practices including BDP, Sheppard Robson and tpbennett.  Marion has experience across a range of sectors including commercial, residential / mixed use, education and healthcare. More recently, Marion has been involved in award-winning projects such as HOME, the cultural art...

  Louise is a dual professional Chartered Architectural Technologist and Interior Designer with over 26 years in practice. She is a business owner of M1NT Studio Ltd specialising in retail, commercial, hospitality and accommodation sectors for leading global brands. She loves stakeholder engagement in defining strategies and evolving them into inspiring design solutions, expertly delivered. As sec...

With a background in fire testing and passive fire protection, Parina is a Chartered Engineer with 11 years of experience working in a consultancy environment.  Parina has applied her engineering knowledge of fire and materials to a diverse portfolio of projects and has project managed and developed integrated fire strategies for major developments from concept stage to handover. Examples include ...