I studied at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. During my bachelor’s degree I went through a broad civil engineering education and chose two fields to specialise in for the master’s degree. I chose to focus on structural engineering as well as material sciences. Aspects of both worlds are nicely combined in structural timber which is why I decided to write my master’s thesis on timber applications in seismic regions at UBC in Vancouver.
Working at Arup means working on a global scale together with people from diverse disciplines and skills. My hope was to be able to profit from but also contribute to that important exchange of perspectives. Furthermore, I was always convinced that sustainable building is the only feasible way for the future and saw the optimisation of structures in terms of design and materials as a central means of sustainable building. Arup’s involvement in pushing sustainable construction further was, therefore, another reason to apply.
As a structural engineer I coordinate necessary tasks with my project leadership. I am mainly free to choose how to approach these tasks or solve certain issues. Arup encourages you to explore new or alternative workflows using, for example, parametric design tools. Being given the time to explore new tools is something that I value a lot.
The nature of tasks is very much dependent on the project stage and can be anything from coming up with conceptual schemes to very detailed analysis using Finite Element based modelling. No day is the same.
The group that I am a part of mainly focuses on large scale projects. In my last 2 years at Arup I worked on the new Liverpool Street Crossrail station, the new Terminal 5 of Changi Airport in Singapore and various parts of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. All of these projects offered new and different challenges and allowed working with various groups of people across Arup which is why it is impossible to choose a favourite.
I am convinced that at this part of my career it is vital to get as much input from as many different people as possible. Therefore, I am looking forward to continuing working on challenging projects with interesting colleagues and go on assignments in Arup offices around the world.
