Our practice is changing; another UK consultancy has joined us in Ramboll UK, which gives an interesting opportunity to compare notes on how we perceive an Engineer works and how our industry is faring. We all have opinions and one opinion raised in debate was that Engineers have lost their way.

The argument was that the days of the application of simple principles and design by physical interaction were gone and that we had assumed a role of being a servant to the aspirations of the architect. This meant that we were reduced to a more reactive than proactive role, to the detriment of the profession as a whole.

I disagree. I think the profession is intellectually stronger and better placed to collaborate on a deep level than ever before. We have to appreciate that society wants more than buildings, which fulfill essential functions we want art and soul. We demand that spaces are well choreographed - sometimes laden with a sense of iconography and ambition, other times finely and humbly balanced for the needs of the occupants.  Industrial monoliths of function are no longer sufficient as the sole currency of the Engineer. The Engineer has faced a challenge.

Engineers may be becoming part scientist, part geometer, part 3D modeller and part builder and we may spend time staring at a computer screen but that’s to the benefit of the profession. Polymaths not specialists and better because of it and by taking on board more external influence we are better able to make intellectual leaps and go somewhere new. One theory is that we are only half way through the changes brought on by the digital world and there are even more profound changes to come.Whatever this all means to their role, it is sure that the Engineer will be as dedicated as ever and adaptable.  In this sense, the “way” has not been lost but rather rediscovered.

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