BDP’s Andrew Swain-Smith on the engineering renaissance

BDP’s chair of building services engineering Andrew Swain-Smith says he is feeling bullish about the practice’s growth prospects – and this was before news it had won a prestigious contract at the Palace of Westminster

Interview with Paul Flatt – why engineers must add value

Building services consultants risk obsolescence unless they use their engineering expertise to extract value for clients, warns Hurley Palmer Flatt’s CEO, Paul Flatt. He tells Alex Smith that employee training programmes are key to creating the calibre of engineer necessary for his firm to succeed in an increasingly competitive market

The industry pioneer who was ahead of his time – Max Fordham interview

Max Fordham FCIBSE is Britain’s most influential services engineer, and his practice continues to lead the field when it comes to innovative building services design. Alex Smith finds out what’s next for the man who has been bringing creativity and intellectual rigour to the industry for over 50 years

Smart choices – career moves

Skills shortages and major new construction projects mean Britain needs more highly qualified labour. But graduates aren’t the only ones in demand. David Blackman meets four professionals who changed career to become building services engineers

Building on the past: celebrating 40 years of CIBSE

From the miners’ strikes and oil crises of the 1970s, to the ‘boom and bust’ of the 1980s and technological advances in the 2000s, the UK’s industrial landscape has evolved radically over the past four decades. Liza Young asks former CIBSE presidents how building services has changed since the Institution began in 1976

On a mission: using data to optimise heat networks

Gareth Jones and Casey Cole are using big data to expose the real performance of domestic heat networks. Alex Smith finds out how their disrupter technology could see the industry adopting a Passivhaus-style target approach

Thinking outside the box

Last year’s winner of the CIBSE Graduate of the Year Award, Ryan Rodrigues, talks about his win, his career goals, and inspiring the new generation of engineers

Money for new hope – apprenticeships

From next year, large employers will pay a levy to support apprenticeships that aim to alleviate the skills shortage – so will they, and their potential trainees, get a good return on their investment? Roxane McMeeken finds out