• Question: If you could build a big project from scratch that related to your job, and you had full control of the project, what would you do and why?

    Asked by palmtree to Cathy, Jaz, Mark, Roma, Rory on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by dan33.
    • Photo: Cathy Fraser

      Cathy Fraser answered on 18 Jun 2014:


      Wow – another great question!
      I’d like to run a massive disaster scenario – involving the electricity network and other industries and government.
      It is something that’s done (just not by me!) and it would require a huge amount of planning, probably be quite costly – but be a real resilience test on a large scale.
      Definately on my wish list of things to do!

    • Photo: Mark Greaves

      Mark Greaves answered on 18 Jun 2014:


      Hello!

      This has got to be every engineers dream! It’s very rare we get to start on things from scratch in my job.

      I’d build the ultimate sewage network and treatment works. I would make it all operate via gravity to avoid using pumps and electricity. I’d also use common sense to design it. A lot of my colleagues spend time talking about how things should be done properly, it would be so good to actually do it like that! Not only would it be fun it would also test if they really did know what to do…

      Mark

    • Photo: Jaz Rabadia

      Jaz Rabadia answered on 18 Jun 2014:


      Oooh good question

      I would make the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly Debenhams store – from the materials used to contruct the building to the type of lighting and heating systems used. i would make sure we used natural daylight wherever possible and put the store in a area that woudl benefit from solar panels and wind turbines on the roof. This would help save 30% energy from a normal store and would save the environment and save us money on our bills

    • Photo: Rory Hadden

      Rory Hadden answered on 18 Jun 2014:


      I would love to be allowed to burn down a whole building! This would help us answer a lot of questions that we don’t know the answers to at the moment.

      There are a lot of things that we do not know when it comes to fire safety so a big experiment like this would be a huge help!

      It would look very impressive too! 😉

      Rory

    • Photo: Roma Agrawal

      Roma Agrawal answered on 19 Jun 2014:


      Exciting stuff! I’d love to build an entire city from scratch! I think city planning is so interesting and how people use cities is interesting so I’d love to see if I could come up with the ideal city.

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