Here’s our latest Day in the Life feature from Gareth Patrick from our Design team.
Tell us 3 words to describe your job?
Challenging – Interesting – Rewarding
What can you remember about your first day/week at Bennetts?
It was a bit blur to be honest, Bennett’s was a much bigger company than I had worked for in the past so there was a lot of information to take in and a lot of people to meet.
What is a typical day as a Design Technician?
A typical day could include several tasks but the most important of these is coming up with an engineering design to achieve the architects design intent. This would start with a series of calculations to determine things like wind/snow loads, bar deflections, glass photometrics and bracket/fixing design and suitability. Once completed a set of construction drawings for client/architect approval are produced, once approved these are passed onto our site teams to guide them through the installation process.
In conjunction with this I could be required to answer queries from project managers, purchasing, estimating and members of our fabrication team in our factory. I may also need to liaise with suppliers to ensure we are providing a specification compliant design for each project.
How would you describe your job to a stranger?
I design and engineer glass facades for the commercial construction industry.
What’s the biggest challenge in your job?
Probably trying to describe my job to a stranger.
Also trying to provide an engineering solution to an architect’s design intent which remains within budget.
Tell us what you’re working on at the moment?
New Design Studio for Jaguar Land Rover in Gaydon, Coventry.
ABCAM Biomedical Campus, Cambridge.
Big Yellow Self Storage, Manchester.
New Era Square, Sheffield.
What has been your crowning achievement/s to date at Bennetts?
The project I’m most proud of being involved in was the award-winning Maggie’s Centre at the Christie Hospital in Manchester. We worked alongside Sir Robert McApline and Foster and Partners to provide a special place to support people suffering with the effects of Cancer.
To find out more about our Design team click Here
