Georgia joined NDY as a cadet and then graduate rotating through our disciplines including electrical, CAD, mechanical, hydraulics and fire protection, fostering strong multi-disciplinary understanding and mindset.
Following her time in the graduate program Georgia joined the national fire protection team. She continues to excel across a diverse range of our projects and is very strong in cross-discipline coordination, clash detection and resolution.
Georgia shares her excitement at being part of the team delivering the Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, and tells how her love of The Sims lead to a career in engineering.
What inspired you to become an engineer?
When I was little, I had a fascination with the game ‘The Sims’. I would spend hours and hours designing and building. This is where my interest in buildings came from. Combine that with an analytical brain, and becoming a building services engineer seemed to fit perfectly.
Why fire protection engineering?
I fell into the fire protection engineering team here in Wellington when a former colleague moved on to his dream role. I was asked to step in as our office’s largest project needed modelling help. This is how I found myself helping to design the fire protection system of the country’s national archives building. I completed a graduate rotation through the disciplines but ultimately decided to settle back where my career began, in the fire protection services team.
What’s your career highlight project?
My career highlight project is the new Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga building (aka Archives Wellington), which will be a dedicated home for our country’s national treasures. The goal was to design a building that included digitisation and conservation facilities that will keep our people and Taonga safe. High seismic resilience was a key design objective, so the Archives building will remain safe and operational even after a significant earthquake.
Tell us about the fire protection engineering on this project.
A key design solution in keeping our Taonga safe is the pre-action sprinkler system. This protects the very valuable and important artifacts in the building, while minimising the risk of accidental water damage from the pipes above the archives. In addition, there is an aspirating VESDA smoke detection system. Altogether, these systems provide a strong assurance of protection over the items and allow for very early warning and detection of any smoke or fire event.
What innovative new approaches are you seeing when it comes to fire protection engineering?
The Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga fire protection systems design is demonstrably innovative and provides an extremely high level of protection and early detection. I’m looking forward to watching this building come to life!
What is it like to be a young engineer in fire protection?
As a young engineer, I am constantly questioning my own work. Consequently, I am always checking and rechecking against the fire protection standards and/or with my senior team members. I figure it is a good habit to get into as it ensures that my projects are thoroughly considered and detailed.
A saying I was taught back in university was, ‘If you can’t explain it simply enough, you don’t know it well enough’. I know this will resonate for years to come as I continue to learn and develop in my career. My aim is to be able to pay it forward so that one day, I will be able to explain it simply enough to the next junior that may join our team.
Concept image of the new Archives New Zealand Building in Wellington supplied courtesy of Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand. Read more about the project on the Archives New Zealand website.
