An associate fire engineer in our Sydney office, Joshua specialises in both fire safety engineering and fire protection services, with his current focus delivering performance based fire engineering designs.
He is passionate about providing practical and efficient solutions to simplify design, installation and management of buildings.
Joshua took some time out of his day to share his love of problem solving and his inspiration for becoming an engineer – his family. He talks about his career to date and one of his favourite projects, a confidential mixed use development in Canberra.
What inspired you to become an engineer?
Early on during my younger days I was surrounded by engineers, with both my Dad and Grandad being engineers. Dad would come back from work and talk to me about the different challenges or situations that came up at work and how he solved them. These real life examples were fascinating for me growing up and motivated me to become an engineer.
Problem solving was exciting and the majority of engineering is really problem solving and finding solutions.
Why fire engineering?
I actually didn’t start my career in fire engineering. I started off as a graduate mechanical and fire protection engineer and ended up working in the fire protection team designing fire systems.
While I enjoyed working as a fire protection engineer, I was finding it quite restrictive in having to strictly comply with codes and standards with no wiggle room to deviate from the compliance requirements, even if it wasn’t appropriate for a particular scenario.
That’s when I decided to give fire engineering a go and I’ve loved it. Having the opportunity to apply a first principles approach and even common sense thinking to solve problems, and not being restricted by codes and standards, has been absolutely liberating and exciting.
What’s your career highlight project?
This one’s definitely got to be a confidential precinct redevelopment in Canberra. It’s a mixed use development consisting of 4 basement car park levels, 1 level of retail podium, 2 commercial towers, 2 build-to-rent towers and a hotel with a total floor area of approximately 90,000 m². This is a significant project in Canberra, one that we’re all very proud of.
Tell us about the fire engineering on this project.
This precinct redevelopment is an exciting project that includes multiple sectors such as retail, commercial and residential. I was lucky to have the opportunity to work on the project from the beginning, from preparing the fee proposal and progressing through concept stage, schematic design stage and now we’ve almost completed the detailed design stage of the project.
It’s a key project for one of our clients, with multiple stakeholders across various aspects of the project.
Given the size of the project and to de-risk any approvals risks, NDY prepared a concept fire engineering strategy in the early days of the project and engaged with ACT Fire and Rescue to discuss the concept fire engineering strategy. This early engagement with the authorities has been fantastic and the project team received valuable early feedback which was incorporated into the design. It’s also helped ensure a smooth approvals process for the project and helped avoid abortive works.
What is the difference between fire protection engineering and fire engineering, and how do they work together?
The difference between the two fields is something that’s quite confusing in the industry. A fire protection engineer designs fire systems such as hydrants, smoke detection systems, fire sprinkler systems, etc. to comply with specific codes and standards. A fire engineer develops performance solutions when deviations are proposed to the deemed-to-satisfy (DTS) requirements of the BCA.
Fire engineers and fire protection engineers work very closely with each other as the majority of fire engineering performance solutions generally have an impact on the fire protection design.
What is it like to be a young engineer in fire engineering?
It’s a great time for young engineers in the fire engineering industry, at the moment especially, as the building industry moves more towards performance-based designs which help maximise design flexibility and provide value for money.
There are a lot of city shaping projects in Australia right now, and as a fire engineer you get the chance to be a part of these iconic projects.
If you’re motivated, diligent and enjoy thinking outside the box, then fire engineering is a fantastic career choice.
If you feel comfortable to do so, tell us a bit about your background (culturally).
My parents are of Indian heritage and I grew up as an expat kid in a small country called Oman, which is near Dubai. I lived there for 13 years and spent 5 years in boarding school in India. I moved to Australia when I was 18 and studied in Melbourne, then started my career in Sydney.
Tell us a bit about good fire engineering design for airports. What are the key considerations?
During my career I’ve been quite fortunate to have had the opportunity to work across all the terminals at Sydney Airport (T1, T2 and T3). Fire engineering for airports is very unique as your objectives are not just life safety, but also business continuity and security.
Good fire engineering design for airports is all about having simple and consistent strategies that are easy to implement, and maintain and ensure that the strategies involve minimal disruption to airport operations.
