Senior Project Engineer (Structural) Luke has experience across a range of commercial, residential and fitout projects. He has worked on several significant projects across Victoria where his skillset has fostered the detailed design of primary base building structural elements and liaising with project stakeholders throughout schematic, design development and construction phases.

Luke offers clients both transparency and confidence across every stage of project delivery, which translates into successful outcomes.

Curiosity about what makes buildings stand tall and a belief that good design is simple design have informed Luke’s happy career of choice. Here, he reflects on innovation, the future of structural engineering and his career highlight, the Belgrave Station Carpark project.

What inspired you to become an engineer?

I was inspired to become an engineer as I am good with numbers (like all other engineers) and found it interesting how large buildings physically stand up and what is the computations process behind it all.

Why structural engineering?

In structures it is easy to see how something goes from paper to being constructed in a real form and understand the effort it takes to get to a finished level. You can tangibly see the work you have put in, which is rewarding.

What’s your career highlight project?

The Belgrave Station Car Park is a new build 3 storey car park primary building structure situated at Belgrave Rail Station. I was responsible for all primary structural building elements including foundations, vertical elements (columns and walls), horizontal elements (slabs and beams) and steel structures. Although 3 storeys doesn’t sound like much, the building has a large footprint (5,300 m2) and is effectively made up of 3 independent buildings across the length of the site.

Tell us about the structural engineering on this project.

The overall structure is made up of 3 independent buildings across the length of the site (West, Central and East) and has limited access, with the construction site sitting directly adjacent the existing train line to the north and the site being blocked by residential areas to the west and south. The trains were also required to stay operational throughout this time.

This created challenges for the construction staging, where instead of starting from the bottom and going up the structure was constructed from west to east.

As the building is situated directly adjacent the rail corridor and requires a ‘train collision barrier’ to protect the primary structural elements (located within a 10 metre distance) from accidental impact from a train derailment. NDY closely reviewed the requirements of the relevant code and worked closely with Metro Trains Melbourne’s engineers to agree the appropriate design methodology.

Provision for a future bridge was also made, to connect the car park with Belgrave’s central business area.

What innovative new approaches are you seeing when it comes to structural engineering?

With the requirement to lower embodied carbon, there are trends to start integrating more timber solutions into projects. The use of cross laminated timber (CLT) in the industry is gaining momentum however is just beginning its ascent. There is opportunity to integrate CLT into a building’s overall structural load-bearing systems.

Also, the opportunity for adaptive reuse. There is a lot of talk around this however I believe many in the industry don’t fully understand the process yet.

If you’ve worked across regions or countries, and/or across Tetra Tech operating units, can you tell us about the key similarities and differences you’ve encountered when it comes to design within your field and your projects?

I have worked in Auckland, NZ and have met most of NDY’s Auckland team. Key similarities are that everyone is approachable and personable which creates a great environment to work in.

Where do you see the future of structural design heading?

In terms of the type of buildings, I think we’ll start seeing less of the mega high rise buildings. We need a focus of quality over quantity as to the types of developments we are producing, and we need to change to meet environmental considerations of the future.

In terms of AI, I believe AI could be utilised for areas of design however the most important part of the design is the use of ‘engineering judgement’ for problem solving, which a computer cannot recognise from project to project.

What legacy do you want to leave, when it comes to your career?

I hope to be known as an engineer who can get the job done, no matter what problems might be faced throughout a project. There is always a design solution to be found through effective communication and thorough understanding of the problem.

Also, to be known as a friendly peer who can both assist and lead the team.

What is it like to be a young engineer in structural engineering?

Engineering can be stressful. As a young engineer you have to face new problems every day. However, if you are not sure, you are learning which is the important thing.

It is also important to work as a team and to discuss your design with your mentors.

If you feel comfortable to do so, tell us a bit about your background (culturally).

My mother is Sri Lankan, and father is Australian.

What are the key considerations for good structural design?

Good structural engineering should integrate consistent design solutions applied throughout a whole building. A design should be easily applied and made as simple as possible to ensure the construction phase is smooth and easy to understand. This is easier said than done.

Also, to communicate and be contactable by project stakeholders. As engineers we need to communicate to understand any problems and to take the front foot when a problem is not clear.

As engineers we need to be somebody a client can trust and rely on to apply their end goal effectively.