Career Profiles: Mark Lenczner

As a youngster, one of my interests was in design and the built environment. The construction of motorways, high-rise buildings, stations, bridges, new transportation networks and urban developments certainly held my imagination, and still does today.

By sixth form age, although I had not decided on any particular career discipline, I still wanted to realize my interests in design, the built environment and buildings, and the wide scope covered by civil engineering seemed the best option to accommodate these goals. At 'A' level I took maths, physics (both indispensable for an engineering career) and geography, which I found both interesting and provided a rounded balance to my education.

I went to university at Imperial College in London, and it is only fair to say that it was a fairly rigorous three years, covering just about all the civil engineering disciplines in an intense academic and technical manner, though design and construction matters were less well covered. The recent switch to four-year courses has addressed this to an extent, although 'design' is somewhat subjective and is less readily taught, and construction experience can only really be gained on site. Overall, there are few courses which can give one such a solid technical foundation as civil engineering. Without learning the basic technical principles, one is both incomplete as an engineer and less well positioned to wield influence in any matter related to it.

By the end of university, I found that structural engineering offered the most interesting opportunities to carry out both technical engineering and actual design, though I think this was due to the rather systemised way a lot of engineering work is carried out, rather than a lack of interest in them. Design involves not only providing a technical solution, but also the creative ideas to propose, question, innovate and the consideration of objectives and criteria to (hopefully) arrive at an all-round better solution, ideally in a simple, cost-effective and elegant manner.

My first job was as a Structural Engineer on the design of offshore oil platforms in the North Sea, illustrating well the wide variety of disciplines that structural engineering can cover. I then went to take a post-graduate degree in Transportation at the Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussees in Paris, to both extend my knowledge in an area of interest and to obtain experience of living abroad and working in a foreign language. Upon returning to the UK and working temporarily in transportation, I found myself returning to Structural Engineering, mainly because of the increased design possibilities it offers. I spent three years at the American architect-engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, working on the Broadgate development around Liverpool St. Station in central London, where I learnt much about the design-engineering of commercial buildings, including the importance of construction and coordination aspects.

To gain further overseas experience, I then decided to go to Japan to work in the Design Department of one of the world's largest general contractors, where, after 9 years I am still based today! During my time in Japan, I have worked on the design and construction aspects of numerous and varied projects, with high-levels of responsibility, both abroad and in Japan, including large power stations, mountain-top telescopes, airports, office buildings, laboratories, factories and embassies. Being abroad also showed me that the basic skills of a Structural Engineer are applicable across the globe, yet learning about and adapting to the local culture is also valuable for more successful integration. I am now a member on numerous international committees and organizations (including being IStructE's Representative in Japan), and have also recently started up my own company to handle additional projects, and am planning to continue my career on an international level.

Structural engineering, with its crucial role in the conception of buildings, bridges and other structures, and the innumerable possibilities it offers in creating solutions, is both challenging from the responsibilities relating to structural safety and project completion, and interesting from the project content and results that can be achieved. The advantages and possibilities that good structural engineering can offer are indeed vast, and limited only by imagination, technical validity and practicality, and on their acceptance by others. Thus success as a structural engineer, like any other career, depends not just on one's ability, but on successful human interaction between other parties and individuals involved.

Recently, the national priorities of developed countries may have veered away from expansion towards environmental preservation, but the 'design of the built environment' both in the UK and abroad, whether for upgrading exiting structures and infrastructure, or for new construction, still poses perhaps the most interesting challenges that any career can offer, and is one that I intend to continue to participate in.

Mark Lenczner
BSc(Eng) ACGI CEng FIStructE DEA(ENPC) JSCA
Marcai Design, and Taisei Corporation
Tokyo, Japan