RIO Next stop
Roxane McMeeken gets a fi rst-hand perspective on what it’s like to work on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games from senior mechanical engineer, Sophia Negus
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It’s great to learn how people do things in other countries, particularly the engineering solutions they adopt due to local conditions, such as fuel prices
4 CIBSE Journal January 2013
f you loved the London Olympics buzz last year, you might be keen to know that a career in building services could keep you involved in that excitement full-time.
Building services engineers are needed for constructing sports venues the world over. As a result, some follow Olympic Games building projects around the globe. Sophia Negus, 30, spends every day at work in
the UK right now on preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil. She is a senior mechanical engineer in the building services engineering arm of Aecom, a planet-spanning, multi-disciplinary built, natural and social environment consultancy. Negus says: ‘It’s really exciting to be working on
such a high-profi le project in a place as interesting as Brazil.’ The job comes with challenges, she says, but the rewards are huge. Aecom was involved in the London Games, including drawing up the masterplan – the map of what buildings go where and how they are
connected – for the London Games. The fi rm continues to work on the 25-year-plus scheme to revamp the east London area around the Olympic Park. Based on this expertise, Aecom won the international competition to deliver the masterplan and fi ve venues for Rio’s 300-acre Olympic Park.
Exciting challenges Part of Aecom’s role in Rio is designing the Tennis Centre, including mechanical, electrical and public health building services. This covers everything, from the lights to the air conditioning, to the integration of specialist equipment such as real-time scoring systems and information relay. Negus is involved in the Velodrome, although
her main focus is the Tennis Centre, on which she is the lead building services engineer. Negus says: ‘I am lucky to have been involved from an early stage, that’s really rewarding. And I’m delighted to work in detail on a specifi c venue.’
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