A UK-founded engineering, design and advisory consultancy, begun in Bath in 1976, that works on buildings, cities and infrastructure with seven UK offices.
Buro Happold is a group of engineers, designers and advisers who work on buildings, cities and infrastructure. Its UK work has included the Millennium Dome, the London 2012 Olympic Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and elsewhere it worked on the High Line in New York and the Museum of the Future in Dubai. It first became known for lightweight and tensile structures, the stretched-fabric roofs that cover stadiums and large public spaces. The firm now describes itself as an international, integrated consultancy with over 3,500 people in 37 locations.
The firm was founded in 1976 in Bath by Ted Happold, an engineer, academic and networker who had left Arup and set up with seven founding partners. In its own words it offers creative, value-led solutions for the benefit of "people, places and planet". Happold believed work should have social value, as a former chief executive, Padraic Kelly, recalled, and he set up a charity, the Happold Foundation, in 1995. His idea that "all of us are different, that's why we chose to be together" still sits at the centre of the firm's heritage page, which stresses a diverse mix of skills.
Gradcracker says Buro Happold has seven UK offices and names five of them: London, Bath, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh. Bath is the original office, and its work includes the Olympic Stadium and the Louvre Abu Dhabi, while Leeds is described as having won the Royal Armouries Museum early on. Bath has also approved a low-carbon headquarters for the firm at Pinesgate, according to a construction news headline we saw. We could not confirm the other two UK offices or the UK headcount.
On culture, the heritage page describes a positive and collective place of work built on shared experiences, education and enjoyment. Gradcracker's UK page highlights a Young Employees Forum, a Diversity and Inclusion programme, an urban research group called Our Urban C:Lab and career development, and says staff work with some of the brightest minds in the industry. These are the company's own descriptions. The firm's sources did not tell us about its ownership, so we have not said anything about it.
People at a consultancy like this work in structural, civil, building services and façade engineering, in sustainability and energy, in city planning and advisory work, and in digital design. There are also project managers and the finance, legal and people roles that any group of 3,500 needs. If you enjoy design as well as maths and physics, and are interested in how stadiums, bridges and whole districts are made, this is a practice where both skills are used.
Website: www.burohappold.com
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