Work experience - Hoare Lea's net zero building challenge.

Hoare Lea's net zero building challenge. Work experience week - Monday 13th July to Friday 17th July 2026. Brief.

As our world expands and there is an ever-increasing demand for a place to live and work, we are faced with a global challenge to design both new and refurbished buildings that will have a minimal impact on the planet’s environment.

As engineering consultants, Hoare Lea welcomes you to our Kings Cross office to take part in our ‘Low Carbon Building Challenge’. Over the course of a week, we will challenge you to design in detail a new building, following the strategy guidelines and using the digital tools that are employed by us every day as a building services consultancy.

About

Whilst many people might think about a building in terms of its structure or architectural design, at Hoare Lea we focus on the services that bring this building to life, providing a safe and healthy environment for people to live, work and thrive. You will need to consider the following:

• How do people experience a building and how can we improve this?

What methods can we employ to heat the building in an energy efficient way?

What assessments can we do to work out the impact of the building’s materials?

What ways can we use the building’s features to generate its own sustainable electrical supply?

What is the social impact of the building on its community and occupants?

How can buildings impact the UK's plan to reach "net zero" and cut carbon emissions by 2030?

You will get a chance to meet and work with professionals in the built environment from a range of job sectors and levels of experience, including mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, public health engineers, sustainability consultants, lighting designers, vertical transport engineers, and acoustics engineers, and learn about all the processes and specialisms that go into designing and maintaining a building.

KEY SKILLS: interest in building design and engineering, problem solving, teamwork, creative thinking, awareness of the climate crisis.

Application questions.

• What makes you interested in the type of work we do at Hoare Lea and in what ways do you think you would be well suited for it? (no more than 200 words).

At Hoare Lea, a lot of our work focuses on how buildings can be made to be more energy efficient, meaning they use less energy to perform the same task or produce the same result as a standard building. What do you think are some of the factors we have to consider making a building more energy efficient? (no more than 200 words).

Good teamwork is important for engineers and designers. During the work experience week, you'll be working as part of a building design team with various tasks to work together on to reach the end goal. What do you think are the top 3 skills needed to make your team successful, and what do you think might be some of the challenges you will face? (no more than 200 words).

Deadline for all applications is 30th April. Please ensure you answer the questions listed above directly in your CV and/or cover letter before submitting your application. Applications that do not include these responses won't be progressed.