Congratulations to Cara Buchan, Senior Architect at Tetra Tech, on being named Young Consultant of the Year at the British Expertise Awards 2018. The celebration dinner was held at the Royal Garden Hotel in London on 12 April 2018.
The award recognises Cara’s nine years of specialisation in construction projects facing complex hazards, both natural and man-made. With her technical, creative, and interpersonal skills, she has developed solutions to ensure building users and beneficiaries can work and live safely in otherwise dangerous environments.
More recently, Cara has played an instrumental role in our support for Community Action Nepal (CAN) in reconstructing rural Himalayan schools and health posts following the 2015 earthquake. Relying on UK and previous international seismic experience, she has overseen designs and provided technical scrutiny and quality assurance to multiple projects. In liaising with local consultants and builders, she has also overcome logistical challenges in ‘building back better’.
Cara has also led architectural input on infrastructure assessments and master planning of the UK defence footprint in the Gulf, allowing the UK military to operate in safer, more efficient estate footprint.
Doug Scott, founder of CAN, said: “Cara’s hard work and dedication has inspired those around her. Through her sheer efforts in Nepal for CAN, she has fully immersed herself into the ethos of the charity. This has included trekking out to remote regions of Nepal, working with the local villagers and passionately endorsing their traditional building techniques.
Following Cara’s diligent work, the charity has now made her a trustee.
Cara also commented on her victory: “I’m overwhelmed by all the support I’ve received from both Tetra Tech and CAN, and I’m very humbled to accept this prestigious accolade. It’s been thrilling to pursue this speciality in challenging environments, and I look forward to continuing to improve my technical abilities on future projects.”
To learn more about the awards and all winners, visit the British Expertise International Awards website.