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“The thought of the future inspires me to improve things as best I can now.”
Dr Penny Carey FInstP FCABE is the Sustainability Lead at Portakabin Limited.
Have you always had an interest in construction?
Like most children in the 1970s I was an avid Lego builder, but I think I was very much an engineer first. I was always interested in pulling things apart, but then generally failing to put them back together again – especially bikes. Growing up close to Bristol and Bath, I was surrounded by some fabulous architecture and I think that must have seeped into my subconscious. I’ve always been a keen environmentalist too.
What was your route into the profession?
I started sixth form at school, but only managed to navigate one year before being advised that it would be in my interest follow a career path directly into employment. This was before I was diagnosed with narcolepsy [a chronic sleep disorder], so I was finding it hard to study. In fact at this point I’d failed my O-Level physics exams twice! However, I did manage to get an apprenticeship with Satchwell Control Systems in electrical engineering. I struggled with my college studies until I was finally diagnosed aged 20, then I was able to complete my studies much more easily with the appropriate medication.
Did you change direction at any point and if so, why?
Six years after I started working, I decided that electrical engineering for a sub-contractor wasn’t quite what I wanted. In 1994 I left my home city of Bristol to study for a BSc in Environmental Sciences (Energy & Waste Management with Environmental Chemistry) at Nene College (now the University of Northampton) where I earned a first-class honours degree. I applied to the University of Nottingham for an EPSRC-funded PhD research student position where I spent four years sitting in a wind tunnel studying airflows and tracer gas decays in model buildings. This was followed by two years writing my thesis, mostly part-time because, somewhat crazily, I thought that starting a family, a new job and moving to a different city while trying to write a PhD would be a good idea. I received my PhD in Building Physics in 2005.
What question do you get asked most often?
Can you make this building comply with Building Regulations / Passivhaus / BREEAM performance specifications (delete as appropriate). To which my normal answer is “absolutely I can, what’s your budget?”
What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?
It will all turn out alright in the end, don't give up.
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