Environmental building specialist Karen Coulthard is tackling a major construction job. It’s utilizing all her skills as an architect and her extensive experience of working on major projects.
It also involves two dozen eggs, a kilo of flower, a small mountain of soft fruit and is one of the trickiest builds she’s ever tackled.
Karen’s been recreating the Commonwealth Swimming Pool in Edinburgh in fruit cake and icing for an event called The Great Cake of Scotland, where some of Scotland’s finest buildings are being baked and iced . . . and then eaten.
When she’s not up to her elbows in cake mixture, Karen works for Graham Construction, who’ve just finished a £37 million refurbishment of Edinburgh’s iconic pool and she’s living proof that soft skills really matter.
This Great British Bake-Off contestant decided several years ago the future lay in multi-disciplinary practice, so with the backing of her employers she moved out of the realm of traditional architecture and immersed herself in sustainable building.
She’s currently studying for an MSc in Adaptation Planning at the Centre for Alternative Technology and works on every aspect of a build, dealing with the design team, structural engineers, landscape architects and the workforce on-site.
This is to ensure the finished building meets the needs of its users and enhances the environment.
“My director took a chance allowing me to go off in this direction but now I’m one of very few people who have experience of working in this way,” says Karen.
Now she’s future-proofing not just the buildings she works on, but also her career as the construction industry looks for ways in which to reduce its environmental impact and to create sustainable buildings.
There are almost 400 construction-related vacancies on s1jobs every day. Most involve traditional skills for trades such as electricians and plasterers. But construction is changing and the future lies in the hands of those who can master new skills and adapt to new ways of working.
“My motivation came from the last downturn in the building industry when I saw lots of my friends being made redundant,” says Karen.
“A combination of that and having my daughter inspired me to find a new way to pursue my career.”
Not that she’s letting any of her standards slip. When it came to making the Commonwealth Pool in cake she went back to the blueprints and drew up proper scale drawings.
The tasty results will be proof her six-years of architectural training weren’t wasted.