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How did you get your first job at Arup?

I was interviewed by a guy called Tom Henry. We were walking around Southampton campus and he pointed at a building and asked, 鈥淲hat do you think?鈥� I said, 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 rubbish鈥�. And he replied, 鈥淲ell, I designed that.鈥� He took it in great humour and he clearly appreciated my honesty because I got the job.

Before he hired me, I knew nothing about Arup except that they鈥檇 done Sydney Opera House. I didn鈥檛 realise how lucky I was to get a job there until I鈥檇 worked for them for five years.

You stayed at Arup for 20 years. Was that too long?

Because Arup is a multinational and multidisciplinary company you can work in lots of places and areas, so I didn鈥檛 have any great temptation to move around.

Also, Arup has always had a liberal attitude to taking time off. They encourage people to go abroad, whether it鈥檚 for work or just to go and see things. I took a year鈥檚 sabbatical to travel and they kept a job open.

How did the year off change your career?

Going travelling for that year was far more important than university. It helped me work out what I actually wanted to do. It was the moment I began to feel that the subdivision of engineering into all sorts of different disciplines was nonsense, frankly. You look at the Taj Mahal and there were no structural working on it. I realised you have to understand the architecture if you鈥檙e going to do the engineering and vice versa.

How did you develop your management style?

I learned a lot from working in Australia. I spent six months there working with John Nutt, who was on the Sydney Opera House. During meetings in England I鈥檇 never seen anyone swear, but there everyone used to swear at everybody and call a spade a spade. It appeared to be a much better way of communication because people were actually exchanging information rather than going through the motions. It was a 鈥渇ucking hell, it鈥檚 a flaming disaster, we鈥檝e got to come back tomorrow and get it fixed鈥� approach.

You became a director at Arup at the age of 35. Was there resentment at your quick rise?

I was bounced up the ladder very quickly. I think that鈥檚 because I鈥檓 thought of as an unusual , so I wasn鈥檛 seen as competition. All the other directors could afford to be magnanimous if they had a strange leftfield character hanging around because I wasn鈥檛 going to take over the world, or do what they were doing.

Was there a lot of pressure on you?

The years between 1992 and 1995 were very pressurised. I鈥檇 been made a director, I was running the Commerzbank project in Frankfurt and I was doing 35 or 40 projects for Foster + Partners simultaneously. I never found that part difficult. I鈥檇 just go round to Fosters and do them all at once. I鈥檇 take someone with me who was working on that project and they鈥檇 go back and sort it out. It was a very shorthand way of working.

The Commerzbank was much more pressurised, because I鈥檇 have to fly to Frankfurt once a week, which was a nightmare. We had a three-year-old son and it all became very difficult. But some of the best projects came out of that period.

What鈥檚 the biggest mistake you ever made?

The most obvious one was when I made the decision to take out the dampers on the Millennium Bridge. During the design process, we had a series of detailed technical meetings about how the bridge was going to perform. All the best people at Arup were there. So, in one of those meetings, we went through the whole scenario and it appeared obvious that we didn鈥檛 need dampers. So we said, we鈥檒l take them out. Obviously, history has shown that perhaps we didn鈥檛 have all the information we needed ...

Do you get bored of talking about the wobbly bridge?

Not at all. I鈥檓 really proud of what we did on it. We took a risk, we put our skills to the test and, although we didn鈥檛 quite pass that test, we did pass in lots of other ways. I would take all the short-term rubbish that was associated with it in exchange for being responsible for linking the richest and one of the poorest boroughs in our capital. That鈥檚 a privilege that not many people get.

What was your favourite project?

Barcelona Tower, because I was really young when we did it and it was such a buzz to see this thing rearing up on a mountain. It was huge fun. That was an important project because there was only one person on a board of 40 directors who wanted it to go ahead. We鈥檇 sit on one side of a table with all these directors puffing cigars on the other, and they鈥檇 say, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want it. It鈥檚 too expensive.鈥� By the end of the project, though, we had converted them all. To convince people to change their perceptions of what鈥檚 possible through your actions is important. I love that tower; every time I see it I chuckle.

And your biggest regret?

The one that got away was our walking building for the British Antarctic Survey. It was a magnificent, ground-breaking project 鈥� a fuel-cell-driven building that was wind and hydrogen-powered. It was like doing a space station on earth. But it was 拢2m over budget and we couldn鈥檛 get the Treasury to release the extra money. If anyone else wants a walking building, they should get in touch.

What was your greatest achievement?

I think it鈥檚 yet to come. I鈥檓 only 50, so I鈥檝e got loads of time and our practice has only been going for seven years. I hope Expedition Engineering will go on to shake up the profession. I鈥檓 hoping we can revolutionise the way the industry works.

Give us some advice

First, the skills you need for art or music are the same as you need for engineering. Because there are so few people who know that, if you bring those skills to your job you鈥檙e going to be very successful. Second, if you can balance a reasonable income with the fact that it鈥檚 a pleasure to get up every morning, then enjoy it. Not many people get that.