黑洞社区

Above the door a sign reads 鈥淣o ordinary pub鈥�. This turns out to be a bit of an understatement. It鈥檚 a traditional old Irish boozer and dim sum bar.

鈥淲e had our Fulcrum Pop Idol contest in here two weeks ago,鈥� says Tom, whose rendition of Daydream Believer led to elimination in the first round. Anna鈥檚 interpretation of the Divinyls classic I Touch Myself didn鈥檛 fair any better.

So what won? The theme tune to Ghostbusters. The consensus among those who took part is that they were robbed.

This all comes as a bit of a revelation to Justin, who鈥檚 been with the firm for less than a week. His passion for talent shows might need a bit of nurturing before the firm鈥檚 Christmas panto, but his environmental credentials can鈥檛 be questioned. 鈥淚 was down at the protest at Heathrow in August,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was a really great community feeling down there and I think it raised awareness with the public of a really important issue.鈥�

Everyone agrees that the growth in air travel needs to be tackled, but Ana looks a bit sheepish, then suddenly launches into a lengthy apologia. 鈥淚鈥檝e made eight flights this year,鈥� she confesses. 鈥淏ut only short haul, to visit my parents in Spain. They don鈥檛 use fossil fuel so that offsets it a bit. And I don鈥檛 have a car.鈥�

To make matters worse, it turns out that Ana鈥檚 in charge of drawing up a spreadsheet to calculate the carbon footprint of each member of staff as part of Fulcrum鈥檚 100 days of carbon cleanup campaign.

鈥淎 lot of energy saving is about behavioural change and the way the buildings we design are used,鈥� says Chris. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really involved now in determining the form a building takes. Not that I think we鈥檒l ever take over the role of architects, they understand people and society much better than engineers.鈥�

This brings us onto the topic of what engineers should call themselves. Richard鈥檚 been mulling the subject over for a while. 鈥淚鈥檝e been struggling with a definition because what we do now has changed so much. I think maybe 鈥榖uilding performance engineering鈥�. We definitely need to keep the word engineer in there despite public perception.鈥�

Anna says engineering is a great job. 鈥淯p until three years ago I used to work at an investment bank but it was soulless so I gave it all up to become a plasterer on a building site, environmentally friendly lime rendering of course. That鈥檚 where I got my muscles.鈥� And it is at this point that the arm wrestling starts 鈥�