Head of Façades, AECOM
Zara is the Façade team leader for AECOM, London and is an elected Board Member on the Society of Façade Engineers. She began her journey in Façade Consultancy over 13 years ago, having originally pursued Architecture. In 2011 she completed her Masters in Façade Engineering at the University of Bath with a distinction. Since then, she has collaborated with Architects such as David Chipperfield, Foster and Partners, Gehry, Herzog & De Meuron, Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid. Her experience covers a broad spectrum ranging from complex sculptures to 250m+ skyscrapers with fully glazed double skins, from modest façade improvement refurbishments to new airports, from feasibility studies to technical design. Zara has a systematic approach to resolving the often-conflicting requirements imposed by the Client, technical performance legislations and project specific targets, budget and programme. Her focus as a façade engineer began with an emphasis on the visual quality of materials, moved on to tackling the demands of Part L, to scrutinizing the fire performance of the constructed detail, and is now striving to fully acknowledge the whole lifecycle carbon of different proposals alongside Modern Methods of Construction.
