Daniel Seavers, Building construction Sweden

“Here in the old blocks of the city, there are any number of challenges for a building engineer like me. Property owners want to renovate their buildings into attractive offices, tear down interior walls, open up and maybe glass in their yards. It is lovely, but you can’t just do anything you want. You have to replace weight-bearing walls and sometimes shore up the foundation. It is an exciting job for us, changing and strengthening buildings, so that you can’t see what we’ve done on the outside.”

Daniel works at Sweco, which is a world leader in advanced building construction and which has developed 3D/4D technology to make it possible to build more quickly at lower cost.

“It’s about time that the construction industry does something about the high cost of construction. S´weco has fought for a long time to introduce new construction technology and more industrial thinking during the building process. It is completely crazy the way it is now, normal people can’t even afford to live in the buildings! 

“Just look at certain university towns. The situation is catastrophic in some places. There is too little building going on, and what is built is way too expensive.”

After four years at a technical high school and further studies of 80 credits at KTH, Daniel came to Sweco a few years ago.

“I came into contact with Sweco in connection with a school project. That’s where I got to see the cool CAD technology we work with here, and I knew I wanted to learn more. Luckily, Sweco was just then looking for people, and that’s how it went. 

“Since then it’s been a bowl of cherries for me. But I am still disappointed that we didn’t get the job in Indonesia, the first concrete job I worked on. It feels terrific to work with capable engineers and the latest data technology every day. Here you can really make some amazing structures! My dream would probably be to work with the covering of the tracks at Central Station here in Stockholm. What a challenge!

“But it sure isn’t just the machines that are getting smarter. Here there is also a culture that lets people grow and improve. I took advantage of that recently when I asked for three months’ leave to drive around in the US together with a friend for a recharge vacation. It was probably a good investment also for the company – I’ve probably never felt more pumped for the job than I do now.”