Urban Strategies Summer Placement 2024

From helping shape entire cities to adapting infrastructure to deal with the climate emergency, a career at Buro Happold presents the chance to make a difference. This is an exciting opportunity to join our Urban Strategies team for an 8 week summer placement.

Here at Buro Happold expect the exceptional

From the projects you will work on to the clients we work with. From career-defining opportunities to an inclusive and diverse practice where we all contribute to a more equitable world. From our reputation to our relationships. Wherever your Buro Happold career takes you, it’ll be anything but ordinary.

Your next role

An exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic Urban Strategies Placement student to join our London team for Summer 2024!

Buro Happold's Urban Strategies team brings together the expertise of world class urban planners, economists and consultants to examine cities from a variety of angles, giving our clients a unique picture of the challenges to tackle and the assets and opportunities their city can capitalise on. Working on a diverse range of fascinating projects that cover urban development, infrastructure planning and design, resource management, and programme delivery, our Cities business unit is at the forefront of innovation in the urban environment.

Our current portfolio includes diverse city projects and programmes across all continents. From Jakarta to New York, London to Nairobi and from Riyadh to Tblisi we are working with city leaders to examine the obstacles in the way of their vision, defining the strategies and programmes to make concrete progress. Our work helps cities to enhance their plans, programmes and practices enabling cities to deliver tangible improvements to quality of life for the benefit of all citizens. In keeping with our technical background, all of our analysis and strategy development is underpinned by the full range of deep infrastructure design, engineering and environmental analysis available across our practice.

What sort of projects do the consulting team work on

Oxford Station, Strategic Business Case

The Urban Strategies team have worked closely with architects to explore the viability of regeneration options for Oxford Station and surrounding land. The team assessed the commercial viability and deliverability of different masterplanning options. The appraisal of each option resulted in a series of recommendations on optimising commercial value. The team has gone on to prepare a strategic business case for the redevelopment, which will be used to unlock funding for the site.

Circular and Resilient Tourism in Small Islands & Coastal Destinations

Buro Happold working with the World Bank has crafted a bespoke Circular Economic Development Strategy for Cabo Verde, The Gambia, and São Tomé & Príncipe. This strategy is the product of a collaborative effort involving Buro Happold’s multidisciplinary teams specialising in strategic planning, economics, sustainability, solid waste management, water and wastewater treatment, and energy. The Urban Strategies led the multi-disciplinary team to diligently researched the baseline conditions in each of the aforementioned countries with the objective of devising viable interventions. These suggested interventions are aimed at fostering sustainable, circular practices within these countries.

Belize Coastal Highway Corridor Structure Plan

Buro Happold has been appointed by the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, part of the Government of Belize to develop a Structure Plan for the highway corridor. The Structure Plan will become a comprehensive and strategic land-use planning document that outlines the long-term vision and development framework for the areas along the Coastal Highway Corridor in Belize. It will provide a blueprint for sustainable and coordinated development, ensuring that urban and rural development does not encroach on the country’s key ecological assets. The Structure Plan will address urban planning regulations, environmental protection, economic growth, and climate resilience through land management. An implementation and institutionalisation plan will be prepared as part of the project, as well as the roles and responsibilities of related institutions.

Qiddiya Regional Framework Plan

Qiddiya is a proposed destination capital for entertainment, sport and the arts in Saudi Arabia. Its success will be built on coordination of the necessary supporting infrastructure and facilities for an eventual resident population of 600,000. The Urban Strategies team prepared a Regional Framework Plan to facilitate this, and to be adopted as part of wider planning strategies for Riyadh. The team developed programmes considering environment, heritage, sustainability and resilience. The framework plan document compiled by the team incorporated these key elements to ensure the development progresses sensitively, in accordance with sustainable development principles, and in a way where climate change impacts are planned for and mitigated.

About you

• Currently studying a degree such as Architecture, Economics, Geography, Urban Planning, social science, environmental science, and/or Real Estate;
• A keen interest and appreciation of urban/city challenges and the value of providing a spatial understanding and integrated offer (including planning, economics, and technical infrastructure and environmental expertise).
• Strong communication skills and an ability to work well independently and also in a team;
• Interest or skills in urban informatics, data science, statistical packages (SPSS, Stata) and/or business intelligence software (MS Power BI, Tableau) would be desirable. And / or design and mapping skills with experience and skills.

What's in it for you?

A plethora of interesting and challenging projects to stretch your professional skills, a friendly and close knit team, flexible working and a competitive reward package. The opportunity to work on multidisciplinary projects aside a range of specialist engineers, scientists and designers both within Buro Happold and our collaborators.

Application process

The recruitment timeline can vary depending on the role and team you are applying to. Successful applications are progressed to interview stage within 2-3 months from the closing date of the advert. We will endeavour to keep you informed throughout the time that your application is being considered, however, due to the volume of applications received and the size of our team, we are not able to respond to individual requests for status updates.

Please see our Early Careers Candidate Pack for further guidance and information.

This is a paid role for current university students for an 8-week placement taking place during Summer 2024. Exact dates can be flexible depending on candidate and team availability.

The annual salary for this placement will be £25,643 in our London office in-line with the UK Real Living Wage.

If you are experiencing problems with your application submission, please contact earlycareers@burohappold.com.