My Construction Journey: Ben Stuart

Construction offers lots of exciting and varied career paths! Here, Architect Ben Stuart shares his journey into the industry and explains where it’s taken him as part of our series of spotlights on construction careers.

Watch more construction journeys here.

“I wanted to do architecture because it didn’t seem like a job, it seemed enjoyable and fun” says Ben. Originally he enrolled on the Architecture and Environmental Engineering degree course at the University of Nottingham, but it wasn’t long before he switched onto the pure Architecture programme. “It turned out that I didn’t have that much interest in the engineering side” he explains, “but the great thing about University is you can side step courses”.

“I wanted to do architecture because it didn’t seem like a job... it seemed enjoyable and fun”

Ben joined international architectural practice Make in 2010, working in their London studio. One of the first projects he was involved on was the Aquatics Centre at King Abdullah Sports City in Saudi Arabia. “That project was using the latest technologies and all these things that I loved doing, and from that point on I have always felt like I’ve been at the most exciting end of architecture” says Ben.

The Aquatics Centre at King Abdullah Sports City in Saudi Arabia was one of the first projects Ben was involved with at Make Architects. (Image courtesy of Make Architects).

Ben cities his favourite project as Oslo Opera House, the state-of-the-art home for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet that was opened in 2008. He explains the building’s innovative approach to permeability and its interface with Oslo harbour as encapsulating ‘everything that he loves’ about architecture.

The roof of the building angles to ground level, inviting people to walk up and enjoy panoramic views of Oslo. Clad in a mixture of white granite and aluminium, the 414,000 square foot Opera House can seat 1,364 in its main performance space.

Oslo Opera House allows people to walk up from the harbour and across its white granite cladding to experience views of the city.

Ben explains that Oslo Opera House is his favourite building. (Image courtesy of Oikema O).

Inspired by the architectural profession, Ben founded the Create More Podcast to take an in-depth, behind the scenes look at some of the UK’s most creative and inspirational minds. This has allowed him to not only share the work of others with a larger audience, but to feed what he learns back into his core career as an architect.

“I never know where [the podcast] is going to take me next and that’s part of the enjoyment” says Ben.

“I never know where the podcast is going to take me next"

Ben Stuart is an architect at Make and founder of the Create More Podcast. You can listen to his chat with The B1M’s Fred Mills on Acast and iTunes.

Images courtesy of Make Architects (Make Architects London Studio, United Kingdom and King Abdullah Sports City Aquatics Centre, Saudi Arabia) and Oikema O (Oslo Opera House, Norway).

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