The Key Role of Building Services

Your profession has far more potential than mine!” It was these words from his father-in-law that convinced Thomas Hueber. Hence – the promising path to the future lay not in taking over the family jewelry business but in his true passion, the profession of building services engineer.

A job description with responsibility
Against the background of climate change, the participation of building services engineers in the early phases of the design process is more decisive than ever. Because buildings consume huge quantities of materials and energy. They are responsible for almost 40 % of climate-damaging CO₂-emissions. And if the building sector doesn’t undergo significant change, the rise in temperature will be 5.5 rather than the target of 1.5 degrees. This is why building services engineers focus on not just designing functional buildings in which users feel good, but also buildings that have a minimal impact on the environment.
There’s huge demand today for experts who, like Thomas Hueber, have learnt to look over the horizon of their own expertise and work in integrated teams on common solutions. For enthusiastic engineers, who share all their experience with the team and see this set of values as a basis for facilitating a more sustainable existence.

Working as equal partners
When he was still self-employed he had some early experiences of integrated design, and the fact that at ATP it’s not the architect, but the team that matters, is a great relief for him. Unlike in a normal building services engineering company, ATP offers him the huge advantage of being part of the project team from day one of the design process – from a point at which the architect hasn’t already come up with ideas that he’s going to have to grudgingly execute at a later date.

He’s enthusiastic about being able to invest his time and energy as part of the integrated team, developing better and more courageous ideas in the interest of the overall success of the project. And, in the light of a threatening situation in which the level of CO₂-emissions produced by buildings continues to rise, we need such enthusiasm more than ever.

Fighting for the best talent
Someone with so much influence is in great demand. A training as a building services engineer is a form of job guarantee. This is very clear to ATP Group Leader Peter Oberhuber, a qualified mechanical engineer who has accompanied and skillfully challenged and supported generations of heating, air conditioning, ventilation, and sanitation engineers on their highly individual career paths – as future managers and experts. When he was being trained, the profession of “building services engineer” didn’t exist – today, however, anyone who has the basic knowhow in the areas of mathematics and physics, mechanics and thermodynamics is already excellently placed to understand what’s needed to be successful in this profession. Over many years he’s worked hard to help young colleagues become highly-qualified specialists. Daniel Abfalter is one of these. He now leads his own group and, like Peter Oberhuber, is already wondering who will create the next generation of building services engineers.

The dual course Smart Building Technologies at the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) is one of these initiatives.