Helen McGarry

Helen is a structural engineer with over ten years of international design experience. She worked at Arup (Dublin, Hong Kong and London) and Expedition Engineering Ltd. (London) before joining Design ID's Hillsborough office in 2024. She is a chartered member of The Institution of Structural Engineers and Engineers Ireland.

Helen has developed her pragmatic, technical and creative approach to engineering design and research through working in various contexts and on a wide range of projects – from small-scale existing buildings and timber structures to strategic infrastructure. She is motivated by being challenged and engaged in the design of things that are useful, worthwhile and which positively enhance the built environment and society.

In recent years, much of Helen’s work has focused on providing on low carbon innovation consultancy to UK infrastructure clients on a portfolio of projects, with a particular focus on the rapid decarbonisation needed in the concrete industry. She has conducted studies with contractors to assess their use of concrete against The UK Lower Carbon Concrete Group - LCCG Market Benchmark and, on behalf of Expedition, she co-authored the ‘Concrete’ chapter in Materials: An environmental primer | RIBA Books, published in 2024.

Helen has experience applying Circular Economy principles to building projects and believes Retrofit-at-scale to be essential for meeting our collective social and environmental responsibilities. She is currently exploring the potential for Regenerative thinking and design practices to navigate the construction industry and evaluate the impacts of building projects in various relevant contexts.