Ramboll appoints HRB lead: design and safety lessons for complex infrastructure
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Ramboll has appointed Matthew Pope as director and principal designer for higher-risk buildings, drawing on his 25+ years as a RIBA chartered architect and RIBA Principal Designer member. Pope has led principal designer duties under the CDM 2015 Regulations on major infrastructure, including aviation projects at Abu Dhabi Airport and Heathrow Terminal 2. His recent work on the reconstruction of the fire-damaged Luton Airport car park, from post-fire operational recovery through to handover, signals a focus on complex, safety-critical structures.
Technical Brief
- Role is framed around statutory Principal Designer duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.
- Experience spans hospitality, commercial and infrastructure.
- Aviation portfolio (including Abu Dhabi Airport) implies familiarity with stringent life-safety, crowd management and security design interfaces.
- Heathrow Terminal 2 involvement covered design and quality management.
- Luton Airport car park work extended from immediate post-fire operational recovery through to the handover of the new building.
Our Take
Ramboll’s recent UK appointments, including this HRB lead role and the June 2026 water sector lead, signal a deliberate build‑out of specialist leadership across safety‑critical domains ahead of major public‑sector work under the £3.5bn CPS 2 framework.
Given Ramboll’s track record on complex transport assets such as Heathrow and Luton Airport, a dedicated high‑risk building (HRB) safety lead in the United Kingdom is likely to tighten design assurance processes on large rail and aviation hubs, where CDM 2015 compliance is heavily scrutinised by regulators and insurers.
Gardiner and Theobald’s appearance both here and on the Dirac Building scheme in Cambridge suggests that Ramboll’s HRB capability will plug directly into live UK higher‑risk commercial and institutional projects where cost consultants are already pushing for more robust safety‑by‑design documentation.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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