"Hospital design should have users at its heart. A lot of what I do is technical, and if you get that wrong you’ll know about it. In healthcare, users generally care more about function than form.”

Sarah Bell brings diverse international experience to her role as a Senior Project Leader in our Health sector. She studied in Dunedin and began her career with the Southern District Health Board (which covers all hospitals in the lower half of the South Island), gaining all-round experience in design and property maintenance on a mix of hospitals and community and mental health facilities.

In the UK she thrived in a technically demanding role on the UK’s first Proton Beam Therapy Treatment Hospital, a pioneering NHS exemplar project on a tricky central London site featuring state-of the-art technology and bespoke design. This developed her expertise in the sophisticated Building Information Management documentation and modelling central to building operations and maintenance.

Sarah’s a future-focussed technical expert who’s motivated by improving user experience. She strives for technically robust buildings that function to the best of their ability over their entire lifespan. She sees growing market demand for more comprehensive building information modelling to make asset management easier and provide long term benefits in design, cost and construction. She pushes our team to constantly improve documentation and modelling to arm stakeholders with the precise details they need to maximise increasingly technical health environments.

Warm, detail-oriented and a clear communicator, Sarah ensures our complex health projects work efficiently and that site coordination runs smoothly. She genuinely loves a challenge and works closely with consultants and clients to resolve issues swiftly with minimal fuss. Her work on ANGAU Memorial General Hospital in Lae, Papua New Guinea, draws extensively on her seismic design knowledge – a legacy of the Christchurch earthquake.