An inquisitive child, Danny was always destined for a future which piqued his innate curiosity.
Danny Bryan, Divisional Technical Services Manager, London, UK
When he was a boy, Danny was enchanted with a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around him. When gifted toys by his parents, rather than playing with them he was compelled to take them apart and find out how they were put together.
The trait has never waned, and Danny believes he was destined for a career exploring the built environment where he could flex his practical skills and push boundaries.
Even with his vivid imagination, he couldn’t have imagined the excitement he’d feel every day working on commissioning and infrastructure projects, and unpicking the building blocks of untapped potential with influential clients such as Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo.
True joy for Danny comes from the journey – partnering with clients and consultants to deliver solutions that match bold ambitions, and physical environments that are as intelligent as the people that occupy them. Part of the puzzle involves finding solutions to life’s big challenges, like creating sustainable spaces that leave a lasting legacy.
Danny’s focus is firmly on the future, particularly as construction reaches a tipping point in how it harnesses technology’s limitless potential. For Danny, his role at ISG is the gift that keeps on giving.
31 years into his career, Danny firmly believes he is exactly where he was destined to be. Having been fortunate enough to be offered an apprenticeship at 16, he started out as an electrical engineer and has never looked back.
Reflecting on the road that led him to become divisional technical services manager for ISG’s fit out business, Danny feels that with hard work and dedication, you can make your own luck in this industry. Having previously worked on ISG projects as an engineer at sub-contractor teams himself, he feels immensely proud to see his previous apprentices rising up as young managers, working on the projects that he now oversees.
"The future possibilities are what excites me most. Smart buildings are already delivering so much and yet we’ve barely scratched the surface. Everybody talks about pushing things to the edge, but as the technology evolves the edge moves further away, so we’ll never reach it - rather we’ll keep learning and innovating."
Danny Bryan, Divisional Technical Services Manager
Danny also credits his success to being able to do what he loves every day. The curious young engineer in him is constantly excited by the opportunities that his work presents, through being hands on with commissioning to witnessing how systems work and interact together to create the end piece.
Through his work on ISG's mega scale projects from events, stadia and banking infrastructure projects, Danny has witnessed ambitious occupiers increasingly looking to create smart buildings that are as intelligent as the people and organisations that occupy them – and he relishes his part to play in championing solutions to this end.
“Big data excites me, there is no single piece of the puzzle when you look at buildings this way," says Danny. "Everything connects to everything, transmitting live information through one master integrated system to provide information that ultimately helps the end user."
Danny believes that to the uninitiated, there’s a misconception around the vast opportunities this industry has to offer, as well as the role the built environment has to play on impacting the way we all live and work.
In the wake of COVID-19, Danny notes that the fluency of language around efficiency and sustainability has increased exponentially. While many people still picture artificial intelligence or machine learning as something that is only leveraged in online to analyse markets for commercial gain, in today’s world these techniques are being readily applied to the physical environment for the benefit of those that occupy spaces.
Danny cites that businesses are already utilising technology to monitor building occupancy, mapping people around buildings to ensure physical safety in challenging times. Further to this, he’s seeing many forward-thinking organisations start to realise the value in managing their physical environments more efficiently, as they seek to improve energy performance and drive productivity.
"The future possibilities are what excites me most," explains Danny. "Smart buildings are already delivering so much and yet we’ve barely scratched the surface. Everybody talks about pushing things to the edge, but as the technology evolves the edge moves further away, so we’ll never reach it - rather we’ll keep learning and innovating."
“Big data excites me, there is no single piece of the puzzle when you look at buildings this way. Everything connects to everything, transmitting live information through one master integrated system to provide information that ultimately helps the end user."
Danny Bryan, Divisional Technical Services Manager
Ultimately, it’s this untapped potential for continued learning that most enthuses Danny - who is witnessing how intelligent spaces are already becoming in a way he could never have expected when starting his career. He eagerly describes an example of how programmes can be set up to monitor and sync building population trends in line with public transport activity, so if a delayed train service impacts occupants on any given floor, the building can preserve energy by automatically adjusting the air conditioning of unoccupied spaces. Danny's face lights up, and you can see that 31 years in, he is still enjoying every step of his professional path.
In Danny’s mind there couldn’t be a more exciting time to work in his profession. He sees construction as at a tipping point of new ways of thinking, revolutionising the ways in which it harnesses technology’s limitless potential. Picturing quite how far that journey will take us pushes even his vivid imagination, but he looks forward to finding out.
Published on the 15th of April 2021.
