We’re delighted to have two, talented young architects successfully secure new roles at Building Design Northern (BDN), after graduating from university.

Architectural Assistants, Megan Gray and Nirali Chavan, are supporting BDN’s multi-disciplinary teams at our North East and North West offices, working on some of the company’s largest live projects across UK. This includes multi-million pound commercial, residential and industrial schemes for clients across various sectors.

Having completed a BA (hons) in Architecture at Northumbria University in 2025, Megan is currently working towards fully qualified architect status as part of a degree apprenticeship. This is being supported by BDN for the next three years.

She is now gaining valuable experience, for example, designing planning packs for a proposed beach hut project, completing preparatory work on a property renovation, liaising on an building reconfiguration project as well as drafting a feasibility study for a new riverside housing scheme. It is this balance between academic and professional workloads that is reaping huge rewards developing her career.

Similarly, Nirali has joined BDN after completing a Master’s Degree in Architecture at Oxford Brookes University. Prior to this, she successfully gained a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture while studying in India where she first began her professional career.

Nirali is working on various BDN projects including devising technical packs for Eastgate Point, a mixed-use commercial scheme now in construction in Sunderland, preparing tenders and regulation packs for various sites as well as a planning application to convert a mixed-use building into full residential use.

She is supporting a highly specialist team designing commercial spaces from concept to completion and this is deepening her knowledge, insight and progression within BDN and the industry.

Nirali commented, “Getting the opportunity to work side by side with the team on live projects is amazing as I can really learn from people who have years of industry expertise at the highest level. Projects are varied, creative and often bold, and can include everything from designing a completely new contemporary space or configuring an existing site to preserving historic buildings. That makes it really interesting and no two days are the same, so I’m delighted to be part of the team.”

Megan added, “Being offered an apprenticeship is brilliant as it allows me to learn so many new skills at the same time as gain real industry experience. The team are really supportive too and explain the why’s and how’s around every project I support on. This is extremely valuable as I can apply this to my studies, so I’m really enjoying being part of the team.”

Director of Building Design Northern, Ryan Doyle, said, “As a company we have and will continue to purposely engage with universities and other organisations to support the next generation of architects coming through as well as promote the industry as a highly attractive career path. Megan and Nirali are great examples of two young people who show huge talent and excellent career potential. We’re delighted they’ve joined us.”

Building Design Northern is one of the north’s leading full-service architectural, engineering and project management practices with a wealth of experience spanning retail, industrial, education, healthcare, automotive, local authority and residential sectors.