Margaret Cooke

BSc (Hons) CEng MIStructE
Conservation Accredited Engineer

Senior Consultant

Margaret is one of the founding Directors of Integral and now a Senior Consultant to the practice.  She is a Conservation Accredited Engineer with over 30 years of experience in re-use of buildings, especially those which are listed, fragile or historically sensitive.

On the early stages of conservation projects, Margaret provides the strategic direction. The most sustainable thing we can do as engineers is re-use our existing building stock and Margaret believes that good design emerges from a really solid understanding of the client brief and spending time on the early stages of the project. The aim is to avoid unnecessary structural work by creatively matching building capacity to the proposed use, which in turn releases money for other parts of the project. She has excellent working relationships with heritage funders and is highly experienced in liaising with Historic England and other Statutory Authorities. Margaret remains visible once the project is on track, supporting our Project Engineers, providing her knowledge and expertise to both the Integral team and the client. Her creative skills are supported by her wide knowledge of historic construction techniques and her ability to solve problems.

Margaret is the Cathedral Engineer for Wells Cathedral, a trustee for Clifton Suspension Bridge and a trustee for both Theatre Royal Bath and Bath Theatre Trust. In 2021 she won the IABSE Milne Medal prize awarded to an individual engineer for excellence in structural design you can listen to her lecture “Less is More” here. Margaret lectures at University of Bath, passing her knowledge and experience on to the next generation of engineers.

Outside work Margaret coxes, rows and coaches at Minerva Bath rowing club. When not on the river she can be found in the garden, drinking tea with friends or in the Lake District camping and walking.