People Spotlight: Meet Eric Trillo
Our People Spotlight series gives you an inside look at our technical experts around the world. This week, we are highlighting an architect from our Buildings + Places business line in Barcelona, Spain and providing you insight into their design inspiration and work.
Eric is the Director of our Buildings + Places office in Barcelona, Spain. He is an all-round architect with experience in a variety of sectors such as sports, residential and healthcare. With a personal interest in patient experience design, he has become a valuable member of our European Healthcare team by securing various projects for the sector in Spain.
Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.
Architecture is tangible. When trying to decide what to study at university, I was attracted to the idea of creating things that would be built and be there, rather than work on business transactions that would be intangible.
Later, as an architecture student, my tutor, who later became my great friend, Professor Alan Brookes told me that architects are very fortunate because they design the spaces where people love, dance, feel … live, in short. If you think of that, it is a privilege to be an architect.
Architecture is tangible. When trying to decide what to study at university, I was attracted to the idea of creating things that would be built and be there.”
What is your favorite AECOM project that you’ve worked on and why?
Every project I work on seems to be even more interesting than the previous one, so my favorite keeps changing. My current favorite is the work we are doing for the Medical Emergency System (SEM) headquarters in Barcelona, which will enable the organization to handle all emergency calls and coordination of the emergency response required.
This 5.6-acre (23,000-square-meter) building is a key infrastructure project for the region, designed to be resilient in case of any catastrophe. It is a very challenging project because it is a fast-track construction — we are designing it as it is being built — which will be delivered in only nine months.
AECOM’s scope in this project covers many disciplines from design through to completion, such as architecture (jointly with a Barcelona based company b720 Fermín Vazquez Arquitectos), MEP, structural engineering, cost management and sustainability. As the project director, my role is to ensure full coordination between the client, the contractor and our design team to ensure that all the project objectives are met on time, within budget and to the expected levels of quality.
This 5.6-acre (23,000-square-meter) building is a key infrastructure project for the region, designed to be resilient in case of any catastrophe.”
Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community.
During the pandemic, we were appointed to design and build a small primary care center in Barcelona as part of the emergency response to COVID-19. With only 3,875 square feet (360 square meters) of space, this healthcare infrastructure provided the community with nine new consult rooms, which were key to the testing, triaging and diagnosing of COVID-19 patients in a new and safe facility. Prior to the construction of this building, such activities were done in a set of tents erected on the street, so our project was a key contribution to the comfort of patients, families and healthcare professionals.
When our modules arrived at their final location and were hoisted over a five-story building to be assembled on the ground behind, it felt like help was coming from the sky.”
The building was designed and manufactured off-site over a period of only 12 weeks, resulting in a set of 11 modules of approximately 49 feet by 16 feet (15 meters by 5 meters) each, which were then transported and assembled in the center of the city in only 36 hours. When our modules arrived at their final location and were hoisted over a five-story building to be assembled on the ground behind, it felt like help was coming from the sky.
Share a piece of career advice.
Care for everything you do and take the time and make an effort to ensure that everything you do speaks highly of you, your team and AECOM. It will not go unnoticed.
