Designing Places
Designing Places Student Competition | February 2012
On February 25, 2012, the Designing Places Competition ran, for a third year, at The Lighthouse, Glasgow. It attracted over 30 built environment students, from across Scotland, to attend the one-day live masterplanning class. The day was led by Susie Stirling, with assistance from Stuart Watson and Gemma Learmonth, both from Architecture and Place, Scottish Government. Ian Gilzean (Chief Architect) was invited as a visiting Judge along with Ian Alexander (JM Architects) and Stephen Turcker (Barton Willmore).
Congratulations to the winning team who called themselves 'A-Plan' and their masterplan was titled Tower Green. The team included:
- Freddie Egan, Edinburgh College of Art
- Hayley Anderson, Aberdeen
- Mwansa Kunda, Heriot-Watt
- Xi Wang, Heriot-Watt
- Nicola Arnott, Glasgow
- Matthew Spurway, Strathclyde
The 'A-Plan' team will be invited to attend the Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning (SAQP) in September to be presented with their certificates by the Minister for Local Government and Planning.
Designing Places Student Competition | February 2011
After the success of the Designing Places Award last year, the competition was continued for a second year. The event followed a similar format whereby all built environment students, from across Scotland, were invited to attend a one-day live masterplanning class on February 26, 2011 at The Lighthouse in Glasgow. The number of students wishing to take part, increased from last year, and was over-subscribed by 90 students. The day was led by Susie Stirling, with assistance from Sophie Corbett, both from Architecture and Place, Scottish Government. Ian Gilzean (Chief Architect) was invited as a visiting Judge along with Stephen Proctor (Proctor and Matthews Architects) and Ali Malik (Waterman and Boreham).
The winning team were called 'Team One' and consisted of:
- Bethany Smith, Glasgow School of Art
- Ayokanmi Ajayi, Aberdeen
- Dale Smith, Strathclyde
- Sarah Riley, Glasgow School of Art
- Sophie Florence Wallis, Glasgow School of Art.
'Team One' were subsequently invited to the Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning (SAQP) in March 11, at The Hub, Edinburgh and were presented with their certificates by Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney MSP.
Designing Places Student Competition February | 2010
This year marked a new approach to the Designing Places Student Award. In previous years, university students of the built environment had been invited to submit work that had been carried out as part of their curriculum on planning and urban design courses. This year however, the Designing Places student award heralded a new approach to engaging with universities. Students across Scotland, whether a novice or more experienced in masterplanning, were invited to participate in a one-day live masterplanning class. The event was simply marketed with an emphasis on interaction and learning - with no preparation required by students - all that was required was to simply turn up!
The response to participate was overwhelming, with over sixty acknowledgements of interest from students from a range of backgrounds, including planning, architecture, surveying and urban design. The first thirty names were selected, and the Design Competition was held on February 27, 2010 at The Lighthouse in Glasgow. The event was run in conjunction with Mactaggart and Mickel Homes Ltd, Proctor and Matthews Architects and Waterman Boreham Engineers.
The day was led and introduced by Susie Stirling, with assistance from Sophie Corbett, both from Architecture and Place, Scottish Government. To set the context, the morning consisted of a series of short lectures by leading design professionals including a presentation on architecture and urban design by Stephen Proctor of Proctor and Matthews Architects and a lecture by Ali Malik, Principal Design Engineer at Waterman Boreham on transport planning and engineering.
Following the lectures, the students were allocated into five teams of six. The teams were pre-selected to ensure that there was a range of students with different backgrounds and interests. They were then given the task of applying their place-making skills to create a masterplan for a site called 'Polnoon', which is located to the south of Eaglesham village in East Renfrewshire. During the course of the exercise, the students were shown how to undertake vehicle tracking, calculate visibility splays and use the B-plan as a tool to identify roads, buildings and open space, and to apply these techniques to their masterplans. The aim was to ensure hands-on learning and creative responses. In particular, there was an emphasis on drawing - no matter at what standard.
By the end of an intensive but very creative day, each team had produced detailed masterplans for the site and were asked to present their ideas to the other students and the design professionals in the format of a crit session.
The winning team were called 'Fly-Green' and comprised of:
- David Baxter, The University of Glasgow
- Nazan Kocak, Edinburgh College of Art
- Dhira Kulkarni, The University of Dundee
- Jennifer Mullen, Heriot-Watt University
- Rebecca Oakes, The University of Aberdeen
- Erica Um, The University of Dundee
Andrew Mickel, Director of Mactaggart and Mickel Homes Ltd gave book tokens to the winners and made a short presentation.
Fly Green were subsequently invited to the Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning (SAQP) on March 11, 2010 at The Hub, Edinburgh and were presented with their certificates by Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney MSP. Later that day, the team were also invited to Lochgelly where they met Andres Duany and the DPZ design team at the Lochgelly SSCI Charrette.
Although it was specified from the start of the competition that there would be no financial prize it was explained that the winning team would be given further opportunities to work on, and experience, other live master-planning projects led by the Scottish Government in the future.
Overall, by changing the format of the Designing Places Award, a stronger link has been created with universities, with many students having since written to express their thanks and enthusiasm to participate in similar events in the future.....the Design Competition even got students out of bed on a Saturday…!!
SSCI
SSCI Sustainable Design Ideas Competition | June 2010
As part of the SSCI, a design competition was run, in collaboration with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), based around the SSCI exemplar site at Whitecross, near Linlithgow. The competition, launched on June 21, 2010, looked forhousing and urban design proposals that combine high levels of sustainability and reductions in carbon emissions with a sensitive response to place and context. Please click here for more information about the competition and exhibition of the entries.
Architecture
Architecture for Everyone project
The Scottish Government committed funding of £14,000 in the first year of Architecture for Everyone (AforE) - a 3-year UK-wide equality initiative in architectural education organised by The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust (SCLT). The campaign is founded on the belief that if built environment professionals reflect the diversity of the society they serve, they would have a better chance of creating a built environment that suits society.
The project aims to:
- Provide opportunities for young people to explore their creativity in the field of architecture and urban design;
- Raise the awareness of careers in architecture and urban design amongst young people from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and socially excluded groups who have traditionally been excluded from entering and sustaining a career in architecture and urban design; and
- Use what is learnt to influence the profession to become more welcoming and accessible to those who have traditionally been excluded from a career in architecture and urban design.
The campaign delivered a pilot workshop in Glasgow during spring 2009. The project aims to deliver further workshops in 09/10 and 10/11 in other cities across Scotland that build upon and extend the work of the pilot project.