A Day of Design with Socius
This week we were very excited to be joined by students from Ashton Park School who visited a development site in Westbury Park. Led by Socius,students were given the opportunity to design the purpose of one of the buildings on site. It was fantastic to have so many volunteers for the day which included the head of engagement, Liam Ronan-Chlond, and senior project manager Luke Martin as well as investors, operators, architects, planners, and engineers who all came together to provide a meaningful, insightful and memorable experience for the students.
The day started with introductions and speed interviews from the volunteers accompanied by presentations of what they do. This gave the students an insight into the different career pathways, from civil engineering to property developing. Students were then taken on a tour of the site and told about the plans proposed for North House, one of the buildings. After both groups had the speed networking and site tour, groups designed their proposals for this building, having the opportunities to book meetings with the professional volunteers. This was a great opportunity for students to personally engage with professionals and gain feedback on their ideas.
After lunch the students really got to explore their own creativity! Working together in groups they developed presentations showing their plans for North House and it’s surroundings. This is where the students really showcased their potential, “Every group had good ideas” stated Liam Ronan-Chlond. He even went on to say he would like the students to be kept up to date on whether any of the ideas they had get used as he was confident that they would be. Each group did a presentation to the joy of the volunteers who then had to chose which group was the best and won the prize.
Luke, senior project manager of Socius, took the time to talk to us about his experiences of developing and delivering this event with Bristol WORKS:
“We were delighted to host students from Ashton Park Secondary School at our site in Westbury Park to discuss design, planning and development. We asked interested students to design a future community space and we were very impressed with the quality of suggestions and genuinely inspiring, innovative ideas received. “
“It’s so important to listen to young voices and nurture young talent. The students were a credit to their school. We couldn’t have delivered such a fantastic event without our partnership with Bristol Works.”
“We look forward to revisiting the students in the future to show how some of their ideas have been taken on board and will hopefully be brought to life as part of our proposals for St Christopher’s Square.”
The students were enthusiastic, confident, and worked well as a team. One student fed back that they had enjoyed the day and all the volunteers “gave lots of information”. They asked relevant questions showing their interest and positive attitude and students told us that they are now “more interested in design and engineering”. It was truly a pleasure to guide them through this experience and WORKS would like to thank the following companies for taking the time to facilitate this event: Socius Development Limited, Pegasus UK, Ramboll, Fore Partnership, PRP and Amicala.
