Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
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Stories
Craig Stott: Building a better future for architecture students and the community
Can BA (Hons) Architecture students be a force for good? Ask Craig Stott and his colleagues at Leeds Beckett and they’ll explain how their students’ work has an incredible impact. While students learn new skills, they also help transform the lives of people in the local Leeds community.
Stories
Craig strongly believes in building spaces that are fit for now and the future, whether that’s providing a brilliant place to learn, connect or support others. Keeping the planet in mind and thinking sustainably is important for him too.
Through Project Office, Craig and his colleagues expose architect students at Leeds Beckett to real projects, real problems and real people. Students leave the confines of campus and talk to the local community. Their challenge is to understand the needs of certain groups and create an effective architectural solution.
Project office
Project Office is a RIBA Chartered Architecture Practice based in The School of Architecture at Leeds Beckett University. It supports not-for-profit and charitable organisations in need of architectural input who can’t afford to work with a commercial practice.
Experiencing the entire process
As part of their course, our architecture students create detailed designs for live briefs. Students present their designs to the client, which helps form a strategy to be taken forward and built.
Working on real projects prepares students for practice. And it’s something only a handful of universities across the country can offer. There are so many benefits for students – from understanding briefs and completing their own research, to working with limited budgets and developing communication skills.
Going through the entire process is really empowering for students and builds their confidence.
Project Office has completed a multitude of projects including an office space, a play area for a primary school and a community centre. We’ve just been granted planning permission for houses in the most deprived area of Leeds.
Students are always rewarded for their time – either through the University currency of ‘credits’ awarded towards their degree or financially working for Project Office.
Different people's challenges and materials
Under Craig’s guidance, students gain expertise in designing new spaces and construction processes. The skills students develop are popular with employers and the experience helps them become better architects when they graduate.
Students learn to deal with different people, as well as becoming familiar with the properties of various materials used in construction. Craig and his team know some students have never even picked up a hammer before or felt how heavy a piece of oak is, but that doesn’t matter as it’s all part of the learning process.
When creating an office for FareShare, a charity fighting food poverty, students only had a budget of £1,500. After costing designs that repeatedly came out too high, his students had to think innovatively. By contacting local suppliers and using online auction sites students understood what they could afford, and created designs using only those materials.
A welcoming entrance for a community centre
A few years ago, when New Wortley Community Association secured lottery funding, Leeds Beckett students helped create an amazing new community centre for local people. Since then, it continues to be a place where people can receive substance dependency support, learn skills to get back into work and access wellbeing services. It also gives young people a place to go, reducing the risk of antisocial behaviour in the area. Fast forward a few years and the Community Association contacted Project Office again, this time about a brand-new entrance.
Craig knew what a positive impact a creative new welcoming entrance could make to the local community using the centre. Craig also expanded the brief to include the redevelopment of the existing building into a health and wellbeing centre – it meant the centre got a new multifunctional space that they needed and our students maximised their experience from the project.
Craig spent a semester down at the centre with students delivering his teaching and encouraging students to interact with people using the centre. The student who created the most fitting design would get the chance to see their ideas come to life.
The winning student
Student, Gerson Almeida, impressed everyone, and his design was picked. He had spoken to a couple of homeless people who ‘live’ near the University. These conversations helped inspire a design focused on providing accommodation for others like them in the area, with lockable pods made out of recycled material.
“Students put down their pencils and talked to board members, staff and volunteers to complete research. They were also encouraged to get out of their comfort zone by talking to people on the streets and knocking on doors. All of this informed their designs and resulted in some beautiful ideas – including Gerson’s.”
From underused lobby to brilliant design
While the funding wasn’t available to bring Gerson’s entire project to life, his plans to use recycled materials to build a new entrance went ahead.
The previous entrance to the building was just an outdoor space under a canopy where prams were left. As Gerson’s design developed, it was transformed into a welcoming reception space. The light was also brilliant, so talks began of using it for an art gallery too, with children from a nearby primary school creating clay self-portraits.
"There was extremely limited funding for this project. Students spent a lot of time calling manufacturers. In the end, they found suppliers who each had some windows that didn’t fit the building they were intended for, so they donated them. These windows were an integral part of the final build.”
The ideal space for social distancing
Then the unexpected happened. The Covid-19 pandemic hit. During this time, the centre partnered with Leeds City Council and became the Community Care Volunteering Hub for south Leeds, providing food and hygiene products.
The new entrance meant they had the perfect buffer zone where people could socially distance from the staff and still receive the supplies they desperately needed throughout the lockdowns and times when restrictions were in place.
The new entrance is engaging and vibrant, so more local people are using the centre and benefitting from the services provided there.
What’s next? The community want support designing a new space. By day, it will be somewhere for adults to learn new skills. By night, it will transform into a youth club zone for young people in the area.
Working with Project Office is an amazing opportunity for our students. Gerson graduated with a finished design on his CV. That’s a massive achievement. It will help him stand out at interviews, and hopefully put him ahead of other applicants.
Creating a lasting impact
As a profession, architecture isn’t doing enough to tackle the climate emergency. For example, cement is the source of about 8% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Through his teaching, Craig helps students understand the importance of sustainable material choices, and through Project Office they understand how to do this.
The truth is: the most sustainable building is the one you don’t build. My work at Project Office is important to me as we’re creating spaces while educating students and empowering the local community. We’re building a force for good. Leeds Beckett isn’t the only university doing it, but we’re leading in terms of impact.
Craig Stott
Craig Stott (MEng, BArch, MA, ARB) is a Project Office co-director, Architect and Senior Architecture Lecturer at the Leeds School of Architecture, Leeds Beckett University.
