Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Graduate competition to design ground-breaking Leeds Beckett University research centre
The competition, which closes this month on Tuesday 19 April and is open to all Leeds Beckett Architecture and Landscape graduates, will see the winning design taken forward by the Project Office (PO) to create a new Sustainable Technology and Landscape Resource Centre.
Founded and managed by architecture lecturers, Simon Warren and Craig Stott, the PO is an architectural consultancy which sits under the umbrella of the School of Art, Architecture and Design. It gives Architecture students at the University a chance to work with real clients, producing built and strategic design solutions with a particular emphasis on ethical, social and resilient architecture.
“This project is an exciting collaboration between Leeds Beckett architecture students, the Project Office, The Landscape Resource Centre (LRC) and Leeds Sustainability Institute (LSi),” said Simon.
“The existing LRC classroom is to be demolished and replaced with the new building, which will accommodate researchers from LSI as well as provide improved teaching space for the Landscape Architecture course.
“We are calling upon alumni to create a bespoke design solution that mirrors the ambition of this programme and we encourage graduates to put forward their architectural and landscape design concepts. It’s a brilliant opportunity for the winner or winning team to really make an architectural mark and put their name to an innovative project.
“There is a prize fund of £500 to be distributed by the judges and it is our intention that the services of the winning team will be retained up to planning submission as sub-consultants,” said Simon. “This will be in the form of up to five day design sessions and a fee will be paid of £200 per day with any further involvement beyond that point to be negotiated.”
He added that it was expected that the building would be completed for the start of teaching in the 2017/18 academic year and that proposals from teams consisting of both architecture and landscape disciplines were encouraged.
The competition follows the success of another held by the PO back in 2009 which invited students on the architecture courses to come up with a design concept for a new multi-purpose community building in New Wortley, which is set to open its doors to the public in September. The project received a grant of £686,674 from the Big Lottery Fund last year, with the new building being based on designs by Leeds Beckett Architecture graduate Vahagn Mkrtchyan.
Craig added: “The overall site is to retain its function as a Landscape Architecture teaching space and environment whilst providing a new home for the LSi’s research function. The new building must complement its beautiful setting, but also enhance it, enabling the landscape architecture course to be taught in an immersive way whilst providing the LSi with a functional and inspiring research space.”
For more information on the design brief and how to enter, email Simon and Craig at the projectoffice@leedsbeckett.ac.uk or download the competition pack via https://twitter.com/_projectoffice.