Design in Practice

This year, students worked collaboratively as part of a design team to develop RIBA Stage 3 proposals for a community building in Ely Caerau, Cardiff, for a live Client, the Caerau Ely Sports Trust. Opportunities for collaboration rather than design autonomy would seem to reflect the realities of design in practice, which often involves teamwork.

There is widespread criticism in the public domain that architecture schools do not equip students with skills for the ‘real-world’; that design at university is carried out in a vacuum. Student teams were challenged with ‘pitching’ their vision to clients and stakeholders when they returned to Cardiff for a week-long Short Course. The event was attended by a range of community representatives to provide advice, insights and engage in co-production with our student teams. We believe public engagement directly benefits our community partners by helping to generate interest and maintain momentum through the project initiation stage.

The work of this cohort has been embraced by the client group and provides material for public consultation and subsequent funding applications. The reaction from the client and community was overwhelmingly positive:
“I feel like a kid in a sweetie shop!” – Carl Meredith.

The final submission asked individual students to develop their team’s proposal in detail through self-defined creative and technical explorations. The resulting body of work demonstrates a high level of consideration and reflective engagement with a defined set of constraints. This then went on to help develop highly integrated projects which were subtly, and sometimes radically, defined by these more technical investigations.

Location: Trelai Park, Cardiff CF5 5BG
Client: Caerau and Ely Sports Trust

WSA On Display 2020

Design in Practice

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD LINK

THE GRANDSTAND

CULTIVATE

INTERGENERATIONAL HUB

NOT JUST A TIN SHED

THE BRIDGE

THE MISSING COG

GARDEN COMMUNITY

THE NEST