Architecture students redesign Holmfirth’s town centre
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 11:39:00 BST
Architecture students have been working on a project to hypothetically redesign Holmfirth's town centre. The students were approached by Holme Valley Vision, a local organisation and were tasked to draw up plans to identify Holmfirth’s weaknesses and issues in the current layout and then come up with beneficial additions for Holmfirth town.
Carl Meddings, Subject Leader for Architecture said “we were very lucky to be able to work with Holme Valley Vision, who approached us about a year ago to start planning what we could do. The response was tremendous. Over 60 ideas were put forward and the response to the public consultation and to the exhibition has been really positive. The work was of a very high quality, with great depth of scholarship and vision.”
The project which started in January included an 'urban study' of the town’s history, people, demographics, architecture, communities, roads, commerce, industry and the environment. The students worked with members of the Holme Valley Vision group which allowed them to engage with local residents and business owners.
Alex Malkin, final year BA Architecture student told us “I have been able to design a complex architectural scheme that encompasses my personal developments from this year with the potential to simulate the experiential aspects of my scheme, such as psychology of space, movement, scale and also technical aspects such as environmental light control and fire escape routing.”
Margaret Dale, from Holme Valley Vision told us that the work of the students has helped them to step back and view their town through different eyes. She said “we have been delighted by the freshness of their thinking and the way their proposals have challenged our preconceived ideas. We have also been very impressed by the quality of their work and hope that some of the students will be able to talk about their ideas at the conference we are planning for October.
Vivian Gbemisola Olawepo, second year Architecture student told us “from this experience I do believe my architectural knowledge is broader and I am becoming more creative with my ideas. Doing this project has given me the opportunity to improve on my weakness in preparation for my final year.”
Iuliana Silvi, Architecture student told us “having the support and involvement of the Holme Valley Vision Group and the Holmfirth residents was very helpful as they are the ones for which we had to design, and in my opinion the best designs are the ones in which the client and the architect work together on the project. The whole experience was like having real clients and for our development as future architects was really helpful.”
Margaret Dale also said “we are keen to continue our relationship with the School and hope we can find ways of providing similar experiences to other students in the future.”
