Schools put their design skills to the test with city venue
TEAMS of students from three Derby schools showed off their design skills during a competition linked to a scheme to build a landmark city centre entertainment and conference venue.
Construction work on the £45.8m Becketwell venue, which is set to host over
200 cultural and commercial events each year and expected to attract an additional 250,000 visitors to the city, is progressing to plan.
Built on the site of the former Pink Coconut nightclub and several other buildings, the new Becketwell entertainment and conference venue will offer a much larger and more adaptable space than anything previously available in the city centre.
Derby City Council is working with developer St James Securities,
contractor Bowmer and Kirkland and venue operator ASM Global on the development.
The design competition was devised as part of the Derby Promise by Enterprise 4 Education, which is run by the City Council, alongside Bowmer + Kirkland and project manager and agent Pierre Angulaire.
Year Nine pupils from selected city schools were asked to design an
element of the new venue, which will have a capacity of 3,500.
They were given the freedom to interpret the brief in their own way. It could be either something on a large scale, like the building in “event mode” showing how the lighting, stage design and visitor experience would be, or the design of a specific element of the venue such as a bench, a wall in the foyer or a wayfinding sign.
Pupils were required to apply their engineering and construction knowledge, alongside creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork, to complete their designs, embodying the ethos of the Derby Promise – to build young people’s skills and allow them to explore the future of work, leaving them confident and ambitious about their place in Derby’s future.
Teams from three schools, Da Vinci Academy, Leesbrook Academy and UTC Derby, were selected to present their ideas during a special event at the Council House on July 16. They stood in front of a panel of expert judges, plus teachers, parents and other pupils, to outline their designs and face the judges’ questions. Each school approached the challenge from a unique angle and the judges identified elements of each entry that really impressed them. After much deliberation, they chose Da Vinci Academy as the winners.