Julie Wilson, President EAA Partner, Brennan & Wilson Architects, Dunbar
Many thanks for the invitation to attend this event. This is such a great initiative to help provide secondary school children with an understating of how design can influence their built environment. Sixteen years is an impressive period to have run this programme!
Wishing Creative Spaces all the best for what I am sure will be another successful event.
Sandy Beattie, Team Leader, Masterplanning Design and Conservation Strategic Place Planning, Aberdeen City Council
It was good to meet you and thanks for inviting me. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and was amazed at the effort the young people put in to their projects.
I was also in awe of the preparation that obviously goes into Creating Spaces – no mean feat! (you must have been exhausted at the end of it!)
As I said when we met, I am keen to see if we could do something like Creating Spaces in Aberdeen. Once all the images are up on the website, I’ll be alerting our Chief Exec to the event and making a case for us doing something here.
It would be useful to learn from you in terms of time, effort, personnel, cost and sponsorship, so if there’s an appetite in Aberdeen to do this, I’d really appreciate the chance to pick your brains.
Ronnie Proctor, MBE, Provost of Angus
It was a great pleasure to once again attend the Creative Spaces event held in the Kingsway Campus of Dundee and Angus College. It was rewarding to see pupils from as far afield as Dunfermline in the South of Fife, from Dundee, from Angus and Aberfeldy in the west of Perthshire all actively taking part. All who took part were really focused and engaged in what they were doing and it was interesting to see that two designs where the same, but all showed a great deal of thought and creativity with an understanding of the project brief. When I visit other activities around Angus which are focussed on the young people of today I get a sense of confidence for the future as I am quite sure that projects such as Creative Spaces give our young people the platform to demonstrate their worth as citizens of tomorrow. With best wishes and regards to all who were involved in organising this excellent and most worthwhile event.
Bill Barr, Dundee Civic Trust
I would like to congratulate you on the project’s continuing success and the value that Creative Spaces adds to the schools’ design curriculum and creative education generally. This is great credit to your organisation and engagement with a large number of regional schools and their teachers.
Mark Ellson Director, Holmes Miller
Congratulations on arranging what was clearly an engaging and inspiring event.
Scott McGibbon, Class of Your Own
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the well organised and ran event, albeit briefly, and the chance to see the first class work at hand, being produced by the students.
Bruce Benning, Breadalbane Academy
Many thanks for a great day of designing and information. It is fantastic to look forward to this every year and I hope that it does continue even with the departure of Doug from the practice, I hope that he will continue to support the competition as well as enjoy his retirement. A special thanks to you and your team, as I appreciate the amount of effort to make a day like this as successful as it has been over the many years.
Ian Cameron, Head Judge (ex Perth & Kinross Council)
The competition appears to be unique in this, and other, countries and seems to be recognised at professional and governmental levels. Be nice to see it as a national competition with regional heats – that would give this area a head start – but that might need curricular time, but what are governments for? If they really are keen on promoting young people, what a great opportunity.
David MacDonald, Hub Programme Director Scottish Futures Trust
What a fantastic event….! You must be hugely proud of the efforts that Doug has made to put this on the map. Well done to Doug for all he has done to engage young people with the industry.
It was great to see how the pupils had developed their ideas in response to the brief and then create innovative spaces. Being a musician, I was very interested in how the recording studio was incorporated into the designs. I was also very impressed by the team whose house was shaped like a piano…!
Having started life as a QS, I was also interested in how the teams had developed their designs conscious of the budgetary constraints. One or two teams had gone over budget but they understood why so had already thought of potential resolutions to that aspect of their project.
Another universal response from each of the teams was that they had worked together really well – the collaboration was evident throughout. The pupils had clearly enjoyed themselves and I am sure that many of the designers of the future were in that room yesterday.
Many thanks for inviting me to this important event. I look forward to hearing who won and to visiting again next year.
David MacDonald, Hub Programme Director Scottish Futures Trust
You are very welcome – the thanks are all due to you and your team for giving the youngsters such a positive introduction to the world that we operate in.
Organisations are often too busy to pause, reflect and consider where the future lies. This initiative does all of that and, in doing so, will inspire the next generation of designers and engineers all of whom can create the built environment of tomorrow. The legacy of your initiative will be felt far and wide.
I was reading through the website and there is a wealth of information provided to help the pupils prepare for the day. The fact that they were all so productive and well organised demonstrates that the information served its purpose very well. I also noted that the team had to comprise two boys and two girls. Diversity is essential in our industry and yesterday’s event will help to reinforce that message.
I will be spreading the word about Creative Spaces and encouraging fellow professionals to look towards the future with a great deal of confidence. The enthusiasm, excitement and creativity present in the workshop yesterday is ample of evidence of that….!
I hope you can have a well-earned rest now this year’s event is over. I suspect, however, that your mind is already on 2019…..
Please keep me posted – I will speak to our PR man in house to see what we can do to raise awareness of this excellent initiative.
Ruth Lonsdale, Lecturer, Dundee and Angus College
Thank you once again for a fantastic Creative Spaces event yesterday. I was particularly impressed with the standard of the model making and the dedication and focus of the school pupils this year.
