Women in Property picks its Ecohome design competition winners2nd December 2014

The South West branch of Women in Property (WiP) has successfully run its third annual local Schools Ecohome Competition, this year supported by Crest Nicholson.

Students from Year Nine (13-14 years of age) were asked to design a sustainable four-bedroom modern house, based around a plot located within the regeneration of 12 acres of industrial buildings at Paintworks in Bristol’s creative district.

Four schools in the region stepped up to the challenge: Backwell School, Churchill Academy, Corsham School and St Mary Redcliffe and Temple, with a total of 26 entries received from young, aspiring designers.

Their designs went before a panel of judges selected from the property and construction industry, including Andrew Cox of Crest Nicholson, Jackie Pinder of RLB, Ruth Haynes and Tendai Musekiwa of South Stoke Structures; Richenda Oldham from Property News, Robert Delius from Stride Treglown architects, Ella Curnow from Burges Salmon and WiP South West University Award Winner, Lois Kentish.

The high standard of entries this year made the judging very difficult, so two overall winners were chosen. The two winning teams were from Backwell (Eerika, Molly, Freya, Fiona, Teal and Orla) and Corsham (A Hill) and both win a prize of £75 for each school to use towards craft equipment and i-Tunes vouchers for the teams. Their designs were very professional and impressed all the judges.

Backwell School also had a Highly Commended team and they and the winning team from each school receive prizes of i-Tunes vouchers, kindly sponsored by Burges Salmon, Clarke Willmott, GL Hearn, Integral Build, Peter Evans Partnership and Veale Wasbrough Vizards.

One of the judges, Jackie Pinder from RLB, said: “I hope the schools are enthused to encourage some of the students towards the rewarding area of design in construction. The students came up with some exciting and innovative ideas.”

WiP Chairman of the South West branch, Laura Fuller of Burges Salmon, said: “We are always keen to promote property and construction careers to young people and experience has shown us that involving them in practical work like this, is one of the best ways to get them interested.”