Our latest EnviroDC event took place at the University of Liverpool over the weekend. Students from Gateacre School formed the Green Horizons Design Company and developed plans for the redevelopment of the Kroo Bay shantytown in Freetown, Sierra Leone. They pitched their designs to the client, the Environmental Foundation Society, showcasing their work from the day in an engaging, professional presentation. 

The day saw the students grow and adapt to the industrial ‘company’ structure, learning how to combine and collate their ideas from their different departments to develop a single, cohesive design. The company president, Ellis, assigned the students into 3 groups, one focusing on flood defences, one on health and education, and one looking at the housing and buildings. The three groups workshopped their ideas and came together to discuss them and make key design decisions. Once the company had all agreed on these decisions they were able to go back into their teams and develop their plans further. 

Green Horizons did an incredible job of developing designs with the needs of the local community as the priority. The designs had carefully considered the impact they would have on the residents and how they could be adapted to ensure the maximum benefits and opportunities for locals. Throughout the day it became clear to the client representatives that Green Horizons were bringing a new perspective to the design task, showing them unique ideas that were addressing angles of the RFEP the client themselves hadn’t considered. It was inspiring to see the students pursue these new avenues in such an innovative and thoughtful way. 

It was evident early on in the day that the students were finding the task enjoyable and were throwing themselves into developing a balanced and realistic proposal. They were keen to ask questions and make the most of having company mentors and client representatives on hand to learn from. Students told us they were excited by working on a new type of project that introduced them to concepts and scenarios they haven’t seen before, and were able to apply the knowledge they had acquired in lessons at school to a different situation and combine their various skill sets. 

The students delivered a professional and informative presentation that communicated their vision of Kroo Bay to the client. They were able to clearly answer questions given to them by the client representatives and gave confident justifications of their design decisions. SSEF were also running a UKSDC regional event on the same day in Liverpool which meant Green Horizons were given the opportunity to present their designs to the UKSDC companies at the end of today. The company did an incredible job of showcasing their work to their peers and introducing the audience to the day-to-day challenges experienced by residents of Kroo Bay and how their designs were able to alleviate the impacts of these. 

The EnviroDC was a great day for students and staff alike, we can’t wait for the next event at Oxford Brookes University in January, which schools can register for on our website now.