Our second Digital Academy launched in October and ran 10-weeks until December. We had an amazing group of participants who took pack in a mixture of individual and group design challenges which responded to projects from 2 of our Partners, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) and Public Sector PLC.
The first 4 sessions were kindly supported by a range of PLACED Ambassadors who spoke to the group about who they were, what their job is or what they are studying, and gave advice about a range of topics portfolios, jobs, studying and developing confidence.
The LCRCA wanted the young people to think about their priorities for the future by inputting into their developing Spatial Development Strategy. This is a planning document which outlines the objectives for how land and buildings should be used across the city region, and covers the topics of the environment, the economy, quality buildings, health and social value.
We had lots of interesting conversations which led the participants to design a community hub with these themes in mind. Below is just a small selection of some of the contributions;.
Next we moved on to our group projects with the support of 6 amazing mentors. The cohort designed masterplans in response to a Town Centre development from Public Sector PLC, challenging them to think what makes a great neighbourhood to live, work and play. The designed a mixture of housing, public realm, landscaping, community buildings and transport routes and hubs in order to make a place that offered an exciting, welcoming, safe and friendly place for people to live and visit.
Congratulations to all our participants, and we’re are wishing them the very best for the next steps. And of course, a huge thank you to everyone who was a part of making the Digital Academy possible.
We’re looking forward to the next cohort starting in 2021!