F+G helps generate interest in regeneration at Southwark school

Consultant Faithful+Gould has been helping young people in Southwark regenerate their local area.

The firm teamed up with Lakehouse, Family Mosaic, Hyde Housing Trust and Southwark Education Business Partnership to host the Southwark Education Business Partnership Regeneration Challenge.

The two-day event at St Michael’s Catholic School in Bermondsey took place at the end of July.

The Regeneration Challenge involved a select group of children from the school, all of whom were aged between 14 and 16 and studying either geography or business studies at GCSE level.

The idea behind the challenge was to put the children into teams who would then prepare their ideas of how they would redevelop the area around Elephant and Castle in South London.

They were then asked to present their scheme to a panel of judges.

Marcus Lesser from Faithful+Gould said: "The ultimate aim of the project was to produce a scheme that would develop the children’s interest in regeneration in their own environment; we were also hoping to stimulate their interest in careers in construction in general.

"To this end, they were given an insight into various specific construction related careers, as well as presentation skills. We successfully inspired the children to become passionate about the redevelopment of the area, as well as demonstrate the advantages of working on construction projects which would directly benefit their local community."

Joint winners of the challenge were Team Jungle and Atlantic Alliances, who were awarded for best brief and best presentation respectively.

The firm also organised lectures on planning, sustainability and QS.