Rochester Roundhouse, a building transformed by Newcastle University students has been highly commended with the MacEwen award.
Students from the school of architecture planning and landscape Kielder Water & Forest Park Development Trust’s and the local community to transform a dilapidated roundhouse to an exciting new village venue last year and the project has now reached unforeseeable highs with it’s selection for one of two runners up for this prestigious award.
The Roundhouse was designed by students with an open-air amphitheater and contemporary timber pavilion to be used for stargazing, musical performances, and a range of community workshops.
The roundhouse stood out to MacEwen Award judges both for its tangible ‘high-class’ design and nice detailing and it’s teaching and learning programme that provides architecture graduates with experience working on live, budget-conscious projects.
The MacEwen award strives to provide recognition to buildings that take into consideration ‘architecture for the common good’ and maximally benefit society and the local community effectively and are an improvement to people’s lives.
Red Kellie, Vice Chair of Rochester Village Hall, said: “This project is one of true collaboration, bringing the community together with many other parties, including students from around the world, to create something very unique for the people of Rochester and visitors from further afield. We are very grateful to all who have taken part in the creation of this fabulous new roundhouse.
“Projects like these provide a rich pedagogical experience for the students and they have gained numerous transferable skills, from dealing with statutory bodies, to managing time and cost, as well as the significant challenge of actually having to build one of their own designs.”
Newcastle Univerisites ‘Go Volunteer’ association was heavily involved in facilitating the project. The scheme aims to help student’s volunteer in all kinds of ways in and out of the university sphere, and support and fund student led projects with their grants scheme.
The development and execution of the project was successful with the input from both Go Volunteer and dedicated Architecture students from within the university and is evident through the commendation for this prestigious award.