Students Have Designs On College Garden

Head of Creative and Applied Arts, Linda Izan, with sensory garden design winner Sophie Dixon

Creative students are hoping to bring wall-to-wall sunshine to South Cheshire College after helping to design a new sensory garden for the new-build.

Business and IT Entry Level students have produced 'mood board' designs for the new landscaped area which will be integrated into the College's new multi-million campus.

Construction on the project, which will provide a first class educational facility at the heart of the Crewe and Nantwich community, gets underway later this year.

The group spent several of their Entry Level sessions using different computer programmes to come up with the garden designs.

Students were shown plans from the architects, including where the garden will be located and thought of everything from palm trees and plants to rocks and water features in their ideas.

All their designs were then submitted to landscape designer Dan Wilkinson at Jefferson Sheard Architects who are masterminding the new build scheme.

Those students that took part in the sensory garden project included Sophie Dixon, James Goodwin, Rossanna Gilmore, Thomas Clapperton, Matthew Boulter and Michael Palin.

Dan studied the different ideas, which had been produced on desktop packages including Powerpoint, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Paint, and chose Sophie Dixon's mood board as the winning design.

Sophie received a gift voucher in recognition of her idea which she developed further at home.

Entry level tutor Jonathan White was full of praise for the work which students have produced.

Jonathan said: "The students have all put a lot of time and effort into their mood boards for the new garden and there were some fantastic ideas.

"The designs consisted of photos of the types of plants, fencing and other features they would like to see in the garden.

"Dan was looking for a design which captured visually how the garden would look after it has been constructed and Sophie's mood board did just that."

Linda Izan, Head of Faculty for Creative and Applied Arts, presented Sophie with her prize.

Linda said: "I think that it's very pleasing to see our Entry Level students using their computer design skills to very good effect and coming up with such imaginative ideas.

"The students are making a very valuable contribution to improving the environment for students of future generations and we look forward to seeing Sophie's idea shining through in the new garden."

The new sensory garden will provide a colourful and uplifting environment for staff and students to relax and socialise in at the heart of the new campus.

It is hoped that other local school pupils and young people will be involved with other aspects of the new-build design as the project progresses.

Sophie, 16, of Crewe, said: "It is exciting to have been involved in a project like this and I've really enjoyed doing it."

As part of the new build student consultation process the mood boards will be displayed in the main college campus.

Dan Wilkinson said: "All the students who took part in the project made a good effort and attempted to visualise the design intention and how the garden will appear once constructed.

"Sophie's board was a clear winner as she made an excellent effort to bring elements of the garden together and give a feel as to how the garden will be viewed."

For further information about the new campus development project please contact Chris Bentley at South Cheshire College on +44 (0)1270 654652.