Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Hopes ‘unique’ Dundee design event for schools could go nationwide

MSP John Swinney speaks to pupils Sven Thomson, Jack Smith, Amy Kelly and Fern Semple from Anderson High School.
MSP John Swinney speaks to pupils Sven Thomson, Jack Smith, Amy Kelly and Fern Semple from Anderson High School.

The organiser of a “unique” design event for schoolchildren held in Dundee on Wednesday believes it should be rolled out across the country.

Creative Spaces, held for the 16th year at D&A College’s Kingsway Campus, saw teams of S2 pupils design buildings and make scale models of their creations.

For the first time, two schools from outside Tayside and Fife were invited.

MSP John Swinney receives a T-Shirt from Doug Finney.

In a herculean effort, pupils from Anderson High School in Lerwick, Shetland travelled 14 hours by ferry to the mainland to take part — after help from the William S. Phillips Fund.

The event is the brainchild of Doug Binnie, who is keen to hold discussions on its expansion.

Mr Binnie said: “This is definitely unique in Scotland and maybe in the whole of the UK.

“It would be great if this was rolled out across Scotland. I said that to John Swinney when he visited.

“The skills it provides are amazing.

“Even if a pupil doesn’t have aspirations to be an architect, it still helps in areas such as confidence, team work, and problem solving.”

The event adds to Dundee’s culture and history of design, which varies from the construction of the RRS Discovery in the city in 1900 to the waterfront’s £80.1 million V&A museum, opened last year.

29 teams were involved on Wednesday with the winning school landing £600.

Prizes were also on offer for the school kids themselves.

Each school had to build and design a model of an eco-friendly shed prior to the event.

They were then given five hours in the college’s The Space building yesterday to “develop and creatively transform” the large redundant site behind Groucho’s in Dundee City Centre.

The designs had to support an Ecotherapy City Garden with a Horticultural Learning Facility.

Mr Binnie added: “It teaches them something they don’t usually get in the classroom.

“They get loads out of it. They are thrust into an environment that’s unusual to them and they thrive.

“The amount of energy and concentration on show is incredible.

“I’d like to get a child behaviour analyst in and get them to explain just what it is about this that gets them to work so well.

“One of the best things about it is that there are no computers involved. It’s all about talking and working together.”

Mr Binnie founded the competition while working at the city’s Nicol Russell Studios in 2002 and now runs the event voluntarily.