RGU students showcase Pitmedden project

Students from The Robert Gordon University will exhibit design ideas for Pitmedden at this year's Scott Sutherland School Degree Show.

Architecture students Anna Kaczmarska and Sharon Ong from The Robert Gordon University will exhibit her impressive design ideas for Pitmedden at this year's Scott Sutherland School Degree Show.

The Grade A listed Pitmedden Garden has a history which dates back over 300 years.

It is situated 14.3 miles north of Aberdeen and has a mile of extensive woodland wrapped around half of the Garden.

The Garden is gradually growing towards the village of Pitmedden which is surrounded by farms.

The students felt that the Pitmedden site has a fragmented setting of four main areas - the Garden, the woodland, the people and the farm.

Each fragmented area touches each other but has insufficient interaction which raises issues of usability and accessibility.

The students felt that the neighbourhood relationship does not appear to be successful and balanced and they wanted to address these 'in-between spaces' to give more sense of belonging and community.

The students proposed a carefully planned 'passage' integrated with features including a woodland retreat tower, farming and gardening school, village square, primary school and hobby farming to be introduced to bring the four areas together.

There plans aim to transform these in-between spaces into a continuous and overlapped 'people and green' experience, while at the same time maintaining appropriate open space.

The overall concept is derived and inspired by 'ferme ornee', referring to a country estate laid out partly according to aesthetic principles and partly for farming.

It also acts as a common language in architecture - building form, materiality, landscape patterning and sensual experience.

Anna (28) from Gdynia in Poland and Sharon (27) from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia said, 'Our project is not an attempt to unnecessarily complicate the terrain but about discovering and utilising the existing potential of the site, make improvements and modifications, but keeping a level of familiarity.

The Show at The Scott Sutherland School and the Built Environment is open to the public from 10am till 4pm until 19 June.

On show will be the work of graduating students from architecture, surveying, construction design and management and architectural technology.

Work from across the disciplines will be displayed throughout the School including projections, displays of schemes for the Aberdeen Civic Medal, a design competition sponsored by the city, computer generated visualisation, photographic exhibitions and study trip images.

David McClean, Head of the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment, said, 'The Show will exhibit an exciting array of events which reflect the broad spectrum of activities undertaken within the School and will help to further position us as an internationally regarded professional institution.

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