University students across the UK will help reimagine Sunderland communities as part of a national design challenge being launched this week – Riverside Sunderland: University Design Challenge.

Sunderland City Council, and TV architect George Clarke’s educational charity MOBIE are launching a competition in partnership with the Confederation of Timber Industries (CTI) which will see interdisciplinary teams of Built Environment students and 2020 graduates from UK universities work together to design how vibrant city communities on Riverside Sunderland’s unique, carbon neutral urban quarter might look.

The competition, which will make use of CTI’s connections to universities across the country, will bring together multi-disciplinary teams of student Architects, Architectural Technologists, Engineers, Designers, Quantity Surveyors, Planners, Building Service Engineers, Project Managers and Landscape Architects to come up with coordinated design proposals for part of the Riverside Sunderland site.

The challenge is one of two that are running to help inspire the development of Riverside Sunderland – the other being a schools competition that will see students from across the city in a number of age categories, come up with design ideas for homes of the future.

As a collaborative project with CTI, university students will be challenged to explore schemes built from timber and timber hybrid systems, materials that are commonly used in modern methods of construction (MMC).  The scheme’s priorities must be both environmentally ‘super-green’, creatively employing sustainable building materials and methods, energy and technology and also emphasise health and well-being.

George Clarke, who was born in Sunderland, and founded MOBIE, is working with Sunderland City Council to shape a masterplan for Riverside Sunderland, which will be a vibrant new mixed-use community on the edge of the River Wear.

George Clarke said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to rethink the way that housing and communities are designed – a chance for university students to get involved in a live project that will be truly pioneering.

“Our collective aspiration is that Riverside Sunderland inspires a new way of designing, building and living in homes.  That it is a world-class place to live. So we want students to really push the boundaries and inspire us.”

The competition will launch on Friday, December 4, at Homes UK. All Built Environment students and 2020 graduates from UK universities are encouraged to take part in this exciting challenge.

Councillor Rebecca Atkinson, from Sunderland City Council, said: “This competition will really put Sunderland on the map with the next generation of regeneration and property leaders.  We’re hugely ambitious about the opportunity we have at Riverside Sunderland to really lead the way when it comes to building modern, sustainable, and digitally connected communities of the future.  Who better to help us imagine them than the generation that will eventually occupy them.”

Students have been given a virtual tour of the Riverside Sunderland site, to help them understand its assets, history and where it fits in the wider vision for a transformed city centre.  The challenge is to design a community of housing with green and open spaces, that will attract young, creative professionals who will embrace the vibrancy of busy, city lifestyles for work, relaxation and social engagement.

Students are also challenged to produce designs for a community that will comprise homes that would offer low running costs, energy use and have zero carbon emissions; that would promote the health and wellbeing of the people who live in it as well as those in the surrounding community and that will make use of new, smart and digital technologies.

Roy Wakeman, OBE, Chair of the Confederation of Timber Industries, said; “We need to build more houses, quicker, and better quality, while lowering our carbon emissions. Increasing the use of sustainable timber in construction has been repeatedly cited as key to lowering carbon emissions in the built environment by the UK Climate Change Committee, and we are thrilled to partner with MOBIE and Sunderland City Council to support the next generation of building professionals.

Students will have until Friday, April 2, 2021 to develop their proposals, with students from Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, London and Nottingham among those expected to compete.

To find out more about the challenge, visit www.mobie.org.uk/challenges

Universities can contact Tab Binding for further information: tab@cti-timber.org

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