Design Awareness

Interlink Hebden Bridge

Integreat Yorkshire has invested into a number of Design Awareness training programmes in the region, ranging from specific two and three day sessions for specific local authorities, to monthly site visits open to all local authorities and elected members within Yorkshire. These have been delivered by arc, beam and Concourse.

An integral component of making great places is good design. Design Awareness Training seeks to support and develop the skills of local authority employees and elected members on the impact good design has on a place. Training is delivered through site visits, case studies and hands-on workshops aimed at learning from best practice and adapting these learnings to their place.

An example of this form of training can be seen in the Interlink project:

Interlink was a learning and skills package designed to share best practice with local authority officers and elected members, which will lead to a raise in the design aspirations of towns, cities, neighbourhoods and rural communities.

Delivered by beam and arc, four visits were arranged in the Upper Calder Valley, Lincoln, Leicester and Birmingham. The aim of these visits was to share knowledge and resources, discussing recent training programmes, successes and challenges, creativity and practicality, and regional and national best practice. A mixture of talks from local council officers, architects and regeneration practitioners were dispersed with practical exercises to develop techniques to critically assess existing and future schemes.