Leading Site Visits with Architectural Technology Students

Enriching their learning by giving them insight into real projects

Bringing local Architectural Technology students real-world experiences is something we’re passionate about at Cityzen, after all, they are the future of our industry! In the last few months, we’ve been showing students around a variety of our sites. This has allowed them to connect with and gain a deeper understanding of real projects as opposed to just classroom learning. 

Being able to visit real sites allows students to put what they’ve learned in the classroom into the context of the real world. As well as help them understand the real challenges the industry faces and what solutions there are to combat them. 

Most recently, our Director, John, took University of Brighton students to two of our sites that are changing use as part of the University’s ‘retrofit and change of use’ project. John showed them around each site and explained exactly what each project entails. He also took them through the process of looking at a building and pointing out what might be under the facade, what problems there might be and what the opportunities are.

More about each site

The first site visited was a former Methodist Church in central Worthing, which was turned into a community space and then fell out of use. Now, the Council has decided to repurpose it to provide 5 affordable flats. 

The other site was an old Debenham’s building which has recently gained planning permission to be turned into 80 flats with retail space. Both sites are completely different in so many ways. From the scale of each of them to the challenges that they have. It was great to be able to show the students these two different projects to demonstrate how varied Architectural Technology is.

You can follow the journey of the two projects by looking out for updates on our LinkedIn, Instagram, X or Facebook

Educating the next generation

We often find that walking around a building and looking at it as a group brings up lots of questions for students. Which we are of course happy to discuss with them and bring insight into areas of Architectural Technology that they may not have experienced yet. John also finds things much easier to explain when he can gesture to the part of the building that needs work! 

Course leader, Poorang Prioozfar at the University of Brighton, said, “We’re so pleased that Worthing & Adur Councils are providing local students with access to live projects happening in their area.” 

Our Director, John, added, “It’s really enriching for the students and we’re happy to work with the local universities and educational authorities to make it happen. In a world where digital learning is becoming the normal, it’s vital to engage with the next generation of the workforce to ensure some real-world experience is added to their education.”

Cityzen has mentored many students and has provided sandwich placements to 7 students from Brighton University as part of their course. 

John continues to support the University with Lectures on Planning, Building Regulations and how the design process takes place together with the end of year Crits offering valuable feedback to the students to ready them for the real world. 

Cityzen would encourage all companies to take an active role in the future generations of staff coming into the construction industry, by contacting their local universities and seeing how they can ensure that students have the knowledge, skills and experience they need to be successful.

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