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Every single one of EGIS's built environment students - about 200 or so in total - took part in an intensive week of multidisciplinary teamworking on a cinematic project.
The students are helping a small charity, Friends of the Broadway Prestwick, with their plans to restore and renovate a 1930’s cinema.
Friends of the Broadway Prestwick is a voluntary group dedicated to bringing the Broadway into community ownership for the benefit of the people in the town and the surrounding area.
They got in touch with our undergraduates in Architectural Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Construction, Urban Planning, and Geography to come up with solutions for the Broadway that reflect the community's hopes and wishes.
School of Energy, Geoscience and Infrastructure, Professor Guy Walker said: “It was time for our year four students to flex their muscles and create some fantastic stories to tell in job interviews and CVs. What better way to welcome them back to campus than to have a real building, a real project, a real client, and a real impact. The students made a fantastic impression on the community. Their original, creative ideas will serve as inspiration for the project. We are very proud of them.”
In advance of their intensive project to create visions for the Broadway's future, the students were invited to a unique site tour of the building witnessing the cinema's history first-hand and absorbing the special atmosphere you can still feel in the Broadway and the architecture’s universal appeal.
There were also two virtual site tours during the day, showing the Broadway's interior to the students that could not make it to Prestwick themselves, concluding the virtual walkthrough with an interactive Q&A session. The other virtual site tour was hosted for the students at the Heriot Watt campus in Dubai.
On Friday 16th September there was a public exhibition in the William Arrol building at Heriot-Watt Edinburgh campus where the client and other VIPs viewed the results of the student's work. There is also a plan to display the work at an upcoming event in the Broadway itself.
Kyle Macfarlane, Trustee and Director of the Friends of the Broadway said: “Amazing day. Absolutely amazing! Some of the student’s creations were incredible and I can’t wait to show them to the community. Support and engagement from the students was wonderful.”