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Home Office launches counter terrorism competition for design students
The next generation of architects are being encouraged to consider and include innovative counter terrorism measures in their designs as part of a new Home Office competition launched today.
Students from across the country are invited to take part in the 'Public Spaces, Safer Places' initiative which asks them to think about security features and safety issues when designing a fictional public space.
The competition is a response to one of the recommendations Home Office Security Minister Lord West made last year in his review of how best to protect crowded places from terrorism. In particular, the need to do more to raise awareness of counter terrorism measures among professional bodies, such as architects and designers.
The competition has been developed in collaboration with the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the police National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO).
Lord West said:
"This competition is a great opportunity for students of architecture and design to make a significant contribution to protecting our country's crowded places from terrorist attacks. The designing-in of counter terrorism protective security measures to new buildings at the earliest concept design stage will be crucial to the future of safer crowded places.
"We are pleased to be working closely with professional bodies, such as the RSA and RIBA who are encouraging an innovative and creative approach to designing-in counter terrorism measures."
The competition will be open to around 30,000 UK students of architecture and design from the start of the 2008-09 academic year and forms part of the RSA's Design Directions student award scheme for 2008/09. There is a £2,000 prize fund for the "Public Spaces, Safer Places" competition. More details about the competition and information on how to apply can be found at: http://www.rsadesigndirections.org/projects/projects5.html
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The competition brief presents architecture and design students with a fictional terrorist attack in a space approximately one hectare in size. They are asked to respond with proposals for a new public space on the site with well-considered design proposals that are appropriate to the space and the building(s)/interiors that will surround it. Central to this, is the integration of security features, protection for the space, the buildings and those that use them that does not compromise the integrity of the environment's design aesthetic.
2. Links to the competition details will also be available from the Home Office security practitioners' website (http://www.security.homeoffice.gov.uk), the NaCTSO website (http://www.nactso.gov.uk) and the RIBA website (http://www.architecture.com). The RSA and RIBA will be circulating the details of the competition to their membership audience through newsletters, their email networks and in their respective professional journals.
The competition will close at the end of December 2008 and an award ceremony will be hosted by the Home Office in March 2009.
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