Uni links with Kirklees Council for Streets of Colour competition

Students across a number of disciplines took part in the Streets of Colour 24-hour challenge, part of the Innovation and Creative Exchange (ICE) programme

INNOVATIVE designs by students from the University of Huddersfield to make Huddersfield’s town centre more inviting to shoppers and increase footfall will soon be seen across the town after impressing key members of Huddersfield’s town council.

Ideas such as attractive lighting and subliminal sounds, creative designs on rubbish bins alongside information tapping into the town’s rich heritage were created during a 24-hour challenge for the University’s undergraduate students.  Entitled Streets of Colour, the event was run in partnership with Kirklees Council.

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The brief was to create a design board of self-sustainable activities and schemes that would attract community involvement, result in increased footfall and dwell-time in the town centre, leave a sense of identity and pride within the community and offer new ways for visitors to discover Huddersfield.

The event spanned two days and four teams consisting of 14 students took part.  The competition culminated with each group delivering a presentation for the judges and advisors from the University and Kirklees Council were on-hand throughout to offer constructive advice.

Joint first prize was awarded to students Rosalee Brown from Accounting, Kim Micklethwaite from Law, Dominika Stefanska from Architecture and Connie Fong from Product Design.  Together they focussed on attracting people’s attention with activities at eye-level, adding colour to the fountains at Huddersfield’s train station with LED lighting and they designed a heritage trail tracking the emblem of the lion which the team discovered can be seen over 200 times in the town.

The winning title was shared with the design by Jousef Albazi from Mechanical Engineering, Ben Ubhi from Architecture and Mark Woodfine-Jones from Contemporary Art.  Their idea concentrated on the security aspect of the town’s side streets and by adding lighting and subliminal sounds that would not only light up the side streets making them safer, but also added to their appeal.

On the judging panel were Naz Parkar, Strategic Director of Economy and Infrastructure, Cabinet Members Councillor Naheed Mather and Councillor Graham Turner, alongside the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim Thornton and the Director of Research and Enterprise Professor Liz Towns-Andrews.  They were so impressed by the designs they said aspects of each of the entries would be taken forward by the Creative Economy Team at Kirklees Council to be used in future designs.

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Innovation and Creative Exchange programme

Streets of Colour was the brainchild of Professor Jess Power, who has managed the ICE (Innovation and Creative Exchange) programme since 2013, Professor Liz Towns-Andrews and Kirklees Council’s Creative Communities Operational Manager, Kath Davies.

“The quality of the ideas was simply amazing,” said Professor Power.  “We are delighted that the Creative Economy Team at the Council will continue to work with our students in relation to taking these forward into the community.”

This was the first in series of events, held as part of the University’s annual ICE programme, where students are given the opportunity to collaborate with others from different disciplines and increase upon their knowledge and skillset by taking part in a variety of lectures, competitions and networking events.

First prize winner and accounting student, Rosalee Brown said taking part in the 24-hour challenge was a wonderful experience.  “I’ve never done anything like this before and I’m proud to have made a valuable contribution to the community of which I am now residing.”