Thomas Rotherham College students win £1,000

The team from Thomas Rotherham College won £1,000 in resources for the college in the Forgotten Spaces: Young Creatives competition run by Sheffield Hallam University.

Their design for a new common room for students from TRC and Rotherham College of Art and Technology to integrate and socialise was praised by competition judges for its “outstanding innovation that met the competition criteria at every level.”  

One of the judges was professional architect Chris Paterson, winner of the Sheffield Forgotten Spaces 2011 competition, who said: “The work was absolutely amazing, especially when you consider the age of some of the students who took part.

“It’s really encouraging to see more and more young people taking part in the competition and I think we’ve definitely seen some future architects here.”

A second team from TRC scooped a further £750 in resources after they were declared runners-up for their design to build The Pentagon, a public area offering a place to relax while taking in the views over Rotherham.

Joe Bradley (17) of the winning team, said: “We really didn’t expect to win, especially when the third and second prizes were announced and because so many things went wrong when we were preparing it. But we’re really proud of it now and loads of people have been really positive about our design and have said they wish it was actually being built.”