Showcase 2024 Student Spotlight: Cate Simmonds
Student Spotlight featuring BArch (Hons) Architecture, Cate Simmonds, and her project, 'The Bendigo Centre'.
By Antonio Cuyas | Published on 20 May 2024
Categories: Student Showcase; School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment;
The project
The Bendigo centre is a food education and exercise centre in St Ann’s, helping to provide an engaging and inclusive space for people to interact and learn. Set within a site concealed by tall buildings, the design aims to create hubs of activity at several levels and reach above its surroundings to offer views of the city at the top. The main spaces include teaching kitchens which have small growing spaces on external roofs where people can reconnect with the food cycle and learn to grow, harvest and cook food. With this, communities can learn to make wholesome meals with simple methods and ingredients.
Adjoining eating spaces encourage people to take the time to eat food they have cooked together, showing the beauty of eating with one another that has been so commonly lost in the modern day. A boxing ring within the atrium encourages public connection to the sport, breaking existing barriers with additional gyms for everyone to use, making exercise more accessible for all by removing preconceptions that many people can have.
The inspiration behind the project
Through research into health of communities, Cate discovered the need to reintroduce active lifestyles into urban areas where outdoor space can be limited and deemed unsafe for young people to spend time. Creating this safe and inclusive space will help tackle sedentary ways of life by offering a place to find fun in exercise. Based on Sitopian principles, the design aims to re-educate the idea of Farm to Fork, helping to build more resilient and self-reliant communities.
Bendigo was a bare-knuckle boxer from Nottingham who had great influence in the area and his memorial is next to the site. This connection inspired the use of boxing as the focal point of exercise within the design with the aim of providing education about the sport and encouraging people to participate.
Being part of NTU
The range of projects and briefs has allowed Cate to explore new ideas and techniques to better understand her strengths. Learning to communicate her ideas verbally and visually has been a steep learning curve and a challenge, but a process she have enjoyed.
The course has given Cate a chance to expand her knowledge in a broad range of topics that all influence the design that goes into architecture. She has developed a different perspective towards the interaction of people and architecture, and had the opportunity to understand the impact design can have on communities.
Closing remarks
The challenges of the course are equally met by the rewarding feeling of developing and completing projects, seeing them come together with your own personality and flair added.
Support from tutors brings you a long way, helping you to express your ideas and better your skills through the three years.
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