Cormac and Ellie’s whirlwind week at Blueprint

This week we have welcomed two year 10 students for two different schools to experience what working as a developer in Nottingham is all about. Here Cormac and Ellie tell us what they’ve learned and enjoyed during their time with us.

Cormac, aged 15

My name is Cormac from St Mary’s Catholic School in Chesterfield and I have just completed a week with Blueprint.

The one week that I have spent on work experience with Blueprint has taught me about what they do, regenerating land in a sustainable way, and the process in which the development is designed and then built.

One of my favourite parts of the week was visiting developments that have not only been finished, Green Street, but that have not even been started, Fruit Market ̧ which was especially interesting due to the fact I had previously looked at the masterplan and could picture what was going to be built there.

Another project that we visited frequently was Trent Basin located on the north bank of the river Trent in an area called the waterside regeneration project where the city council want to completely regenerate the whole north bank.

Whilst at the basin we thought about possible meanwhile uses for the basin while construction was taking place around it. Some ideas that we came up with were: a floating coffee chop, moorings and a floating solar farm.

Whilst visiting these development sites it gave me a great overview of the city as a whole as I had previously not visited the city enough to know my way around

Another thing that I have learned while being on work experience here at Blueprint was the effects of climate change on the environment and the importance of building developments sustainably.

Nick Ebbs (Chief Executive at Blueprint) has been persuading us that we need to become climate change revolutionists, I wouldn’t say he has succeeded but he has definitely turned my head to take notice of this crisis!

There are so many easy ways to make a difference when it comes to energy consumption, highlighted in the community energy scheme at Trent Basin where the price of energy for residents will decrease by 25 per cent. Another easy way to decrease carbon dioxide emission is to use the energy from underground to heat up water in tanks to be used in the house, another project in the Trent Basin development.

Overall my week at Blueprint on work experience has been interesting, relaxed and very enjoyable. I will look back on this experience very fondly in the future. What made this experience very special was the kindness shown towards me and Ellie by all the crew here at Blueprint, I want to thank them all for making this experience so enjoyable and memorable.

Ellie, aged 15

My name is Ellie from The Trinity Catholic School in Aspley and I have just completed a week of work experience with Blueprint

This week I have visited numerous sites, each in a different stage of the development process and through this I have gained a greater understanding of what goes in the development of an area. I have seen some of the benefits and drawbacks of different features of properties and discovered more about the ongoing and growing issues and outcomes of climate change and the effects it is having on the earth.

For example, the large economic costs from things such as flood and storm damage which costs the US over $100 billion a year.

My favourite Blueprint project was Green Street because I liked the design of the houses and the more modern look in comparison to the other houses around it. I also liked the location in relation to the city centre and the river.

The best thing I did this week was discover what plans are in store for Nottingham in the future and see what different parts of the city may look like in years to come. I enjoyed finding out a lot more about a topic that I would not have thought would interest me as much as it has done.