V & A to Shape our Community for the Future?

[Liberty Bonnar Thompson]

Image of proposed site of V&A situated on the banks of the River Tay


As a design student in Dundee, the plans for the extended V&A Museum coming to our city is an exciting move I await with much anticipation. The people of and around Dundee, including students, councils, designers and the general public are showing the same intrigue - 700 people a day have visited the 'V&A: Making it Happen' Exhibition at Abertay University, showing the six finalist design proposals for the museum.

So far over 10,000 visitors have shown interest in the project. Evidence shown through media and community response, this can hopefully discouraged the question - 'Is this going to be the next Geelong disaster?' (where a new Guggenheim was promised to Geelong city where plans fell through at the last minute and no spectacular building was constructed.)

Last night, Kylie Messenger, author of 'Museums - Cutting Edge Culture for the 21st Century', gave a lecture about how museums are the new 'cathedral of culture' in towns and cities, a place where the community come together to collect culture in all forms, solve problems wether it socil, political etc, get involved in social engagement and have fun! Not only does the new V&A have goals of improving social and political situations, it is simultaneously designed to encourage urban regeneration of around the space on the Riverside, therefore increasing community well-being, through things like employment and education.

The chosen design for the museum has to successfully create a cultural centre space for culture, debate which will become a talking point in both the community and furthur afield. Other museums have proven how an immensely good affect this can have on the space around it, for example Te Papa Museum of New Zealand in Wellington. The design, sympathetic to the environment around, including the sea likewise to the V&A location, encouraged community art and culture to grow around the Museum building itself.

As judge Graham Hutton stated the V&A Dundee has an amazing potential in becoming a 'constantly replenishing space' that leaves traces as parts of our city and shape our public culture. This need for creativity and culture has never been greater and through the blurring of disciplinary boundaries of the architecture itself, what is being exhibited, the city around and the community involved.

The V&A Dundee has high hopes for creating 'delight and enjoyment in the Design World to enrich peoples lives' (Kylie Message), and our community seems to be behind it all the way.




For news and events on the developments of the V&A Dundee visit;

[Student Designer]

Hi Neil.

These are very important points that you are raising and ones that we are continually addressing. Our remit at Student Designers is to help design students become more employable by helping them build their portfolio, gain experience and get paid.

We have settled on crowdsourcing as a very effective way of helping as many design students as possible with the very little resources we have.

I don't really like using the word crowdsourcing as it brings up negative connotations within some in the design community whereas we are about helping design students become more employable.

We believe that this is a wonderful opportunity for design students for a few reasons. Firstly, the winner will have a wonderful name against their portfolio, press coverage and £300 which, as I recall, is a very nice addition to student funds!

Secondly, If we get a good result the it will encourage other companies and organisations to place competitions through Student Designers and we can then ask for larger prize funds. We will also be providing the students that don't win with feedback as constructive feedback is critical to development.

Finally, the model works on how we manage it. As long as we stay true to our vision of helping design students then I really believe that Student Designers has a positive part to play in student employment.

If you would like to chat more or perhaps provide your opinions on helping design students then I would love to hear from you. Do email me on [e-mail].

Thanks Neil,

Alex Barton
Founder - Student-Designers.com

[Neil McGuire]

I'm excited about the prospect of the V&A in Dundee. However I'm also interested in the ethical position of V&A, asking students to design social media campaigns with the carrot of a £300 prize, with the view that they will be able to harvest many 'good' ideas with minimal outlay. I'm struggling to find examples of crowdsourcing as a strategy for generating good design that fairly rewards the participants. Most examples i can find seem to generate poor quality work, with little real feedback or benefit for those contributing (bar the sole lucky recipient of the paltry prize money). Just wondering what this says about how V&A 'values' design.

[Brian McNicoll]

I have seen all of the designs and been along to the various lectures introducing the idea and so far the whole project has been organised extremely well. I have been very impressed with what has been achieved to date. Just need to make sure the project gets over the finishing line now...

[Student Designer]

V&A at Dundee have collaborated with Student Designers to create a Social Media Marketing Challenge for students to encourage other students and graduates to have their say on the project, with a £300 prize for the winning submission. Full details at http://bit.ly/bQAH3Y.

[Stuart Cosgrove]

This could be a major design asset for the whole of Scotland and another success story for dundee. Bring it on.