UWE Real Estate Undergraduates' YTL Visit

9th May 2018

Towards the end of 2017, twenty-five Real Estate and Planning and Development students from the University of the West of England (UWE) were visited by YTL Developments at the new Business School at UWE's Frenchay campus. This visit sought to further the student's knowledge on the proposed Brabazon development and enabled them to contextualise their academic studies within a tangible scenario. Further to this, it also facilitated the nurturing of crucial links for YTL Developments with nearby university UWE; with UWE’s industry respected courses within the Built Environment – a large percentage of who's students will go on to practice within Bristol and the surrounding areas – it is likely that many of those in attendance will end up working with (or even for) YTL Developments in the coming years.

The visit began with a presentation by the Development team's very own Technical Director of Planning, Seb Loyn and Development Graduate Christiana Makariou, both of whom are past UWE students themselves. The presentation covered many elements of the development, from a run through of the current site master plan, through to explaining the innovative stance of YTL Developments as the creator of neighbourhoods designed to promote the happiness, wellbeing and creativity of the those who live, work and visit them.

In particular, the reuse of the Brabazon hangar and listed buildings within the development struck a chord with the students. As stated by one UWE undergraduate attendee, "It was a pleasant surprise to hear this, along with a number of their other sustainable plans such as reusing all of the concrete from the current runway back into the development. It will be interesting to see how similar/different this development will look over the next 25 years, to the way it has been currently envisaged".

After the presentation, students were taken by coach to visit the airfield site, travelling along the runway itself to get an up-close-and-personal view of the development site. Commentary was provided by the YTL Developments team, with explanations given as to how the masterplan that had been set out within the presentation fit with the layout of the site in its present state.

One student summed up the visit, commenting "We were very lucky to hear first-hand about this incredible mass development happening so close to where we all live and where some of us could be living someday."