September 2015

Welcome to the September 2015 BEPE Update 
Inclusive Cities Student Design Award
As students return for the start of a new academic year, the Built Environment Professional Education project (BEPE) has some exciting education-related news to report.
We’re pleased to announce that this year the Royal Society for the Arts will be running a student competition to promote inclusive design. As reported in the last BEPE Update, the RSA awards have been running for over 90 years and are a great way to engage up and coming young professionals in some of the biggest design issues of the day.
The BEPE inspired Inclusive Cities Award encourages students to produce innovative, effective and attractive designs for buildings, places or spaces, which everyone can enjoy. The brief has been written to encourage students and graduates of all built environment disciplines to take part. Students can be studying engineering, surveying, planning, architecture, landscape architecture, facilities management or any related discipline that impacts on the built environment. 
As well as thinking creatively and innovatively about how to apply the principles of inclusive design to their concept, plan, strategy, or design, entrants are also encouraged to demonstrate how they have engaged with disabled people and other user groups in developing their project.
The award is being sponsored by the Office of Disability Issues and BuroHappold Engineering who are offering a two month paid internship where the student can learn more about the construction industry and how theory translates into practice.
The competition opens for entries on 27 January 2016, with the winner announced in June 2016. The London Launch and Tutor Briefing Day is taking place at the RSA on Wednesday 23rd September 2015. Please promote widely with your built environment education networks and encourage students to apply. 

Innovation in Built Environment Education 2015 
Inclusive design was a topic of discussion at the recent Innovation in Built Environment Education conference (iBEE), held at Bath University at the start of the month. The theme was inspiring the learner journey and there were some great presentations from a wide variety of built environment academics and professionals, including a presentation on BEPE.

Include 2015
Another opportunity to discuss the work of BEPE with the education sector is approaching – the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art is hosting its biennial Include 2015 conference in London on17-18 September 2015.  A poster about the BEPE project will be on display to stimulate discussion in how built environment professionals are taught and learn about inclusive design and to encourage thinking around how to embed inclusive design into our thinking from the beginning of our academic and professional lives.  

Access by Design
The Centre for Accessible Environments has included an article on BEPE in the summer edition of their journal Access by Design.

As always, if you’d like to lend support contact me at julie.fleck@dwp.gsi.gov.uk and don’t forget you can also keep up to date with all things legacy-related via @2012govuk.