Callout to help design sustainable welcome pavilion

April 24th 2020

A stunning visual welcome is being planned for visitors to this year’s Festival of Thrift.

The North East’s professional architectural bodies have joined forces with the festival organisers to launch a competition to help create an eye-catching sustainable pavilion for the entrance at the 2020 event.

RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Tees and the YAPF (Young Architectural Practitioner’s Forum) supported by RIBA NE are inviting architects and construction professionals to collaborate in helping to realise the project.

Christine Thornley of Grove Studio Architecture, near Darlington, who is Chair of the RIBA Tees & South Durham Branch said: “It’s been almost a year since the declaration of the Climate Emergency and the global movement to act on climate change and over the last twelve months architects have been at the forefront of the conversation about how to design better and more sustainably.

“As the Festival of Thrift has been at the forefront of sustainability in the north since 2012, welcoming over a quarter of a million people to the Tees Valley to learn and celebrate sustainable living, heritage and community cohesion, it’s a perfect opportunity for us to join forces.”

The Festival team are currently working hopefully towards staging the event in Redcar and Kirkleatham from 11 - 13 September. Last year's festival was was enabled through a partnership with Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council and Tees Valley Combined Authority, together with SABIC, Teesside University, Redcar and Cleveland College and Stockton Riverside College, The Square and County Durham Community Foundation.

Festival of Thrift Director, Stella Hall, said “This is a hugely exciting competition and a wonderful opportunity to showcase the talents of our region’s architects and the important role they play in creating a better environment through architecture.

“If, due to Government guidance, the Festival cannot go ahead this year, the project will be realised in 2021.”

The callout asks for “a group of willing and passionate volunteers to help design and realise a welcome pavilion for the 2020 festival”.

Final objectives of the pavilion include being able to hold up to 5 people at once - staff and visitors, using social distancing measures, speak of sustainability and community, utilise recycled materials and have a function after the festival has drawn to a close.

Anyone who would like to be part of this collaborative project, in whatever capacity (large or small), is asked to email ribateesside@gmail.com with Festival of Thrift Pavilion in the subject line.