You are in > Home > News & Events > News > SAC Student from Inverness Wins Catrine Community Garden Design Award - Garden Design Course in Ayr Congratulated

SAC Student from Inverness Wins Catrine Community Garden Design Award - Garden Design Course in Ayr Congratulated

SAC News Release Ref. No: 11N69
Published: 10 Jun 2011

The winning garden design (opens in new window)

Ayr-based SAC Garden Design student Simon McKay, from Smithton, Inverness is an Eco-Garden award winner. In his first year of a two year HND course at SAC Auchincruive, Simon’s garden design won first prize in a competition organised by Catrine Community, Powerdown.

The all volunteer Catrine Community Trust is responsible for the various historical installations once used to power the five story “old mill” of Catrine Cotton works, west of Ayr. Their Powerdown project is designed to reduce their carbon footprint, including plans to generate electricity from the refurbished turbine plant and weir. A key element is community engagement.

The Competition brief was to create a design for an Eco-Garden based on garden designs created by school children in Catrine. The challenge was to incorporate the children’s fanciful visions while creating a practical but fun garden that was educational, easy to maintain and environmentally friendly. Simon’s wining design was chosen by three members of Catrine Community Powerdown and by the Catrine Scholl Headmistress Mrs Campbell and Wendy the eco teacher.
 
According to Heather Robertson, the Powerdown Advisor for Catrine Community Trust, the designs created by the SAC year 1 Garden Design students were of a super standard.

“The reason Simon MacKay’s garden stood out to all of us was the way it covered all the above aspects the brief required. It was educational, fun, easy to maintain and had a great use of recycled materials.”

“It is a phased garden, so the school can create the garden section by section when funding allows. It is well designed and has an educational and fun theme from start to finish, while being simple enough for the children to take ownership and keep it maintained.”

“The use of renewable energy, with a turbine to create electricity for the school in the future, its free flowing design to allow the garden to become part of the landscape, make Simon’s garden clearly outstanding.’

The Garden Design course the students are following is part of a range of popular Horticultural qualifications offered by SAC. They range from Higher National Certificate and Diploma courses, to Degree and Honours Degrees in Horticulture, Landscape Management and Design. Activity is focussed on all three SAC’s campuses in Ayr, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
 
Dr Kyrsten Black, Group Manager for Life Sciences at SAC says:

“There are still a few places left on the Horticulture and Garden Design courses and we are still accepting applications from people interested in starting a course this September. These courses provide a great opportunity for people with an interest in Horticulture and Gardening to create a career path for themselves in an exciting and dynamic industry.”

SAC’s relationship with the Catrine Community Trust is expected to be ongoing as students are to be invited to take part in further projects including design work on a garden for the old Catrine Chapel.

“SAC is always happy to give students opportunities to have their work stand up to external scrutiny and success in events evidences the high standards achieved”, says Kyrsten Black.

For Catrine Community Trust Heather Robertson said;

“The standards set by the SAC entries were so good that elements of other designs will be incorporated to enhance the overall final creation. We were so grateful to them all for putting so much effort into their designs.”

Contact Heather Robertson, Powerdown Advisor, Catrine Community Trust, AM Brown Institute, Institute Avenue, Catrine, KA5 6RT. Tel 01290 559418, Mobile 07547 625068.

Contact SAC student Simon Mackay on 07816 129170.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

News Release Issued By

Mr Ken Rundle
Senior Communications Officer
SAC (Scottish Agricultural College) Work SAC, King's Buildings, West Mains Road,
Edinburgh
EH9 3JG
TelWork 0131 535 4196

Add to Address Book | Help