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In March 2018, forty University of the West of England (UWE) postgraduate students studying for Planning and Development and Real Estate masters qualifications visited YTL Developments' Filton Airfield site.
Here, they were greeted with refreshments, followed by a presentation from Seb Loyn and Christiana Makariou from the Development team – both of whom are previous UWE students.
The presentation sought to inform students about the plans for the former Filton Airfield, including an introduction to the company and a breakdown of plans for 'Brabazon'.
Despite studying at nearby UWE, most of the students were unaware of the pioneering development scheme taking place on their own doorstep.
This is perhaps unsurprising given that the project is still within its relatively nascent stages, with the first residential phase set to begin construction at the end of this year. However, with a large percentage of Built Environment students continuing to practice within Bristol after their studies, it is likely that many of those at the talk will be involved with YTL Developments within a professional context in the coming years. It was therefore of great interest to many of the students, some of whom had been lucky enough to secure positions on some of Bristol's highly coveted property surveying graduate schemes earlier in the year, with the likes of CBRE and Savills.
As noted by a student on the UWE Real Estate masters course: "I really enjoyed hearing about YTL's plans for the site – the development at Filton Airfield seems so unique, and it will be incredibly interesting to watch it progress and take shape over the next few years".
Indeed, further to information on the development itself, the students were lucky enough to receive some teaching from Seb on development appraisals, aiding them with their upcoming development coursework whilst also providing an example of where this may be used within a real-life scenario.
To wrap up the visit, students were then taken on a tour of the site by coach, with a running commentary provided over the microphone by Christiana.
Stops were taken at strategic points throughout the tour, with the most notable being the visit to the Brabazon Hangar, where students were able to go inside and get a tour.
As expressed by one student: "To have access into the Brabazon Hangar was the highlight of the tour; the sheer scale of the building only really became apparent when you were inside - we were told that you could fit in the entire O2 Arena! It will be really interesting to see how they utilise such an amazing structure".
