Newspaper
Teambuild needs you
Nigel Thorne, consultant landscape architect at NJTLC (landscape consultants) and president elect of the Landscape Institute, has called for members of the Landscape Institute to take part in this year’s Teambuild competition, of which he is a judge.
“This is a really fantastic competition,” he told Vista. “More landscape architects should get involved this year.”
Teambuild, sponsored by CIC, challenges young professionals to form a multi-disciplinary team of six people to compete in a simulation of the design and construction process.
The competition came about in 1990 because of poor communication between the construction professions aiming to deliver projects for clients. It is a communication, management and team-working contest, run under the auspices of the CIC. There is a weekend final which starts with a masterplan proposal and finishes with the construction stage of a development, solving a number of real-life problems along the way.
Thorne told Vista: “What has been particularly disappointing over the past two years that I have been a judge, has been the lack of landscape architects in this contest. We have only had one landscape architect each year. This whole process is screaming out for them – the masterplans tend to be so much better if landscape experts are involved in the process early on.”
He continued: “This is ideal experience for the new professionals in the business – it’s the perfect chance for people to work together in multi-disciplinary teams in a high-pressured environment.”
Although the situation is make-believe, Thorne stressed that the competition is serious, with impressive cash prizes available for the winners. “This is not playing by any means,” he said. “You have to produce the goods with very little external reference.”
A member of last year’s winning team, ‘Imhotep’, described the Teambuild experience as, “A rollercoaster of emotion and excitement…really good fun from start to finish and a very effective learning experience.”
Team members must be under 30 on 1 January 2006 and should be student, graduate, chartered or incorporated members of their professional institution.
Visit www.teambuilduk.com for more information on the competition. Discuss this article
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