
The Graduate Design Project has been established as one of the most important events of the year for Ramboll graduates. It involved lots of hard work and loads of fun. Throughout this interesting project Ramboll graduates proposed innovative, provocative and exciting ideas for the built environment. This year there were 10 teams, more than any previous year. Each team consisted of four to five graduates from different disciplines and other Ramboll’ s UK offices.
This year’s brief was:
“Choose any city in the world; and develop and present a design proposal, which will improve the lives of its’s citizens.”

The briefing launch took place on the 27th of January, at the Building Centre. The day included many inspiring presentations delivered by senior members of the firm. There were two main requirements: the outcome should be newsworthy and representative of what we do in Ramboll. Each team had to submit 4 deliverables within 4 weeks: a 10-minute presentation, a report, a poster and a blog that would be used to track each team’s progress.
Efstratios Gavotsis explains, “As expected, the journey to the final outcome was not linear. We had to get inspired, brainstorm, come up with our own ideas, debate, change our minds, come up with a final idea and present it in a professional way. During this journey, we had people to help and support us as well as constructively criticize our ideas during the two workshops that took place in the London office. These were either experts from the firm or external judges from StudioAR architects. Teams communicated and cooperated through face-to-face meetings, e-mails, blogs and VC sessions. The final day we delivered a presentation to members of the executive and marketing team, design directors and resource group leaders. We received some very positive feedback and flattering comments that encouraged us to improve our designs and continue being creative in what we do”.

The cities chosen were from all around the world: from South to North and East to West. Here you can find the cities and each team’s blog:
1. Christchurch
2. London
http://pearswj.co.uk/gdp2014/
3. Shanghai
http://group3gdp.blogspot.co.uk/
4. London
http://ramgdpgroup4.wordpress.com/
5. London
http://gdp14group5.wordpress.com/
6. Beirut
http://beirut2014.tumblr.com/
7. Mondevideo
http://gdp2014.blogspot.co.uk/
8. Milan
http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/229377/GDP-2014/#vars!date=2014-02-07 17:47:56!
9. London
http://gdp2014group9.tumblr.com/
10. Athens
http://rukgraddesignproject2014group10.wordpress.com/
This is the final outcome of our work!
To celebrate the outcome of our work, there is a display in the foyer of the London office. Yanchee Lau, the Associate responsible for this Project, also wrote an article that was later posted on Ramboll’s website. You can read it here:
http://www.ramboll.co.uk/news/ruk/graduate-design-projects-livable-cities
Many things were gained from this process. Not only did we understand the problems modern cities face but we also were able to be creative. We enjoyed ourselves and came up with fresh ideas that will feed Ramboll’s vision on how to create more liveable cities. However, there are also less obvious advantages such as the opportunity to socialize and get to know the rest of the graduates, learn about the regional offices, tick off Chartership objectives, gain CPD hours and get into urban planners’ shoes.