Working in partnership with Urban Foresight and Dundee City Council, we are excited to announce that Gavin Birmingham, a Dundee-Based product designer, has been selected for the Clean Streets Design Challenge.
Dundee has been named as “Europe’s most visionary city for EV policy” by the World Electric Vehicle Association, with drivers never being more than 0.45km away from their nearest charging point.
The Clean Streets project is a ground-breaking multi-partner project, trialling the innovative UEOne pop up electric vehicle (EV) chargers, from UK based Urban Electric, here in Dundee and in Plymouth, funded by Innovate UK. Led by Urban Foresight, the Clean Streets project demonstrates how on-street EV charging can be convenient while still preserving the unique nature of our urban streetscapes.
The feeder pillar site that Gavin Birmingham will be working on is located to the west of V&A Dundee, between V&A Dundee and the new Waterfront Park Development.
Poppy Jarratt, Desk Officer at UNESCO City of Dundee, who is facilitating the Clean Streets project, said “Gavin’s excitement to be a part of Dundee’s waterfront regeneration and his passion for designing in Dundee makes him a great fit for this project. He demonstrated a thorough understanding of both the design and manufacturing needs of the project and was ambitious in his application, showing his approach to this phase of the project, but also how the design could be replicated elsewhere for other urban streetscapes.”
Dundonian, Gavin Birmingham graduated from DJCAD in 2013, and it was always his ambition to stay in Dundee as he witnessed a changing city becoming a city valuing design and creativity, as well as being at the cutting edge of new technologies. Gavin runs his own design and manufacturing business, Formisit.
When Gavin was told he had been selected, he said: “As a newly established product designer and local business owner, it’s an honour and privilege to play my part in the Waterfront redevelopment. To have the opportunity to be part of the Clean Streets project and in such a prestigious location within the city is one that I am extremely proud of.”
The judging panel for the Clean Streets Design Challenge selection were UNESCO City of Design Dundee’s Lead Officer, Annie Marrs; Urban Foresight’s Clare Pennington; Urban Electric’s Keith Johnston; Dundee City Council’s Emma West; Dundee City Councillor Alan Ross; and V&A Dundee’s Julie Muir. The panel selected Gavin Birmingham as the designer to work on the Clean Streets feeder pillar design, but also noted that Muckle Studios was their ‘Design Studio to Watch’.
Muckle Studios is made up of Kevin Sinclair and Stephanie Crowe, combining their mix skills in industrial and product design with psychology and business to help businesses create products and services that are human centred and well understood. Crowe is a User Experience Researcher, as well as being Director and UX Designer at Muckle Studios, and has also worked as a Product Research Intern at Ogilvy Spirits. Sinclair is also Founder of product design and consultancy studio, Studio Aro, as well as being one half of Isla Rosa, a sustainable Scottish skincare company.
We’ll be sharing regular updates on the project to our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts, and if you’d like to know more about Gavin follow him on Twitter or Instagram – and check out his design practice here.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
