EUSA wants to 'pimp your school'

A new competition launched by Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) is offering creative students the opportunity to design renovations of any building on campus.

The project, named ‘Pimp My School’, is due to begin next week and invites students to design refurbishments or changes to poorly used spaces.

The winning designer will have their efforts rewarded by seeing their design made reality. The budget for the refurbishment is deliberately being kept secret in order for imaginations to run wild.

EUSA’s vice president for academic affairs, Evan Beswick, told The Journal: “I'm not going to reveal how much the university have budgeted yet, because I'm much more interested in students thinking first and foremost about what sort of spaces they would like to study in and which areas around their school buildings they would like to use better, rather than thinking about budgets.

“That said, I don't think the winning entry will have an IMAX screen in it.”

Competition organisers promise to have the plans built by the end of the year.

The campus revamp was inspired by the recent refurbishment of the ground floor of the George Square Library, which has been well received by students and staff.

In addition, the new award winning Dugald Stewart building has been highly acclaimed and although the budget is not expected to stretch quite as far as that, the prospect of creating an equally innovative space, albeit on a smaller scale, is expected to generate interest.

Mr Beswick says the money is not the real issue: “I think students are going to be much more inventive about changing the university estates to suit their needs than that."