Architectural technology students from Liverpool John Moores University had their presentation skills tested by Birkenhead-based Lovell.

The company teamed up with the university's School of the Built Environment to support a study module focused on housing design and technology.

Lovell challenged the students to come up with designs for a 60-home affordable housing development. Splitting into small groups, the students were asked to design a development layout featuring two-, three- and four-bedroom homes, complete with parking provision.

They then had to give a presentation to Lovell design co-ordinator Matt Crawford and Lynne Bell, senior lecturer in the built environment at the university.

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To help them prepare, Lovell invited the students to visit a major new housing development it is working on at Sevenoaks, the former Fiveways estate in Rock Ferry, Wirral. The students had a guided tour of the site where they could watch construction under way and look at completed homes.

"The standard of the designs which the students came up with was exceptional," said Lovell Design Co-Ordinator Matt Crawford. "They all showed an excellent understanding of how a housing development is constructed and communicated their ideas to us in a clear and concise way – just as they would need to if they were architects attempting to sell their designs to a developer."

At Sevenoaks, Lovell is working alongside social housing and regeneration organisation Riverside on a major housing regeneration scheme worth more than £37 million. As part of the project, Lovell will build more than 280 homes for rent, shared ownership and sale through the NewHeartlands Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder programme delivered by Wirral Council.

(CD/GK)