Project Office, Leeds Beckett University’s in-house staff and student led architectural practice launched an alumni ideas competition for the Sustainable Technologies and Landscape Research Centre (STaLRC). The winning entry established the design and the winning team were engaged in a design consultancy role for further development of the work. This case study describes an exploration of the architectural competition format through experimenting with alumni pedagogy. The institution’s association with its students is almost severed once they become alumni. By extending pedagogy, through a competition, new possibilities have arisen between this School of Architecture and its recent former students, and for academia and practice. The case study explains a procedural exploration through the STaLRC competition, starting with defining the competition through a Design Guide ‘brief’ produced by second year undergraduate students of architecture. The role of Project Office as the educational and practice choreographer sets the distinctive anchoring of the project. The competition process, managed by the writers, deals with the duality of providing a ‘winning’ design that meets client’s complex requirements e.g. affordability, and the setting of an equally important educational purpose. This paper considers how an architectural competition, used as a pedagogic tool, is harnessed in a post formal educational setting. An output for example is that alumni competitions can be legitimately situated in the (Continuing Professional Development) CPD framework, viably enabling UK schools of architecture to participate, fulfilling a professional developmental remit. In conclusion, as the STaLRC competition is framed in an educational setting, the learning outcomes of participants are of equal importance to the quality of entries. This methodology ensures continued pedagogical value in the transition between education and profession. Recent alumni are vital and unencumbered, fledgling professionals and through the setting of this competition have been provided with their space to fledge.
ORCID: 
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)