Kirsty Cassels

Sustainable Architecture graduate Kirsty Cassels graduated from our Part 2 Sustainable Architecture course in 2016 and began Building Together CIC with fellow CAT graduate Robert Thompson. It is a design and build community interest company that designs buildings or structures for communities or organisations, using the members of that community to build.

As a Community Interest Company, they are bound by their constitution and their profits are capped and poured back into the community. Kirsty believes that her studies at CAT played a huge part in getting her to this point. In 2019 Kirsty also won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award category at The Scottish Women’s Awards.

“It is difficult to suitably express the impact my studies and time at CAT have had on my life. It is a huge part of who I am today, and who I will become. To make friends and connections with people that you can instantly relate to, who you can share your fears and ambitions about the future of the planet with, who rally round and support you and interrogate your decisions at the same time. It’s a huge family and network of people that want to change the world, and who actively seek the best way to do so.

My studies at CAT give me a huge advantage in the conventional architectural and construction industries. I have a much higher degree of influence and respect in my environmental opinions and strategies, and my clients and colleagues know, with the backing of the CAT degree, that I am an expert in environmentally nurturing buildings. It has given me this advantage over other Part 2s in the UK.”