This blog post is written by Isobel Plent, the Architecture Centre's Creative Intern.
On the 10 March the new participants of this year's Shape My City youth programme were welcomed to the Architecture Centre for their first session.
On the 10 March the new participants of this year's Shape My City youth programme were welcomed to the Architecture Centre for their first session.
They were joined by Sally Daniels, Architect, lecturer
at the University of West of England and one half of the architectural field
research practice ‘Tangentfield’, as well as four of her
UWE students. The focus for the first session was to explain to the young people the
general structure of the Shape My City programme as well as make clear the potential for it
to be sculpted to fit their needs and interests.
To begin with all were asked to write down what they hoped to get out of taking part in 'Shape My City' , as well as what they felt made a good 'place' (in three words). The following represents a snapshot of the answers given: 'safe for everyone', 'support', 'community', 'timeless', 'beautiful', 'exciting', 'evolving', 'sociable' and 'fit for purpose'.
Next up was a talk from Sally on her study and career as an
architect. She explained how initially she had been interested in landscape architecture, but had decided to study architecture in order to keep all her options open. Her love of sailing and the sea drew her to
Portsmouth University. During her studies she carried out work for the City Council, helping to design a school
and witnessed first hand how the creation of a well designed building
positively impact on the behaviour and well-being of people (the school students)
Sally explained that even after the success of this project, she felt unsure about continuing with her course and decided to leave it in the hands of fate. A coin toss between ‘theatre design’ and ‘architecture’ chose the latter. Sally explained that during her Postgraduate Studies she strove to configure her own definition of architecture from which her own ideas could form and mature.
In the early years after graduating she spent some time teaching and doing both timber frame construction and animation. Eight years ago she founded her company ‘Tangentfield’, which carries out mainly domestic or small scale community projects. Sally is also a core member of Hands-On Bristol, a collaboration between the School of Architecture and Planning, UWE and the Bristol community, that seeks to use the power of collaboration in live projects, as a device for learning. The 2015 Shape My City #livebuild was one such project.
When asked what advice Sally would give her sixteen year old
self, she said “see it through, but be responsible and
take control of your own path”. It seemed like sound advice to give the
students and her talk served particularly to emphasise the extent to which ones
career path can continue to evolve and change way after you graduate.
The UWE students all agreed that the broad nature of architecture allowed for further study into related fields such as theatre design and graphics. All of the students stated that the sociable and collaborative nature of their degree meant that they were able to form strong relationships with each other and their tutors, that impacted their work and confidence for the better. They felt it important to state that they often had to work long and unsociable hours to complete their work. However, it was clear that for them this was outweighed by all the benefits they felt.
Finally, it was on to the design task for the evening. Sally explained
that a large part of an architect’s work is liaising with the client in order
to fully understand what they want and to help them to realise their vision for
the build. Often an architect is given a brief which states who the build is
for (people), why it is being built (need), where it will be built (place) and the
theme of the build (context). On four separate pieces of paper everyone present
wrote a specification for each of the four elements and put their responses in
four separate boxes. The group was divided into 3 teams who then picked out
each of the four specifications to create a completely random (and totally
bizarre) design brief.
Group 1 were tasked with creating a structure for young
adults and swimmers that acted as a rain
shelter as well as ‘a place for
working that would motivate people to work well’. The location for construction was
to be a beach and the theme they had to work with was ‘a device for creatively
bringing together all the separate components’. They were inventive in
incorporating all elements of the brief into the design. Their beach came
fitted with a shower with a view out onto the ocean and shaded area in which to
recline away from the heat and the rain. A canal linked the land and the ocean
while harnessing it’s power. The structure was topped with a large red
sculpture, designed to encourage and motivate the swimmers. All in all a well
thought out and well realised design!
Group 2 had the challenging task of creating a structure
that would house both Darth Vader and an astronaut, that was suspended in the
air with lots of open space and that reflected the theme… ‘pink fluff’. All
things considered the group responded remarkably inventively and created a
structure made up of three towers interconnected by walkways, from which hung
glittering balls of pink fluff. The group stressed that their design was best
viewed by night as the tallest tower (made up of four stacked paper cups)
emitted an eerie white glow. It was in this state that the group presented their build, which received an enthusiastic response from the group as a whole.
Group 3 were to design and build a structure that would be suitable for both David Cameron and aliens to inhabit. It would need to be ‘a space to practice’, incorporating the theme of food and be situated on the beach. This group were lucky to have been given the ‘City Ideas studio’ Transport play mat on which to build their structure, which featured a beach and road running parallel. Their structure faced the beach and was connected by a bridge that led to a ‘Brutalist-esque’ building that was to be the entrance leading to the assault course and allotment within. The grouped merged all the divergent specifications of the brief to great effect and created a memorable structure.
There was a genuine interest and enthusiasm from both the Shape My City participants and the UWE students which resulted in an array of carefully considered structures. A wonderful start to the 2016 Shape My City programme.
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