Activities and Skills: The two weeks will be divided between skill building, fostering social connections, and digging into the oftentimes unspoken value of architectural heritage. Our aim is to create an environment that will facilitate learning through hands-on work with different softwares where the starting point is each team-member’s skills and experience.

The first week will focus on creating content for the final product (an online exhibition) by working with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, 3D modelling software – such as Sketchup and Rhino- and open-source video creation software. We will offer insights into the best uses for each program (photo-editing, layout design, 3D modelling or vectorial work) and tips and tricks to improve workflows that we’ve learnt over the years. There will be two guest talks: one focusing on website design and online exhibition curation, while the other – offered by our collaborators – will offer an overview of the value and history of post-war industrial architecture– specifically, power stations and coal mines.

The second week will be mainly dedicated to building the online exhibition and making it an interactive and engaging experience for future users. At this point, the historical significance that has shaped this project and its wider social value will become ever more evident. The final site will be a platform for school children to learn through interactive experiences about the legacy of these architectures. There is potential for a “virtual school trip”, where the success of the project will be visible through its live-testing and reception by school children and their teachers.

Today was a relaxing Saturday – we stayed in and enjoyed a lazy morning, while getting excited for the weeks to come. To match this mood, we prepared a fun and quick activity which will be part of the website content we will be creating together. All those power stations enthusiasts, gear up with scissors and glue for some old-school fun with… PAPER NETS! Now you can start designing your own ideal power station – using these cut-outs of a cooling tower, chimney, house and trees; go crazy on creating your little community. We left the amenities open to your imagination and are ready to hear some interesting proposals.

While you’re at it, can you tell me which of the 3 power stations case studies has the most cooling towers? We’ll be eager to hear your answers this Monday, but until then: have a wonderful weekend!

We at Power Trip can’t believe how the first day of MSA Live just flew by. We’ve spent an exciting morning, where we got to know all the architecture undergrads and master landscape architecture students. This was followed by a short introduction to our Case Studies and our project aims – to create a website for kids to learn about the infrastructure of power in the UK and an exhibition at the National Coal Mining Museum.

The afternoon session was the highlight of the day – as our collaborators, Richard Brook and Luca Csepely-Knorr, gave an introductory talk about their research on the landscapes of post-war infrastructure. This was followed by a brainstorming session on how to best illustrate main features of our Case Studies to make them engaging for kids between 6 and 10 years old.

We cannot wait for the following days to come, ready to create some amazing graphics and really eager for our upcoming Virtual School Trip!

Today we split into three groups based on students’ preferences to learn different pieces of software. The Map Making team focussed on creating fun and consistent graphics using Illustrator in order to create child-friendly site plans for our website. The Paper Nets and Colouring Sheets team designed a series of coal-industry themed sheets for kids to unleash their creativity while learning a bit about energy supply and electricity. The team mostly used AutoCAD and Illustrator to design these outputs. Finally, the Exhibition Space team modelled a potential exhibition space at the National Coal Mining Museum in SketchUp and rendered a couple of short clips with the space in Enscape (clip above).

We are really eager to see how all these outputs are going to come together by the end of these two weeks. We’ll keep you posted!