Group 08
LITTLE ARCHITECTS

We are gearing up for an unforgettable workshop where children will transform into architects for a day, exploring and expanding their creativity by redesigning their neighbourhood through three engaging modes. The action weeks will be spent preparing for the one-and-a-half day workshop which will take place during the 16th and 17th of May. Whether you’re a crafty DIYer, tech-savvy or simply passionate about empowering young minds, your support is invaluable. Together, we’ll create an enriching experience that fosters a sense of belonging and ownership over everyday spaces for these children. Stay tuned to witness our young minds at work and to see the positive impact they'll make on their surroundings!

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Dakun W / Maega J / Varshasri UK / Karthik Raagav A

Hey guys!

I’m Maega from Chennai, India. I’m currently doing my first year of MArch with &rchitecture. I'm fascinated by the potential of architecture and its capacity to impact the dynamic of a space. To me, architecture isn't just about designing buildings but creating spaces that influence our lives and everyday environment.

Apart from architecture, I’ve always loved spending my time indulging in dance and music. Dancing, singing and playing my handy little guitar are my go-to hobbies. I believe that creativity is manifested in many different ways, and it often shines the brightest through a child's unbridled expression. I am really excited about this project and look forward to making it a huge success.

Posted 10 Mar 2024 22:13

Heyyy :D

My name is Dakun Wang, a Chinese. Currently, I'm studying Architecture and Adaptive Reuse, which makes me so excited! Actually, this programme is my interdisciplinary learning experience after my bachelor. I graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in home product design.

In addition to my extraordinary interest in architecture, I am so good at model-making. I have done some nice LEGO MOCs for rereading the real life. Of course, there are many prototypes for my projects as well. Beyond the study experience, I'm also a big fan of movies and Nintendo. That is why I chose this topic, I know the value of innocence and the endless possibilities it can bring.

Posted 10 Mar 2024 22:16

Hi!

I'm Varshasri, originally from Chennai, India. I am from atelier &rchitecture, Master of Architecture year one. I completed my undergraduate studies at Anna University, Chennai.
For me, architecture transcends the mere construction of buildings; it embodies a profound connection to people, places, experiences, and memories.

Beyond architecture, I am passionate about sketching, painting, and stippling. I enjoy baking and love brownies!
I am excited about working with children, recognizing the unique joy and thoughts they would bring to every interaction through this project.

Posted 11 Mar 2024 00:18

Karthik Raagav A

Hey there!

I am Raagav from the down south of India. Pursuing my first year in Master of Architecture with Continuity atelier. I completed my Undergrad from Manipal School of Architecture, India.

My design approach deals with contemporary style of architecture with a modern brutalist touch that concentrates on lighting and functionalities. I'm also into conservation where I unequivocally believe that history propels originators like me to design something new for society and convenient to the community.

Stepping a bit away from Architecture, I enjoy cooking which makes me refresh and shoves me aside from the routine work and stress. Adding on to that sometimes I love clicking pictures, sketching and to jot down few words that are skeptically euphonic.

I am really counting my days to have maximum fun on the workshop with the children and to guide and learn what’s on the minds of the little future architects that’s going to emerge in real as models and drawings.

Posted 11 Mar 2024 14:57

Meet the collaborators from Oswald Road Primary School who are beyond excited to share a few words with us!

“We are the year 4 teachers at Oswald Road who are lucky (and excited) to be involved in the Little Architects project.

Aside from our classes, we each have our different roles within school. Hayley is curriculum lead for phonics, Helen for history and Christian for PE.

Not only do we love planning lessons and teaching the children, but we get on pretty well too - we even have our own card club on a Friday. To date the winning tally is even!”

Posted 14 Mar 2024 12:37

Meet our second collaborator, Laura Sanderson!

Laura is an architect, educator and creative who loves people and places. Until around a year ago, Laura was the Deputy Programme Leader of the MArch at MSA and the Atelier Leader of Continuity in Architecture. Since leaving MSA, Laura has worked as a Research Associate with the Women of the Welfare Landscape, took on a Creative Residency at the Museum of Science and Industry and is currently working on the development of a new project with Heritage Schools, as well as being a regular Visiting Tutor at MSA.

Laura loves long walks, huge cups of tea, good books and bad telly!

Posted 14 Mar 2024 14:30

First Meeting at MSA

It was a pleasure to meet Helen and Christian from Oswald Primary School, along with Architect Laura during our inaugural MSA Live meet. Helen and Christian provided insights into their fourth-grade students and the school environment. Architect Laura, drawing from her expertise in similar projects, shared examples of her previous work, laying the foundation for our project. We had a great discussion about project ideas and potential outcomes.

We are looking forward to collaborating with them in the upcoming weeks and having lots of fun with the children!

Posted 14 Mar 2024 16:43

Visiting Oswald Road Primary School

We had an exciting site visit with Helen, Christian and Laura. The trip started from Oswald Road, as we took a stroll through Longford Road, Manchester Road and back through Nicolas Road. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings around the campus like the Chorlton Library and the school’s new extension which morphed into the old building. It inspired on ideas about the project and how we can take it further. The visit pushed us to explore different ways in which we can deliver the modules to the children. Overall, an eventful day which brought a fresh perspective to our project.

Posted 14 Mar 2024 18:28

Finalising the workshop modules

Discussed the final output and how we can go about implementing it. Started with a rough framework for the action plan and moved on to finalising the details of the workshop modules. Also worked on the poster in preparation to launch the blog!

Posted 14 Mar 2024 18:44

Second meeting at Oswald Road Primary School!

We had a lovely conversation with Laura, Helen, and Christian about the activity details that we had finalised. We plan to divide the campus site into 3 parts to let the children design in different ways and stimulate the children's potential as much as possible, which the tutors thought was exciting. Besides, we also talked about the final display and where we could take the exhibition. Some materials and methods were advised as well.

It was a fantastic day with acknowledgement, which also inspired us to make greater efforts.

Posted 18 Mar 2024 22:15

Day One!

It was lovely to get to know the students from BA and MLA, our newest additions. All of them were excited and full of energy! Today, we played many games for icebreakers and got to know each other a bit better. We all had a great time, and are excited to start the project!

In the afternoon, we introduced the brief and talked about the project and its execution. Finally, we planned our activities for the upcoming week and ended the day by sectioning the group according to their interests and abilities, ahead for tomorrow. Full steam ahead from now on!

Posted 7 May 2024 17:15

Day Two!

We started by brushing up on a few architectural software programs, especially AutoCAD, SketchUp, and Rhino, and learned a bunch of shortcuts and commands to work efficiently over the action week to produce the planned outputs of our workshops.
The session was more engaging with the BA1, BA2, and MLA students, including a few games and activities on remembering the software commands that helped us figure out how to work on the upcoming workshop together with team coordination efficiently and maintain the rhythm throughout the week.

Posted 9 May 2024 22:12

Day Three!

Started up day three by explaining the three workshops that have been planned for the schoolchildren to the BA1,2 and MLA students and brainstormed together to refine to make it the finest. Later, we sorted out the deliverables for the workshops that we planned and grouped ourselves into smaller clusters by knowing our strengths in 2D and 3D software. we were able to finish up the day as planned with the great support of all our teammates.

Posted 9 May 2024 22:12

Day Four!

The day began smoothly and we had people working on elevations of the school in the 2D team and people working on the 3D digital models for the final output. Later, in the afternoon we set off to meet our collaborators with our whole teams and had a minor meeting in the school. After the meeting Helen, Christian, Hayley, and Laura. we stroll through the school and its neighborhood to collect the required data for the future workshop and end the day by briefing our teammates on our upcoming action plans.

Posted 10 May 2024 22:11

Day Five!

Having a few days left out, we geared up our workflow and a group of us started trailing out a couple of 3d models for printing in B.12 by playing out with two different colors to make children understand their school and the context of the school better which helped them understand what the workshop is and where are they going to design as well. Also, the same group went ahead to laser cut the elevations for the workshops in B.15 while the other started to work on the presentations and required illustrations. We end the day with briefing for the next sessions.

Posted 13 May 2024 13:08

Day Six!

Fixing up our trials and errors in 3D printing, 3D team printed most of the block models of the school. Parallelly the other team was cutting out the elevation mdf boards and organizing the pieces accordingly! Completing the presentations our illustrations team were pushing on rendering the site plans as well. Heading towards the final days of the action week, our team worked on various activities hard but with a lot of excitement.

Posted 14 May 2024 16:57

Day Seven!

Today we wrapped up all preparations for the workshops. At B15, we finished the laser cutting of all building facades and the 3D printing of all the buildings which were to be used for the 1:500 site model. At the studio, half of the team worked on the presentations and illustrations required for the next day at the school. The main presentation and workshop prep were completed by the end of the day. The work for the final publication started off. We finished the day looking forward to tomorrow when we can finally reap the results of our work.

Posted 16 May 2024 00:34

Day Eight!

Today was a pivotal day as we kicked off our one-and-a-half-day workshop at Oswald Road Primary School.

In the morning, we finalized our preparations and organized materials for the three groups: plan, elevation, and model. By the afternoon, we arrived at the school and were greeted by a lively and enthusiastic group of children.

Posted 16 May 2024 17:13

Introducing our incredible team! This dynamic group is composed of students from various programs: MArch Year 1, MLA Year 1, MA Adaptive Reuse, and BA1 and BA2. Throughout the action plan week, this enthusiastic and hardworking team collaborated to prepare for the workshop.

Each member brought unique skills and perspectives, making our preparations both thorough and innovative. Their dedication and energy have been instrumental in setting the stage for a successful and engaging workshop. We couldn't be more excited to see the results of their efforts in action!

Posted 16 May 2024 19:00

We excitedly introduced the workshop's theme and explained the agenda for today and tomorrow. After outlining the plans, we divided the children into groups and guided them to different areas of the school to sketch from three distinct locations.

Posted 17 May 2024 16:45

After the presentation, we took the children around the school to observe and sketch the surrounding buildings.

The urban sketching workshop was a great success! Both the children and collaborators were fantastic, and the workshop started off on a high note!

Posted 17 May 2024 16:46

Class 4A went on a walk to the historic junction at Longford Road

Posted 17 May 2024 16:47

Class 4B went on a walk to the historic junction at Four Banks

Posted 17 May 2024 16:48

Class 4C went on a walk to the historic shopping street of Wilbraham Road

Posted 17 May 2024 16:51

The setting up

Starting up with great learning on architecture and having urban sketching and walking the previous day, we were all excited to start and set up things for the main workshops - 4A Plan it Poilts, 4B Model Masters & 4C Elevation Explorers.

Posted 17 May 2024 18:31

Class 4A Plan-it Pilots workshop!

Plan-it Pilots revolved around redesigning a portion of the block containing buildings which are to be demolished. The task given to the children was to use various textures, colours and tools to reimagine the corner of their block and propose a design for the space if they were the architects.

The kids were excited to plan a new program for their block. They planned many activity oriented areas like ice rinks, water slides, skate parks and football pitches. Some also created museum spaces and moved from plans to facades.The kids shared their work in the last session and got to meet some practicing architects too!

Posted 17 May 2024 20:20

Class 4B Model Masters workshop!

Model Masters revolves around designing the school's playground area. The task given to the children was to use various materials and textures to design play structures for their playground if they were incharge. The children were eager to start designing play structures and immediately formed a sense of ownership over their playground. Many designed their favourite ones to play on while others came up with new "Super-Structures" of their own. The first session was used to plan and design their components. The second was used to draft "approval drawings" for their structure. This pushed them to visualize in 2D after completing the 3D part. They showed off their creations in the last session to the whole class by explaining their model, its structure and the materials used. This was followed by a Q&A session with a few real-life architects.

Posted 17 May 2024 20:21

Class 4C Elevation Explorers workshop!

Elevation Explorers revolved around rethinking the school's facade - both old and new. The task given to the children was to use the kit of parts given to them to redesign the exterior elevation of their school if they were the architects. The workshop was centered around the video game "Fortnite" to grab the kids' attention and draw parallels of building and protecting from the video game world to real world. They used many colorful tools to bring the school's facade to life and even integrated new functions into the facade. Many added trees and creatures to the wall, some drew grafitti on them and some even added bows to "make them prettier". The real-life architects came in for the final session followed by a game of "Pictionary", which was used as a tool to
introduce perception and communication.

Posted 17 May 2024 20:21

The exhibition

At the end of the day, the outputs from all the workshops were showcased in a small exhibition which took place after school hours at Oswald Road. Parents who came in to pick up their children were invited in to take a look at the creative designs. Everyone were wowed by the amount of work done in a day and were appreciative about introducing a new world to their kids.

Posted 17 May 2024 20:21

We concluded the day with a group photo with everyone from the team. This was an amazing experience and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. Interacting with kids and inspiring them to create was super fun. Witnessing the manner in which young minds work was a refreshing aspect. Thanks to each and everyone who contributed to this workshop and a special thanks Laura and the teachers of Year 4 at Oswald Road for making this happen!

Posted 17 May 2024 21:04