Hi! I’m Bryan from Hong Kong, a BA1 architecture student at MSA. I am particularly passionate about sketching and interested in materialism and spatial orientation in relationship to human experience.

Through this opportunities to collaborate with my peers in MSA live, I am genuinely excited about contributing to a sustainable learning environment for the next generation at Moor Allerton Preparatory School!

Day 1 - Meeting the Committees and the Collaborator

We started off the day with some fun icebreakers to get to know each other. It was nice to see everyone sharing their interests and stories. We then moved on to developing our goals with the focus on two core concepts of “biodiversity” and “community”. We decided to name our project the “Growth Maps”.

It was also exciting to meet Mr. Andy Smith, our collaborator, the head of Moor Allerton Preparatory School, for the first time! We discussed and exchanged thoughts and ideas for the design project and assigned roles. What an eventful start!

Day 2 - Second Meeting

The day focused primarily on refining our project's visual direction and establishing clear next steps for the March outputs (Project timeline, Ethics application, Risk assessment, and Budget). With previous feedback, we opened the session by presenting our latest poster and sharing reflections from our recent site visit with our tutor, which offered us fresh perspectives to refine our design. The key decision was to shift our background palette to a more vibrant orange from pink, followed by minor adjustments to typography and element and graphical illustration placement. This choice was driven by a desire to create stronger visual contrast and balance while conceptually echoing the kids' playfulness and the earthy essence of mud. We also divided responsibilities following the review: Qistina and Anagha on the poster, Sylvia on site research, and the rest continuing conceptual development and organizing existing resources. Most importantly, we maintained a collaborative atmosphere to advance our proposals and get the most out of them.

Day 3 - Design and March Submission Refinements

We started off with research to gather inspirations to develop our design.We also layered our plan and budgets along with safety considerations that had to be considered and well planned before our interaction with the children in the school. Our initial aim was to visit the school and conduct our activities on the following Monday but due to various reasons we decided with our tutor to postpone the action for more preparation. It cleared our minds by highlighting the key stages in our projected timeline. This allows us to track our progress and work efficiently. Our day ends with our continuous exploration of design ideas.

Site Visit #1

Following our meeting with the collaborator, we visited the site during school lunchtime. Greeted by Mr. Smith and the representatives from the student bodies, we explored the school and its facilities, which included the grass pitch and mud playground.

Suggested by the student body, logs on the front grass should be secured into the ground for safety, and more plantations are needed for biodiversity. The parking area also requires reorientation to improve mobility and multifunctionality. Staff suggested an outdoor reading area and extra spaces for kids to be physically involved, installed roofs on benches for rain coverage, and a proper storage room for tricycles.

Summarising the demands, following the school’s values, we would like to incorporate designs where students take the initiative to explore and discover what is around them. We hope to encourage sustainable development in a manner that fosters pupils’ wellbeing, environmental awareness, and experiential learning across the curriculum.

We took pictures, measurements, and sketches, recording the potentials of the landscape and design ideas catering to users’ needs. Also, we had some great conversations with the students and staff. The day ended with us summarising our findings and sharing our observations in the library. Just cannot wait to see how we bring our final design to life!

Poster Development

We arrived with various ideas and iterations before gathering for thought exchanges. This collage illustrates the thought process we went through before arriving at the final poster!