Art & Architecture Design Days
Designed to be accommodated into the school timetable, we having been running 1, 3 and 5 day courses for 16 years. Predominately aimed at students considering further study in Architecture, Interiors, or similar 3D Design disciplines or embarking on the Diploma in Construction and The Built Environment the courses non-the-less a stimulus to other students, giving them a perception and insight on things otherwise unsought.
Students are made aware of the “positive” and “negative” spaces within the built environment and that it is this relationship, that the architect has fashioned, that differentiates architecture from mere building. Using simple
materials and these basic ideas they asked asked to make a series of spatial maquettes, which are scaled using model figures. Students are asked to imagine what each maquette might be a model for and to rationalise their answer. Throughout students are asked to consider, discuss, and evaluate their work, both with our facilitator and one another.
One Day Course;
Students explore the spatial relationship between art and architecture, through a series of hands-on activities which introduce the idea of scale and ergonomics designed to increase their understanding of what an architect does during the design process and culminating in a series of abstract spatial maquettes
Three Day Course:
The spatial interventions of 3D art and architecture are explored through precedent study with the students developing their ideas further architecture. Introducing site and locality, students are given a design brief and evolve their ideas based on their experiences of the site and its surrounding environment.
Five Day Course:
Students consider environmental impact of their designs in relation to existing urban developments and green field sites. Designing and scale model making to fit site model. Presentation of completed work on the final afternoon, where possible, to students, staff, and parents. Developed to help spatial awareness and visualisation skills with an emphasis on the three-dimensional perception of space, and how it relates to visual and
human form, students knowledge of architecture and the built environment is enriched by understanding that before Computer Aided Design comes cognitive anthropomorphic design, i.e. scale, as it is humankind that both
architects and designers are designing for.
Architecture Summer Schools Are run over five days. We have developed the course to give students a taste of what would be expected at the entry level to an architecture degree course. Without the constraints of the school day the students are able to experience much more the way in which architects work and that of a school of architecture. Students are encouraged to work on their own initiative, with support form our animateurs, but also from each other. Aimed at students with an interest in all aspects of design, the students work together and individually to build a scale site model of an area local to the venue site (which could be a school, education centre etc.) They then set about designing and making models to a given brief related to the site model. Presentation of completed work on the final afternoon to staff, parents and invited dignitaries. Students are each presented with an Architecture Workshops certificate of achievement.
