Collaborative Design and Build – Day 2
Tuesday, 13th February 2018
On Day 2 of our architecturally-inspired art course, children got to work as structural engineers to refine their structures, then morphed into interior decorators, furniture designers and town planners as the city developed and took on its own life.
We began the day straight away by completing the basic structure of our houses – the children were keen to get going. They couldn’t keep away from their houses.
Some had even been busy collecting and making at home – bringing in new elements for their structures. Someone even made an electric light!
We talked about the problems we were having and how to overcome them. Some of us were solving roofing problems.
We strengthened plastic sheeting by corrugating it and supporting with canes, and added a textured skylight made from bubble wrap.
Others developed a pitch thatch roof, made from canes and paper for a homeless shelter
A curved doorway emerged
Signs appeared
And small structural details added.
The space had been entirely populated and everyone was busy.
We then started to decorate our houses, both interiors and exteriors – we began to think about function and what was needed. The children’s creativity really took over.
Interior furnishings moved in:
Windows were dressed with curtains
TV’s installed
Storage units assembled and decorated
Pet’s moved in and housed
Fancy hooks installed for weapons in this fort
… and for jumpers in this house.
Door knobs were added.
The outside came inside with a few natural touches.
Creative solutions were found for simple problems – we loved the hinges on this window made from straws and tape.
Our city had a factory that made everything.
A government building – ‘The White House’
A dungeon
And a bank – called the ‘Money House’.
We even had a Fortune Tellers House – every city needs one of those!
Interiors had pictures on the walls and clever furniture solutions.
The homeless shelter had drums and a collection box and was filled with graffiti from past inhabitants who had since moved on to better times.
It was pretty high on creative energy in the room – despite the rain we took a quick walk down to the park to eat our lunch under the trees. Time to pause and get some fresh air!
On our return we went back to our mapping activity, we added in the buildings we had made and imagined how they would all link together. We completed the maps with new imaginary items.
Children worked in pairs or individually and completed their map at their own level of ability.
They added scale and keys to show how the land was used.
After this calming activity – we set to work on the final touches and began to link the buildings together with roads and other street furniture.
But the buildings kept developing – the children just could not stop creating!
A covered terrace made from sticks miraculously appeared after several attempts to assemble.
But soon the time ran out and we were ready to show our work to our parents and carers.
We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
