Dialogue With the School Environment

An innovative education initiative designed to bridge education, research and practice by promoting the transfer of architectural knowledge and experience. The goal is to enable young architects and school pupils to work collaboratively, exploring ways to make positive change in a "live" school environment.

The program is led by British architect Gary Johnson and Polish Landscape Architect Ania Wrobel, and draws on their experience, working with school pupils exploring environmental issues and sustainability as part of an ongoing education programme, "Journeys in a forgotten landscape," which they initiated in 2006.

[INCENTIVE]

In partnership with Gdansk University of Technology and Strathclyde University Glasgow, the students are partaking in an intensive five days of exploration, research, discussion and practical workshops. Architecture students from Strathclyde and Gdansk Universities will work with secondary school pupils to create design proposals and full scale structures for new interventions within their existing school and surrounding landscape.

[DESCRIPTION]

Sixteen pupils from a secondary school in Gdansk are working alongside twelve architecture students (Eight from Gdansk University of Technology and Four from Strathclyde University) to provide an opportunity for the pupils to take part in, and contribute to the conception of their build environment.

Firstly we will analyze the existing school environment, taking into consideration the unique qualities that help to create a sense of place on the campus. We will investigate the pupils spatial requirements in terms of atmospheric qualities, which will ultimately influence the design decisions made during the project. As the users of the space, it is the pupils' ideas that will be the catalyst for the design process. 

Working collaboratively, we will undertake a series of participatory exercises which will allow us to develop understanding of the fundamental principles of architecture and design; form, scale, structure, and materiality. With this knowledge we will develop proposals for a series of architectural interventions for the senses, which incorporate the ideas and desires of the pupils, as well as the visible and invisible atmospheric qualities of a given space.