黑洞社区

Take 50 architects, 30 school children, 10 teachers, a stationery shop鈥檚 worth of artists鈥� materials, mix them all up with a bucket load of coffee and you might not expect to end up with 15 half-decent designs for secondary schools. But at the inaugural Design 4 Education charrette last Friday, that鈥檚 what happened.

A design charrette is a collaborative session where architects come together to solve a design problem. For this one, Design 4 Education, an organisation run by Surface to Air Architects and funded by the RIBA with the help of education consultant Bryanston Square, put 15 sets of architects and 15 school groups in the RIBA鈥檚 central London headquarters for a day.

The purpose of the day, according to organiser Pascale Scheurer, was not necessarily for the practices to win work. The fact is that even though most of the schools have between 拢2m and 拢10m earmarked for improvments, they are planning to use architects already involved with the 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future (BSF) frameworks. Rather, the charette was a chance for the firms, nearly all of which are less than five years old, to show what they can do in a sector that consistently overlooks them.

鈥淏SF is an incredibly conservative programme, and the people that run it are very risk-averse,鈥� says Scheurer. 鈥淥rdinarily, there鈥檚 no way a young or small firm could get through the procurement process. Today is to show that smaller practices are able to do jobs like this.鈥�

The architects, which ranged from established set-ups like Studio Egret West to newcomers such as Glowacka Rennie, sat down with pupils and schoolteachers to design briefs set by the school users. So, for example, the architect Gort Scott was asked by pupils and teachers to design an 鈥渁spirational space鈥� for pupils at Harlington Community School in Hayes, north-west London.

Jay Gort, one of the practice鈥檚 directors, says working with the pupils was an education in itself. 鈥淎rchitecture has preconceptions about how to engage with younger people, but talking to the students has really shaken these up,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e come up with things we hadn鈥檛 even thought of 鈥� table tennis tables, study hubs, a design based on their school logo.鈥�

Scheurer also runs her own small practice, Surface to Air, and works mainly on schools projects of varying sizes. On larger projects, the practice collaborates with its regular partner, the large commercial firm Pringle Brandon, but it does smaller extensions and interventions on its own.

鈥淵oung architects are tremendously well-placed to be creative on schools projects, because you know that the project will be important to them,鈥� she says. 鈥淚n a larger practice, a job under 拢2m could just slip through the cracks because it鈥檚 not big enough to be important. With a smaller practice you know they will give a lot of time and work to a project at any scale.鈥�

Scheurer admits there is a risk in hiring a relatively inexperienced practice, but insists this doesn鈥檛 have to be a problem. 鈥淥f course there are risks, but these are fantastic architects,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he risks can be effectively managed within a framework, and in return you will get a far more creative scheme.鈥�

Creativity certainly seemed to be the order of the day. Ludmilla Pillay, a teacher at Fircroft Primary School, brought eight pupils along to collaborate with Duggan Morris Architects to look at how their school site could be redeveloped to allow the very young children to interact with the older ones. The children themselves, she says, came up with some particularly off-the-wall ideas.

鈥淭hey wanted an underground tunnel beneath a vegetable garden so they could chase rabbits, they wanted trampolines, they wanted a hot tub, they wanted a juice bar,鈥� she says, sounding a little exhausted. 鈥淏ut they had some practical ideas too 鈥� one student came up with the idea of a solar-powered waterfall, as they want to use natural energy.鈥�

Duggan Morris took some of the children鈥檚 ideas, listened to the teachers鈥� complaints about the current site鈥檚 limitations, and came up with a masterplan that laid out the classrooms in a more sympathetic way. Although there were no tunnels for rabbit chasing, there was a shared vegetable garden that would promote a community feel in the school.

Mary Duggan, one of the firm鈥檚 directors, said it was a challenging but rewarding process. She said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 very instructive to have this level of interaction with the children. I don鈥檛 think you鈥檇 ever have a workshop like this on an actual schools project.鈥�

Some of the students seem to have had their preconceptions shattered too. 鈥淚 thought architects were all old men with grey hair,鈥� says Deborah, a 12-year-old pupil at Burntwood School. 鈥淏ut some of them are quite nice.鈥� Even if the 拢45bn BSF programme remains a closed shop to most small firms, these fledgling architectural practices can be heartened to know that they鈥檝e at least won someone over 鈥�

Original print headline - Chasing rabbits