Member Article

ArchiPhonic inspires future placemakers at Smithdown Primary School

RIBA Architecture Ambassadors, ArchiPhonic have inspired a group of future architects, designers and placemakers from Smithdown Primary School, by helping them to recreate some iconic Liverpool landmarks.

Team members from the Liverpool-based architectural design firm hosted two workshops for Year Four children studying Design Technology at the school. In the sessions the children were put into groups and provided with mystery landmarks from across the city, including St. George’s Hall, the Royal Liver Building and Radio City Tower.

In the workshops the children explored plans, elevations, 3D images and fun facts about each of the buildings, using this information to explore the design in two dimensions before learning how this could become a 3D model

Youngsters tried their hand at producing scaled drawings under the watchful eyes of Architect, Jamie Nicholson and Architectural Designer, Rachel Cummings, before discussing how they might be able to turn them into models using scrap boxes and other materials brought from home.

After working in groups to recreate the buildings in 3D form, the pupils took turns to guess which buildings their classmates had created.

Speaking about the workshops, Jamie Nicholson said: “The models produced by the students from Smithdown Primary were extremely impressive and showed great consideration of scale, proportion and recognisable geometry.

“We also discussed whether they had seen the buildings in real life and many said that they would love to try and visit them to see if their models matched the real thing! It was fantastic to see such interest in the built environment and to be able to help inspire a generation of future architects and placemakers through the RIBA Ambassador scheme.”

RIBA Architecture Ambassadors are architectural professionals who volunteer to work with schools to inform and inspire children about careers in the built environment. The programme also aims to encourage debate and empower young students to voice their opinions on architecture in their towns and cities.

Following the workshop, the team from ArchiPhonic recommended that pupils continued to think about architecture in the city and identify what was missing and how that might be turned into a building.

Pupil, Roza, said: “The workshops were really good fun and lots of us would love to design our own building for Liverpool one day. It was also great to learn more about architects from Liverpool now and from the past.”

Year Four teacher, Beth Kelly, said: “ArchiPhonic’s workshops were really exciting and engaging for the children and the practical aspects allowed them to take what they have learned in their Design Technology classes and put it into practice. It’s certainly inspired a few future architects!”

Jamie added: “Inspiring local talent is so important to the team at ArchiPhonic and we are extremely proud to be RIBA Ambassadors. We would wholeheartedly recommend that other architectural professionals get involved. We would also like to thank the children and teachers at Smithdown Primary for sharing their ideas with us, we found ourselves inspired as well!”

Katy Wade, from RIBA, said: “We really appreciate the Architecture Ambassadors at ArchiPhonic volunteering their time to deliver such creative and high-quality workshops with students at Smithdown Primary.

“Having professionals work with students in their own environment makes architecture much more accessible and engaging, which will hopefully inspire them to play a role in the development of the built environment in the future.”

Visit the RIBA website to learn more about becoming RIBA Architecture Ambassadors or bringing RIBA Ambassadors into your school.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nikki Girvan .