RIBA Design for Education Charette

erect architecture was selected to take part in the Design for Education Charette, which took place at the RIBA on Feb 6th.
Our clients for the day were 4 year 7 pupils from Southfields Community College in Wandsworth, a 1400 pupil secondary school also offering an extensive range of adult education classes as well as community facilities.
During a long and intense day we made a proposal for the re-design of the external school grounds. The formulation of shared use spaces for school and community as well as measures to create a social environment whilst deterring the formation of gangs were at the centre of our investigations.

Found Sound - a musical instrument

From the outset of the Old Ford Primary playground project, erect architecture were keen to involve children into the conception and building of their playgrounds. We wanted this involvement to go beyond producing children's drawings and talking about it. It was important for us to include an element of learning and spatial awareness. We had proposed to create a Musical Instrument, which was to be conceived and built in a series of experimental workshops with yr 2 pupils once the playground was complete. How did we go about it?

A brief introductory talk supported by video clips demonstrated the creation of sound through experimenting with found objects. The pupils went on to experiment with different sounds and techniques using many collected, recycled and found objects. The sounds were soon to be focused on expressing emotions: happy, sad, excited, calm, scary (tying in with the curriculum: ‘Who am I?’ ‘What are my emotions?’ ). During the following session the children built small installations to explore these emotional sounds spatially.
Based on these installations, erect architecture proposed a concept for the final built piece: Found objects were to be suspended within a cube to define four different emotional spaces: The open happy space challenging children to jump in order to reach bright sounding objects is followed by the curved low anticipation tunnel with ambiguous sounds. In a surprise moment, the tunnel opens up into the tall and sombre calm space, complete with chair and tree&sky view. Different floor finishes support the different sound qualities. The children mocked up the volumes of the three different spaces according to their spatial requirements (’How tall does it need to be to be reached by jumping?’) whilst the frame was erected by an artist/contractor. After exploring the sound quality of the found objects, the children placed the sound objects within the frame and assisted the suspending of the objects. The opening performance is pending...

'Processes' - Upcoming lectures

'Processes' will be the topic of our upcoming lectures at Bath University (Thu, 29.1., 6.30pm) and Plymouth University (Thu, 12.2., 6.30pm). We will be looking at projects on our drawing board, talking about developing stories and engagement.

Studio in the Woods 2009

It was such an inspiring event last year (see participation for pictures of last year's badger seat) ... we are going back! erect architecture will be taking part in the SitW2009, the 4th annual Studio in the Woods for architects and students from 9. -12. July.
During a long weekend site specific installations will be designed and explored through construction. SitW will take place in the beautiful countryside around Kemerton in Gloucestershire. Other tutors include MitchellTaylor Workshop, Mole Architects, Gianni Botsford and Kate Darby. Visiting critics will be Ted Cullinan, Peter Clegg and Charley Brentnall.
The studio is organized by MitchellTaylorWorkshop. For more info and registration form see www.mitchelltaylorworkshop.co.uk/studio.asp

Playing AND Exploring -- Welcome shift in policy making

We always believed in it and sometimes had to fight hard for it: Playing and the need for exploring, creativity, challenge and adventure…and nature.
From our very first playground, Haggerston Park, we designed playspaces following these core beliefs. Now they are official…and being listened to! Increasingly clients request playgrounds, which follow the Play for England Guidance: Design for Play. This guidance emphasizes the need for children to play in natural environments, which provide a scope for discovery and re-interpretation. Play should be challenging and enriching.
We think this is an exciting and encouraging development, which will, aided by recently released funding streams, overhaul many British playgrounds in the very near future. Gone are the days of metal slapped on tarmac approach. Imaginative play, natural materials and more challenge is what is asked for.
In a current project, the Cranston Estate project, we took these objectives to the people from the very outset. To introduce the children to natural materials we went with into the grounds of the adventure playground and collected existing natural materials with which the children made their own explorative model proposals for the new playground. The objectives were to introduce the children to natural materials as well as to architectural processes, enabling them to understand and express their own ideas for the new playground or elements thereof. When we presented our concept design to the community during an event, we lured the residents into the green fringes of the site. Adventure trails led past improvised dens to the site where first design proposals were exhibited and consultation took place. The arrangement asked the community to explore and understand the existing in order to envisage the new. Whilst we consulted with older children and adult residents, a den building workshop engaged the younger ones.

Semi-detached, postwar ... and sustainable?

Yes! erect architecture have just been commissioned to transform a postwar semi-detached house in East London into a low carbon, sustainable home.

Cast-aways set different scene

Just after the stranding on the island the cast-aways had to discover they were not the only ones there. A travel agent already flogged low carbon holidays on the undiscovered paradise island and was not amused by the arrival of the shipwrecked. For the stranded however, island survival life kicked in. A shelter was quickly erected, animals fended off (immediately marketed by the canny agent as the paradise island safari park). Messages in bottles were sent via passers-by, enticing people outside venues on the surrounding mainland to take up different forms of communication with the island. The call for rescue culminated in a SOS dance, which proved successful as all returned safely to erect architecture's studio for rum punch to discuss the event.

For many (including ourselves) it was a brave thing to do, using this public space (a traffic island) in such a deliberately different way, interacting and provoking, re-imagining space. We were astonished by the numbers of people happy to join in, some even inventing their own roles and takes (such as the travel agent) to the event.
Not only did the event inspire very curious moments, it also made some others, who could not attend the event (so we got told), spend time on the island afterwards imagining what the inhabitation of this space could be like. Intriguing and almost tempting not to go through with the actual event next time (after much noise about it happening beforehand to get the imagination spinning) - only to keep the imagination open and not limit the possibilities by creating closure through the event itself. But then, we are architects, not nihilists...and we do like a bit of strangeness and fun.

Cast-away was erect architecture's contribution the London Open House's GreenSkyStudios programme.