Architecture Blog Post written by Niamh Hurley

Before commencing our project on the National Architects in Schools Initiative, my art class and I were all
anticipating what would be involved. None of us had any experience in
architecture yet we were all budding artists. We received the “My Architecture
Design Journal” from our art teacher, Ms. Hornibrook and we began our projects.

We started off by researching different buildings or various architectural designs
that captured our attention. There was a wide variety of buildings picked, some
from Barcelona, Paris and even in the depths of New Zealand’s country side. We
also looked at familiar buildings such as our school or music schools around us.
We studied how they were made and how the space is used.

After a couple of weeks the architect, Michael Carroll visited our school. He was
going to guide us in our architectural endeavours. He showed us some of his
favourite buildings and architects. He even went as far as bringing in a box full
of his sketches, ones he uses for clients. We were quite impressed.

We began to formulate our ideas after that. We sketched out designs for a
building for homeless people, but it was evident that we were finding it difficult.
After much thought and consideration, we decided to alter our idea and design
an area for people of all ages could hang out in. We discovered an abandoned
field in our local area which suited our idea. This idea was easier to work with.
Next we got into small working groups and began designing. We were going to
make models of our final designs to display to our school. Our Junior Cert Art skills
came into handy during this aspect when making the models.

Our working group decided to design a stage on which people could perform.
There were also benches made from mounds of grass-covered earth. This meant
that if you looked at it from the road, they would appear to be part of nature.
Other groups designed coffee shop areas and sheltered hang out spaces. We
made the 3D models out of different materials to represent our designs.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience with ‘My architecture Design Journal’. It allowed
me to discover more about the work of architects and how beneficial it is to
society. The aspect I enjoyed the most, and like many others, was the building of
the 3D models. I enjoyed using different materials like plasticine and little
wooden sticks to represent our idea. I also enjoyed working as part of a team.
We had a great time in coming up with our designs. It was nice to see how all our
individual ideas helped contribute to our final design.

I would recommend that people who are interested in pursuing a career in
architecture or simply someone who enjoys creating art, should give My
Architecture Design Journal a chance, you never know what you can create. I
think I can say this for everyone in my class that we all learned from this
experience in many different ways and it has helped us in discovering more
about architecture, its functionality and creativity.

Blog by Student: Niamh Hurley
School: Christ King Girls Secondary School,
Half Moon Lane, South Douglas Rd, Cork
Teacher: Ms. Michele Hornibrook3
Architect: Michael Carroll MRIAI
Date: Spring 2015