https://www.kishogecc.ie/

A small group of TY students explored Kishoge Community College and campus using the moving image led by architect Stephen Mulhal and their teacher Meave Ward. They used their iPads to film and edit short films, on themes such as colour, acoustics, pattern and journey, along with more narrative-based work that explored the spaces of their school. Through looking closely at their environment, the students began to see interesting connections, spaces and details. They also learnt about collaboration and group-work.

What we did

Stephen received drawings of the school from McCullough Mulvin Architects beforehand.
On the first morning Stephen introduced his practice and the range of work he is involved in.
He then showed examples of moving image from cinema, television and music videos. These showed how architecture and different spaces can be explored and represented through film. We discussed camera positions and types of shots and the students showed clips of their own that they had brought.
Students were placed in small groups; they explored the school and campus with specific themes in mind, for short films.
They took footage on their iPads and edited the footage as groups, to produce short films of c. 90 seconds in length.
They presented their footage, themes and edits to the class, and also to Maeve and Stephen, and continued in a loop of field-work, presentation/reviews and editing. The final films were shown to some other classes in the school and students voted for their favourites.

The skills gained: Group work, collaboration and communication skills; using iMovie software and iPads for filming; a consideration of editing; ‘close-noticing’ or ‘close-reading’ of their external environment.

After the workshop we hope that the students will have gained a greater awareness of how architecture and the built environment is represented in cinema, television, music video and other media, and the affinities between architecture and cinema.

Short Films created from the project 

Finding Patterns:

Into a Book:

Student’s perspective:
“I learned new skills because of the project.”
“It was great to watch movies with a new insight.”
“I didn’t realise Architecture had such a big part in film making”.

Architect’s perspective:

The themes that the students came up with were interesting: these included acoustics; colour; detail in the school building; and some more narrative approaches (that we tried to ensure included interesting representations of the school building).
Narration helped tie some of the edits together.

Teacher’s perspective:
I think the students really valued a visiting architect to the school. Stephen was absolutely brilliant at delivering new ideas and concepts to the students.The students never felt lost and always knew what do to. They had an immediate respect for his talent. Stephen had a great way with the students as he discussed their various ideas and encouraged them further in their project, keeping the groups engaged. I found that offering students these opportunities are invaluable and can only add to and layer their experience of architecture and design. It is a fantastic opportunity and a great initiative to further students’ engagement and appreciation of Design.