Key facts_

School: St.Josephs CBS, Fairview, Dublin

Teacher: Sam Lonergan

Name of Architect: Blaithin Quinn, Artist and Architect

No. of students: 12

Workshop schedule: 4 x 3.5 hour sessions

When it took place: 23/2/2016 – 10/3/2016

What we did!

ROLE PLAY

To gain an understanding of the Architect – Client working relationship.

WORKING GROUPS

To design our Garden City we worked in small groups and we negotiated with one another to create a masterplan:

• Department of Transport
• Department of Recreation
• Department of the Environment
• Department of Education
• Department of Housing
• Community Representatives

Theme: The Garden City

Main Activities:

Walking and talking to discuss ideas related to the theme.

Role play to explore the role of the architect, client and community representatives.

Skills gained:  Architectural Drawing (plan, section, elevation, perspective), Modelmaking, Design skills, Collaboration, Negotiation, Teamwork.

The Garden City

Overview_

Inspired by the local context of Marino, Dublin and the intentions of the Garden City movement, we created a masterplan and a large scale 3D model for a green city.

How we got started!

The architect  created slide shows of inspiring images and ‘garden city’ references as a starting point and she illustrated every point and concept visually (3d models, sketches, architectural drawings). This was followed by a series of tasks in drawing, designing  and making, which helped us to understand the techniques,  design process and working methods of an architect, in practical and experiential ways.

We employed role-play to explore working relationships of client/architect and city councils (see ‘working groups’)

In addition we participated in two site visits, to Marino and Dun Laoghaire to explore the workshop theme.

We created a Masterplan and a large scale 3d model of a garden city., through negotiation, collaboration and teamwork.

Architect’s perspective_

This project with St.Joseph’s  CBS drew on my own practice in collaborative / participatory projects in the area of architecture and public engagement The role-paly idea worked very well as the students became fully engaged, with ownership over their ideas for the  garden city masterplan.

Brief_ Aims + Objectives 

Part 1: Site visit / Basic skills:

Day 1: Site visit to Marino (Garden city ideas) – drawing tasks to gain an  understanding  of the representation of space – Plan – Section – Elevation – Perspective – Modelmaking(to gain skills in the visual language of architecture  for the next phase of the project)

Part 2: Role play / Design:

Day 2 – Client – Architect groups, to develop a brief /design / critique a design for a youth club on a specific site in Marino (chosen by students)

Day 3 – City Council groups comprising:  community representatives – transportation department – housing department – parks and recreation department – environmental department, to design a ‘garden city’ as a group, incorporating the design work from Day 2

Part 3: Excursion:

Day 4: Excursion to Dun Laoghaire Lexicon building (public space), People’s Park, and Victorian Squares (Clarinda Park) to further explore ideas related to the garden city idea.