Be Inspired

As the school itself is enormous, in groups of three or four the girls selected some different room types to study in detail, before reporting back to the main group. Everyone got a good opportunity to use the skills they already have, and to learn a few more along the way – Architecture allows for many different types of representation including photography, sketching, carrying out user surveys, model-making and writing, all of which can be layered together to form a detailed body of research. All of this information was poured out into giant free-form plans of the school, with the routes each girl takes every day marked on, and favourite places marked with a star.

Investigate

While the students looked at many different room types, such as the art rooms, science, music and prayer rooms, it was unanimously agreed that the space the school desperately needs is a canteen – somewhere away from the classroom to eat lunch and take a break from the humdrum of everyday school life. The girls used all their survey work to start thinking about what they wanted to see in the new space – some simple elements such as light and colour, space and comfort were popular.

Mapping the School

Mapping our senses

Using mindmaps, everybody’s ideas were put to paper, and each group diplomatically discussed what to include and how to go about making a representation of the space in model form. They displayed some excellent team work in constructing the models – very much like a professional design group there were girls focusing on the structure, some on the materials, and some giving very good instructions!

User Survey

Out and about

Mapping the school

Group work

The girls are working away on their models and getting ready to meet everybody at the exhibition event in Tullamore, we will see you there!

2D Drawing