Michael Flynn is the “Architect-in-School” at Good Counsel College, New Ross. Here’s what they’ve been up to lately.

Week 5

Model making class

As part of Task 5 ‘Map your School’ the class worked on a scale model of the school. After comparing the fire escape plan to the layout the students produced, they discovered the proportions of either plan were out and some rooms that were recently added didn’t appear on either plan. The purpose of the model was to help the class understand the plan better and the arrangement of spaces. Model making class was fun and a change of pace from drawing and slide shows.

Scale model of the main school building and The school layout verses the fire escape plan

Week 6

Last week we had Sean Connick former TD and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture in to talk to the students about Accessibility in Architecture. Sean spoke about his everyday experiences of being in a wheel chair since a he was knocked off his bicycle in a traffic accident in 1977. Sean’s talk made the students think about the requirements of people with disabilities. Before Sean was elected to Leinster House in 2007 the building was largely inaccessible to wheelchair users now the whole build has been retrofitted to allow TD’s and Ministers with disabilities to access the chamber within 10 minutes in case a vote is called. During his talk Sean said he used to consider Ireland one of the worst countries for facilities for the disabled, in the last few years things have changed completely and he now considers it among the best in the world. However he is still regularly confronted with frustrating situations. What stood out most from his talk was how much planning Sean had to put into his day in case he found himself with a lack of facilities, often going without eating and drink in case bathrooms were inaccessible.

Sean Connick giving his presentation and The design challenge – Courtyard Space

Over the next two weeks the class will be developing their concepts and designs for one of the two unused internal courtyards in the school. We will develop their ideas and produce some presentations of their concepts before making final presentations.