DMA

As part of our ongoing work with Landsec on social sustainability projects, DMA is taking part in a three-month initiative known as ‘Future Property School’, set up by Landsec in partnership with Construction Youth Trust to give students from state schools in Westminster some insight into careers in the construction and property industry.

Fifteen students have been asked to come up with a masterplan for the 21 Moorfields site in Moorgate, London, supported through a series of lectures and workshops run by different professionals within the industry. We were asked by Landsec to provide an evening session, informing the students of architecture about design and what we do within our role.

We started the session with an introductory talk on what architecture means to us and how we would work on a live project within a practice. We explained how we always design collaboratively throughout the design and construction process with other key design team members such as specialists, engineers, the local community and residents, in order to ensure the design is always looked at from all angles.

We followed the talk with a creative model and diagram making workshop, responding to intuitive words that described elements of architecture and master planning.  The students were given lots of loose materials including cut blue foam cubes, strings, pins, foam board, paper and pens to help create their masterpieces. We thought this would be a great way to introduce the students to conceptual thinking within architecture and help them relate to architectural qualities in their neighbourhood, schools, communities and urban/sub-urban environments.

We can’t wait to see the students’ presentations of their 21 Moorfields masterplans in late March, as they present to the construction professionals who have taken part in the lecture series and to the Future Property School team.

See more information about Landsec here & Construction Youth Trust here.