My Square Mile - Places and Spaces

Aberporth Primary | Ysgol Saron | Ysgol Llangadog | Ysgol Llangynfelyn
Morriston Primary | St. Joseph's Primary
Architect's Notes

A joint project between Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion County Councils, this project follows from last year's My Square Mile project in Swansea schools. Two schools in each county took part in the this project during the Autumn 2006 term. The participating schools were:

Carmarthenshire - Ysgol Llangadog and Ysgol Saron
Ceredigion - YsgolLlangynfelin and Ysgol Aberporth
Swansea - St. Joseph's Cathedral Junior School and Morriston Primary School

The participating artists were Lynne Bebb, Pip Woolf and Catrin Webster. As with the previous project, a CD ROM showcasing the work was produced by Alastair Duncan

"The environment speaks about history and about people's hopes, fears and values. Buildings and places ara physical legacy from the past. By attempting to read their story we can understand how we came to be the way we are and - possibly - to plan wisely for the future.

Certain environments are prized as conserving certain aspects of our heritage - built environments such as castles, country houses, churches, prehistoric sites, industrial archeology and "natural" environments such as woodlands and nature reserves. Heritage is also the buildings and spaces we encounter or on a mountainside. Heritage is the environmental legacy of buildings and places, streetscapes and landscapes that form our environment."

Eileen Adams
Published by Drawing Power, The Campaign for Drawing.

Architect's Notes

You can’t see the space if you are inside it, you need to draw it so that you can see it, then make sense of it and manipulate it. This is my practice. My life as a designer has been a life of drawing. Although a lot of the design process goes on in my head it always ends in drawing. I doodle while I think, create thumbnail sketches of ideas, little drawings of layouts, construction details, large presentation drawings and finally detailed working drawings.

I came to The My Square Mile project with no preconceptions, taking an approach that would be the same as for a new client, that is, one of gathering information in order to create a brief out of which a design solution is reached. I saw my role as support to the artists involved and to provide what they required. Each of the artists was likely to be working differently so my input had to be complimentary to their vision and the work already achieved by the children.

My first visit was to St.Joesph's with Pip Woolf. Pip and I live and work together so her approach was quite different to the other artists who do not have access to my work on a daily basis. Because Pip was at both St. Joseph’s and Saron School I was able to spend a full day with the children.

Pip had a large number of foam blocks for the children which we used to represent buildings of the school and its surrounding area. These were first drawn on to represent different building types and then placed on a 4mx6m paper building plot onto which drawn roads were added. I was interested that buildings either not used by the pupils or which were semi derelict were completely omitted as though they didn’t exist. How selective our memories and observations are!

I was next at Llangynfelyn School with Catrin Webster where I showed copies of my architectural drawings which to my amazement completely captivated the children’s attention; effectively I had underestimated the value of giving the children access to architectural drawings and their capacity to relate them to the real world. We also discussed many types of building and technical drawing including perspective.

I was at Saron School next where we built with foam blocks introducing the children to the concept of bonding in brickwork. Here I also showed the children an image of the Noumea Cultural Centre in New Caledonia, discussing its design root and intention. The children quickly assimilated the image into their own image making at the first opportunity. We ended by working on small group construction, the demolition of which inspired huge enjoyment. Pip subsequently showed these children pictures of exciting & unusual buildings which completely entranced the children. Upon hearing this I then showed the same pictures at all my other sessions.

Next I was at Morriston School with Lyn Bebb. After showing pictures and drawings we built wonderful structures from cardboard boxes and a multitude of scrap bits. At this school there was a marked difference in who wanted to collaborate when we finally made a group structure. The children were particularly inventive once introduced to different structural techniques such as the cantilever and corrugation.

At Llangadog we discussed technical drawing and produced measured drawings of the class room to a proper scale. Helen Booth observed how some children really responded to this approach and past experience indicates that small children often thrive on using adult tools and systems.

I have tried to provide a glimpse of how exciting the built environment can be. Looking at the work produced by the children their ideas would certainly enliven and delight any urban space. I have been hugely impressed by the concentration and total engagement in the project. I am also acutely aware of being in a privileged position in that I was a visitor doing things way outside of the national curriculum; my only regret is in feeling that I had insufficient time to answer the interests shown in my work as a designer.

I have been inspired.

Gil Chambers, November 2006