Beyond The Box, People’s Pavilion workshop
On Wednesday February 15th we hosted over 20 teenagers in our new office in Hackney Wick. These young people between the ages of 14-18 took part in a People’s Pavilion workshop facilitated by sustainability-focused organisation, Re-Fabricate. Run by award-winning community interest company, Beyond The Box, The People’s Pavilion is a forward-thinking youth design competition that sees young Londoners design and build a Pavilion in East London.
For this workshop, Re-Fabricate had students playing sustainability-centred card games before reworking their previous pavilion designs to make them more environmentally friendly. Re-Fabricate also made the students in their seven teams, consider the materials and the entire life cycle of their designs.
In the morning Re-Fabricate was joined by our architect Bianca Baidoo and Part II Architectural Assistant Martha Hiles. The pair helped the students carefully think about sustainable practices. While in the afternoon, our architects, Tanatswa Borerwe and Mohibur Rahman supported the young people in drawing their new designs in both plan and elevation. ‘It was encouraging to see how switched on and talented the students were. Hopefully, these types of workshops will help nurture their curiosity for architecture and provide well-needed opportunities for them’ says Rahman.
Part 1 Architectural Assistant Prity Chatterjee also joined in, giving the students great insight into working life. ‘It was refreshing to work with the young minds and re-iterate to them that regardless of their age that they have the power and skill to positively inform designs’ she says. Chatterjee also had conversations with the students about reducing the carbon footprint of their pavilions by implementing daylighting strategies.
In their teams, the students will now be finalising their designs for an exhibition where a public vote will be conducted, and a winning design will be selected to be built. Check out Beyond The Box’s Instagram page to learn more and keep up to date with all things People’s Pavilion!
