In June Haverstock took part in Open City’s Young City Maker’s Programme, getting young people between the ages of 9-11 involved in architecture, design and model making, helping students understand their role in shaping the city!

With this year’s theme of play and Haverstock’s unparalleled experience of designing schools, we chose the brief ‘A School for Play’, encouraging students to design their dream school of play.

Introducing the brief, Susie, Jessica and Grace took students to Kings Cross. This engaging site visit + workshop focused on this year’s theme of ‘Play’, where students were encouraged to consider opportunities for play in the built environment, critiquing sites and designing improvements for play in the public realm.

Students investigated community-led design at The Global Generation Story Garden, nature-based solutions at Camley Street Park and playful regeneration at Gasholders Park and Granary Square.

Feeding into their final model, each aspect of the school has been playfully redesigned. With zip-lines and a helter-skelter slide moving students around the school to their high-tech classrooms, including a theatre, VR room and an outdoor terrace for nature based learning. With a key focus on accessibility and inclusivity students designed a flexible hall space with a sensory wall and an aquarium-style library for students to self-regulate and relax. Externally, the design offers a bushcraft area, a calming treehouse and a pool!