TBE at The Big Bang

Janet, Aimée and our lovely volunteer Sarah, spent a day at the Science Museum on Wednesday talking to students, teachers, parents and STEM ambassadors about the Building Exploratory and what we do.

Throughout the day we welcomed budding engineers and designers to help us build a tower from rolled newspaper based on a structure of 3 sided pyramids. With so many eager hands, the tower took on an impressively abstract design and was taller than our stand by the end of the day!

The event was a free celebration of science and engineering for young people across the region that aimed to showcase the diversity and potential of careers in STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths).

Find out more about STEM at http://www.stemnet.org.uk/

The Building Exploratory is awarded a Quality Badge by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom

We are really pleased to have been awarded a Quality Badge for Learning Outside the Classroom. This award is recognition of all the hard work we put into our workshops and visits to give both teachers and pupils the best learning experience we can.

The Quality Badge is a nationally recognised indicator of good quality educational provision which combines the essential elements of provision - learning and safety - into one easily recognisable and trusted accreditation scheme.

‘The LOtC Quality Badge reduces the red tape associated with learning outside the classroom, making it easier for teachers and other education providers to incorporate LOtC into the everyday curriculum. This increases the likelihood of children having the opportunity to have wider educational experiences which directly benefit their educational attainment and social and emotional development’.

Refurbish: the life and times of a tower block

To celebrate Lifelong Learning Week the Building Exploratory ran a special event for a group of 25 adults - 'Refurbish: the life and times of a tower block'.

The event began with a talk exploring the history of towers and the evolution through time of their use and design, before focusing on the architectural development of post war tower blocks in the UK. 

 

The group then went over to Grange Court, originally one of four tower blocks on the Holly Street Estate, where we met with Ken Gilmour, from the the Grange Court Tenants Management Organisation. Ken talked us through the re-development of Holly Street and answered questions about the management of Grange Court (the tower was refurbished as a block specifically for older people) . The event ended on a high with a very special opportunity to go up to the top of Grange Court from where the group enjoyed fantastic views (and many towers) across the whole of London.  

Dalston Square Time Capsule

On Thursday 12th May students from Holy Trinity and Colvestone Primary Schools, along with councillors and representatives from Barratt Homes, gathered to bury the Dalston Square Time Capsule.

The time capsule itself contains a wonderful collage of pictures of the children and the casts they made back in march.

Progress in Geography

On Friday Head of Learning Janet Clark joined the Architecture Centre Network’s Head of Learning, Cara Courage, to speak at ‘Progress in Geography’, the Geographical Association’s Annual Conference and Exhibition at the University of Surrey.   

Around 70 geography teachers listened to Cara talk about the Network’s national offer to teachers and schools and Janet talk about the Building Exploratory's work with secondary school Geography Departments.  

Using Hackney as a case study, Janet encouraged teachers to use their local urban built environment and demonstrated how maps, photography, buildings and creative practice can be used to inspire and engage young people studying geography at all Key Stages.

Find out more about out our school workshops at www.buildingexploratory.org.uk/schools

A big thank you goes to Alan Ledger of Durkan Estates, for stepping in at short notice on Friday morning to speak to the Senior Bees about some of the redevelopment work taking place just across the canal from our office.

Having met previously with architects, designers and planners, the Senior Bees appreciated hearing about this redevelopment from the contractors perspective. It was really interesting to hear about Alan's role at Durkan and it was a real eye-opener to have an insight into the complexities of managing large scale developments.

We hope to welcome Alan back to give another talk once the scheme has been completed.

The work over the canal has really picked up over the last few weeks with a forest of cranes springing up and the building on the Durkan site starting to take shape.

Getting involved at the Building Exploratory

Over the last couple of weeks we have held three really busy and very successful open evenings for people who want to get involved in our work.

At the end of March we welcomed 12 potential new volunteers into our office for tea and biscuits and to learn about what we do and the experience they can gain from helping us to develop our learning programmes.

Last Monday 15 artist attended an open evening, which we organised to increase our pool of freelance artists who would like to work with us on up-coming creative projects. The artists' practise ranged from painting, illustration and printing to sculpting, ceramics and installations. The artists' were also all very keen to take up our offer of professional development, which will enable the to gain experience and skills to engage with a variety of audiences they may not have worked with before.

On Thursday evening 8 young people from our local area, along with some of their parents, visited us to help us with our plans to develop an Arts Award accredited programme about local sporting architecture. The group, aged 13-15 were all excited about the project, during which they will have the opportunity to visit a range of historic and contemporary sports venues, including swimming baths, boxing clubs, football stadiums, and of course, some of the magnificent buildings on the Olympic site. We hope to begin this programme in September.

We have been really overwhelmed by the all this enthusiasm for our work and can't wait to work with all these fantastic people!