Folkestone Gasworks, an inclusive participatory urban process

Children’s proposals for the Folkestone Gasworks Pioneering Places East Kent: Folkestone Great Place Scheme AA Little Architect Project with Stella Maris, Mundella, Christ Church and St Marys Primary School children.

Year 4 Groups.

November 2018 - June 2019

Isbn

printed in Jaen

With gratitude and love to all the wonderful children, primary school teachers, colleagues and committed people from Creative Folkestone involved in this project.

Special thanks to Tania Mc Cormack for her care and time spent on this project.

June 2019 Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido.

Registered Architect. PhD candidate AA Little Architect founder and director

Our inspiration

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete” Buckminster Fuller, Architect.

“The focus has to remain on creating a society that values the importance of architecture , that it can improve lives, it can bring people together, it has a huge impact on individual and collective sense of identity ” Alison Brooks, Architect

"Architecture is the starting point for anyone who wants to take humanity towards a better future “ Le Corbusier, Architect

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience" John Dewey, Educational reformer

“Art will make people better, more highly skilled in thinking and improving whatever business one goes into, or whatever occupation. It makes a person broader.” Ruth Asawa, Artist

´´One should be able to PLAY everywhere, easily, loosely, and not forced into a 'playground' or 'park'. The failure of an urban environment can be measured in direct proportion to the number of ‘playgrounds´" Colin Ward, Social reformer and Philosopher

Slide from the first session

The Architectural Association Little Architect Programme in Folkestone Little Architect is an educational programme founded in 2013 that teaches contemporary architecture and the urban environment in to children aged 4 to 11 in primary schools across the country. It is part of the prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture. The AA, was founded in 1847 and moved to Bedford Square in 1917. It is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and always looks into the future. Throughout its history the AA has been the reference for the production of new and relevant forms of inquiry, discourse, and radical practice in architecture schools, cultural institutions, and offices worldwide.

In March 2018, Little Architect was approached by Creative Folkestone, in order to create an educational project related to an abandoned industrial and empty area of their town, called the Folkestone Gasworks. Established in 2002, Creative Folkestone is a visionary arts charity dedicated to transforming Folkestone through collective creative activity, making the town a better place to live, work, play and visit. Folkestone Triennial is the flagship project of Creative Folkestone and the largest exhibition of newly commissioned work presented in the UK.

They invited Little Architect to participate in Pioneering Places East Kent, part of the national Great Place Scheme, an ambitious programme developing civic pride and connecting artists and communities. Four projects in Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone and Ramsgate are being led by other local cultural organisations. Â Supported through Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with Historic England and Artswork, the South East Bridge, we Little Architect have been in charge of educating and empowering 182 children from four different primary schools to share their own views and ideas for the future of the Folkestone Gasworks.

Stella Maris, Mundella, St Mary’s and Christ Church Primary Schools Over a series of workshops, talks and homework tasks starting in November 2018 and finishing in June 2019, these 8 and 9 year old children engaged in our dynamic methodology teaching them about the past, the present and the future of their town and creating the necessary intellectual roots for a place making project.

We have followed our usual STEAM methodology to engage children with architecture, incorporating in our lessons cartoons, carefully chosen images from their local area, highlights from the Folkestone Triennial Artworks and international examples of contemporary architecture, including some utopian projects too. The children have learnt to think, to observe, to be reflective, creative and critical before making. Each workshop included time for conversations and debates about architectural and urban issues related to the area surrounding their school and the Folkestone Gasworks site.

They have learnt to understand their town and enjoy it with their five senses, and observation has been fostered as the main skill to trigger their full creative potential.

The idea underlying this project is to invite children to be critical and propositional, creating a feeling of present and future commitment within the place that they live. We have worked in deprived areas of Folkestone and some of the children did not feel any sense of it being a special thing to live close to the sea and the beach, nor did they find any value in the many Artworks in their town. One of the main purposes of this project was to highlight the positive aspects of their town and to create a sense of pride that fosters the children’s sense of ownership’

Aim and hopes Little Architect has encouraged children to create new, futuristic urban environments with better public transport, cleaner energy, more pedestrian areas and greener spaces, affordable housing and inspiring designs for their new buildings including space for birds, insects and all kinds of animals. This project has triggered a new relationship with contemporary architecture and its local surroundings, hopefully with lifelong learning skills.

The project has given the children the opportunity to experience and be inspired by art, architecture, and heritage. We have explored debating, writing, drawing, maths, proportion, scale, and model making giving the students the opportunity to have their ideas reflected and collected here for local plans and strategies for the future.

Day 1 Fostering Creative Thinking “Draw a house before our lesson Draw a house after our lesson”

Buckminster Fuller

Foster Norman Foster

Zaha Hadid

Architects design more than buildings

The Eames

Tomas Saraceno

Houses

Taking care of nature ARCHITECTURE

OF COURSE…WE DESIGN BUILDINGS TOO.

Duncan Terraces. Islington, London

Rehabilitate old buildings

Day 2 Fostering Observation, Critical and Positive Thinking ‘Look at your place, feel it, enjoy it, draw it, tell me what do you want to improve�

Holiday time Homework. Our lessons at home Family and teachers’s involvement What do you find in Folkestone?

Teachers meeting to share experiences (and having fun of course)

Day 3 Thinking and Designing Architecture What would you design for the Folkestone Gasworks site?

Day 4 Learning about scale and maths. STEAM Make a model out of your drawing

Decoding children’s drawings

This is how we worked to extract data

Christ Church

St Marys

Mundella

Stella Maris

Re Sho H o u st au ppin s in g Sc r ho ant g ce s ol / E /ca ntre fe du s/ ca tio PU B Ci n / N ne m atu r a/ Th e‌ ea te r Ho H e te l alt s hc a Fa re ct or ie s Ga rd Gy en Re m in g/ lig h Co or ious ti m m cult u Lib uni ty re ra ce r Pl n ay y / Bo tre gr Sk oun ok s at d e p s /F hop u ar k / n fa i M us Byk rs e ic / m tr a us ck ic sh op P D a riso nc n e sp ac e

OVERALL

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

More areas to play, space for bikes, pets and music centres

Example B)

H Re Sh op ou st s in pi au n r Sc gc g a ho nts en / ol / E caf tre es du /P ca tio UB Ci ne n/ N a m a / tur …

Th ea te r Ho H e te l alt s hc a Fa re ct or ie s Ga rd Gy en m in R g / eli g Co hor ious t m m icul Lib un tur ity e r Pl ary ce ay n gr / Bo tre o ok u Sk s a t nds ep /F hop u ar k / n fa M i us Byk rs ic e / m tr a us ck ic sh op D a Pris nc on e sp ac e

Example A)

H Re Sh op ou st s in pi au g Sc ran ng c ho t en ol s /c af tre /E du es ca /PU t Ci ion/ B ne m Nat u a/ Th r… ea te r Ho H e te l alt s hc a Fa re ct or ie s Ga rd Gy en m in R g / elig Co hor ious t m m icul Lib un tur ity e r Pl ary ce ay / B nt gr re o o un ok Sk s at e p ds /F hop u ar k / n fa M i us Byk rs ic e / m tr a us ck ic sh op D a Pris nc on e sp ac e

ST MARYS

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

MUNDELLA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Children’s comments at Stella Maris: Ada said, " I love it because I like drawing pictures and drawing makes me happy" Miley said, " I liked exploring the Gasworks site and learning its history, I noticed things I hadn't seen before".

Szymon said, " I feel really happy I've met a real life architect and being filmed by a drone was really fun" Jake (on workshop 1) "This is the best day of my life"

“It has really been a great start to the project so far! The children have been 100% engaged with everything from the GasWorks exhibition to our visits from Little Architect. All visiting adults seemed to really understand our children and fitted right in! Our children have been going home eager to tell parents everything they have been doing” Rachel Baker, Year 4 Teacher

“The children have thoroughly enjoyed the project work so far - the first session showed some transformations in the children's ideas of what was possible in house/building design. they were wowed by the images that Lola shared with us - striking inspirational buildings, thought provoking too - homes for animals alongside people, who'd have thought it?”

Feedback from Christ Church – Ian Goldsmith

Creative Folkestone Fiona Kingsman, Pioneering Places East Kent: Project Director Tania McCormack, Learning officer .

Claire Unsworth, Film Director.

Greg Taylor, Neighbourhood History Researcher Laurence Taylor, Pioneering Places East Kent: Project Supervisor

Wonderful people involved in Pioneering Places East Kent: Folkestone

Primary School Teachers Stella Maris – Rebecca Baker and Andrew Langley St Mary’s – Beth Higgins and Kirsty Gardiner Mundella – Louisa Blunden and Ellie Edwards Christchurch – Ian Goldsmith, Luis Lozano, Mrs Ruter -Bell, Ms Davis.

Architectural Association Little Architect Team Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido. Little Architect Director and Tutor Eduardo Rico Carranza. Tutor Tapio Snellman. Tutor and drone film maker Cheryl Pilliner. Tutor Jeanne Sophie Charlotte Clerc. AA Architecture student

With thanks to Jyll Bradley, Artist, for her contribution.

People and what we have to say

“We have freed curriculum time in the next academic year (2019-2020) to allow us to carry out our own version of the Little ArchitectPioneering Places project. We will set a design brief for a type of building and there will be an expectation that the children consider the social, emotional and environmental impact of their designs as well as functionality. After some construction workshops, the children will make models of their buildings, which will be put on display for parents and the school community” Ian Goldsmith. Christ Church, Primary School Folkestone Kent.

Possibly, this is the best outcome we could have imagined when we started this project.

Little Architect has set a legacy beyond our lessons and even beyond these particular children. You, teachers, have embraced a methodology to teach and learn through discovering your own town. Architecture unites people, the built environment and the public space is there to make us feel equal, joyful and protected. Let’s always remember that and let’s empower our children to make a claim for better cities. Thank you teachers and Creative Folkestone for making all of this possible.

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Folkestone, Kent, UK. 2019