Participatory design workshop at the Caledonian Clock Tower

Caledonian Clock Tower Workshops

Architectural Association School of Architecture Visiting School Programme

London Borough of Islington Heritage Service in partnership with the Greenspace Service and Little Architect (Architectural Association)

Introduction In autumn 2014 the London Borough of Islington Heritage Service in partnership with the Greenspace Service commissioned three workshops from Little Architect.

The workshops were part of the Caledonian Park Clock Tower and Visitor Centre project funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The format and objectives of the workshops were developed in discussions between Little Architect and LBI staff. It was agreed that two of the workshops would be held mid-week and offered to local primary schools with a family workshop for the following Saturday where all the work produced in the previous school workshops could be exhibited.

• provide a mechanism for including children in the consultation process for the Project.

• test how such activities could be accommodated in the clock tower.

• determine the level of support in the community for such events.

The purpose of the workshops were to:

The workshops were advertised on posters on the park notice boards and given to local schools, and through the Council’s website.

• stimulate children to think about how buildings and their uses can change through time and the potential for creating bold and imaginative solutions for their future use.

• engage children with the unique clock tower structure and create ideas for what new uses could be provided in and around it and what these would look like.

The two school workshops were taken up by Hungerford School who sent two year 4 Groups each with 30 children to the midweek workshops. The family workshop also proved successful with 25 children taking part, supported by their parents and also some grandparents.

What is Little Architect?

Little Architect is an education platform for teaching architecture in London’s primary schools and is part of the Visiting School programme, at the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

The programme aims to teach children how to observe, understand and enjoy architecture and the built environment and to become part of a more sustainable future. Our in-school projects and workshops are organised around interesting, creative and fun, cross-curricular activities for five to eleven year olds. They provide an opportunity for students to think and communicate about buildings and cities through experimentation and drawing.

We want children to be much more active in urban processes. We want to trigger a new relationship with their local surroundings, in which they are caring for, but also enjoying and being critical of the cities we all inhabit. That is our main task - to teach them that the future is theirs.

Your Future Caledonian Clock Tower How the workshop was developed?

Objectives

Methodology

1. Increase observation and drawing in and outside of school 2. Develop understanding of the clock tower evolution and contemporary architecture 3. Expand creativity by showing unusual architecture and designing futuristic buildings 4. Foster enjoyment of the built environment 5. Teach that citizens’ ideas, regardless of their young age, are very valuable for the urban development 6. Teach that they are in charge of the future. The future is theirs

Past-Present-Future For these three workshops, we designed a Keynote lecture and two different leaflets. The workshops provided the opportunity for students to think and communicate about their ideas for the clock tower. We integrated digital learning with drawing and writing. We encouraged children to create a new urban environment for the clock tower. We opened their minds showing to them some unusual architectural projects.

Students learnt about the history of the building, the Clock Tower, and how it had evolved through history. We showed to them examples of different kinds of architecture including temporary installations; inflatable, portable and experimental architecture, this ignited their imagination regarding new ways to use Caledonian Park. There was freedom to choose what and how they wanted to draw. They made their choices after a brain storming session exploring all the urban elements where each child had an opportunity to express his or her idea for the future of this place (see the list on the following pages).

The leaflet was carefully designed to provide observation of the present, enabling children to think and express, in different ways, their opinion for the future of this place. Tasks such as writing a poem, a song, a story or just expressing ideas in a direct way are shown in the examples below.

We provided information about the history of the building, a space to draw the present, the future and also write about their proposals.

In that sense we therefore provided tools to accommodate all kinds of expression. Once it was completed, the exercise could be treated like a 3D component; folding the sheet created a tower.

We placed special emphasis on the children´s role as citizens with relevant points of view and ideas for the future of London, regardless of their young age. We aimed to teach them how architecture can improve a place.

PAST

PRESENT

FUTURE

After learning about present and past architecture, urban fauna and flora, transport and clean energy, take a moment to think and meditate: You are in charge of the future of this building. Draw how you want this area to be in the future. You can add the park, the neighborhood, yourself, your friends‌

PAST

PRESENT

FUTURE

The Cally Clock Tower first opened in 1855 (159 years ago) as the centrepiece of the former Metropolitan Cattle Market.

Draw the tower as you see it today. Is there any detail that you like or that you find interesting about the Caledonian Clock Tower?

Write about your design. You can describe it, write a poem, create a story involving you and the building or even write a song about it! Please,tell us about your design in your own way.

“The market is of immense size, but large as it is, it is insufficient to contain the animals sent up for the Christmas markets. In the centre is a clock tower, round which are the offices of the market clerk and other officials. On one side is the cattle-market, upon the other the sheep-pens.

The calves are for the most part under roofs with open sides, and the pigs have also their own portion of the market. The number of cattle and sheep sold here weekly is prodigious, and the arrangements are excellent both as regards regularity, and, as far as possible, the comfort of the animals” Charles Dickens’ Dictionary of London, 1879

Architectural Association 36, Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES Little Architect littlearchitect.aaschool.ac.uk AA Visiting School www.aaschool.ac.uk/visiting

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@AAlittlearchi Little Architect +44 (0)20 7887 4014

Source: Islington Museum

“The market is of immense size, but large as it is, it is insufficient to contain the animals sent up for the Christmas markets. In the centre is a clock tower, round which are the offices of the market clerk and other officials. On one side is the cattle-market, upon the other the sheep-pens. The calves are for the most part under roofs with open sides, and the pigs have also their own portion of themarket. The number of cattle and sheep sold here weekly is prodigious, and the arrangements are excellent both as regards regularity, and, as far as possible, the comfort of the animals�

Charles Dickens’ Dictionary of London, 1879

Santa Caterina Market, Barcelona before renovation

Santa Caterina Market after renovation - EMBT Arquitectes

Children learning how architecture evolves

Archigram - Instant City 1969

Archigram Instant City. 1969

Jiakun Architects ‘With The Wind’ Hong Kong 2013

Jiakun Architects ‘With The Wind’..

Hong Kong 2013

Children learning how utopian ideas can be manifested into reality

(Archigram 1969 - Jiakun Architects 2013 - Caledonian Clock Tower 2014 - ?)

Haus Rucker Co. Installation for Documenta 1971.

Oasis 7 Kassel.Germany

Haus-Rucker-Co. Installation for Documenta 1971. Oasis 7, Kassel Germany

Childrens Collage based on the Haus-Rucker-Co example

Ideas for the near future Children’s ideas summary

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The Coffee shop Many children, 17 in total, suggested a coffee shop. This was the most popular new addition to the clock tower. They thought that parents and children needed a place to relax and keep warm during the winter months. We found one child had written “...so people can come here”. They knew that adding spaces with a particular purpose such a coffee shop, will bring more people to the area.

They wanted a Cafe and shops to buy hot drinks, food, snacks, ice creams and fruit. Some of them

suggested a restaurant linking to the cafe. There was also a child suggesting to open a gift shop and another one who wanted a toy shop.

They considered shopping an activity to attract people to the clock tower.

The Cinema Some children, seven of them, suggested a room to be used as a cinema, they also suggested placing it at the top of the clock tower, or a proper new cinema in the park or nearby.

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Future Library at the top - Liam

Future Proposal - Muntaha

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The (Little) Farm They wanted a farm. They wanted to get up close to the animals, like horses, pigs, cows and sheep.

We believed the history of the place may have inspired them: the old cattle market.

Football Pitches There were six children asking for a football site, there was one incredibly mature boy who wrote that pitches could encourage young people to be more sporty. He stated that having a real clock tower football team could bring new opportunities for local children. Another child wrote about the idea of having Arsenal Football Club funding the tower´s new playground. That could be a great idea for the fundraising team.

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“Activities” Hall (Community rooms) They wanted a place to celebrate birthdays, to set up an art club and to practice gymnastics. They also wanted a stage for performance. This was something also drawn and written during the family event (parents included) on the following day.

Library + Museum We had a couple of children who wanted a museum; one of them wanted the museum to be all about the clock tower. They also wanted a library at the clock tower to be able to read. During the workshops they found the rooms comfortable enough to spend time there, despite the cold. Many of them were using adjectives such as: nice, great or cool to describe the building.

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Future Proposal - Rosulat

Swimming Pool + Water fountains The children love water, we found swimming pools and water fountains* in several pieces of writing.

Water fountains to play with cups but also to drink water.

” The New Playground + Fun Fair They liked a bouncy castle, bouncy donuts, slides, swings, a mirror maze (three of them!) a place for Ice skating, a theme park and a fair. There was a boy who wanted to transform the park into an enjoyable meeting point for a “new night life”

Generally, there is a lack of drinking fountains in public parks in London. A very sustainable idea in order to avoid plastic bottles is to display fountains as part of the new scheme. Puddles and small swimming pools should be considered to improve the long summer holidays for the local children.

They already have a playground nearby but they wanted more active games. Something to consider for the new project could be a seasonal or temporary playground.

(*) We also found a chocolate fountain

Toilets Highly demanded. It was something that we found in nearly every comment.

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Flowers in the Garden There were three children who wanted more flowers in the park. There was a girl who wrote a poem involving a big flower in the tower and a “shop with ice creams called pop”. More trees were also demanded in some of the drawings.

Hospital There was a child who wanted to have a hospital by the clock tower. A hospital is too ambitious but the idea of having a place related to health, physical activity and first aid assistance should be highly considered.

The Airport, the Tube and Bus Station.

We found two drawings with airports on the rooftop of the clock tower. This idea must be considered as part of the utopian proposals, but the tube and bus stations were a very straightforward idea from a boy who wanted to increase the number of visitors to the park in the future. He thinks easy access to transport is key.

Flats (more housing) Two children wanted more places to live nearby.

There was one boy in particular who spoke in first person when describing the features of the future park but then mentioned that “We” want a house, regarding the need his family had for new accommodation.

“I am walking, walking, walking through the park Yeah!. I am going, going, going in the clock, clock, clock, clock tower, Yeh, Yeh, Yoh, Yeh!” “The Song”

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Other Ideas: Astronomic Observatory A viewing point to look at the stars from the rooftop.

Secret Bat Cave We believed this was possibly a reference to the urban fauna which could have inspired this child Scooters & Bikes Park | Information point Tennis court | Another Tower

” New colours One boy had asked for new colours in the building.

He would have liked it better in blue, green or turquoise and he also wanted “rock lions” on the decorative globes. He wrote in a very direct way to the parks authorities, finishing his sentence with an emphasise on “please!!”

The Song Encouraged by our leaflet, there was one girl who decided to write a song. Through her song, she was able to express some of her ideas, one of them being that she was excited and happy at being able to visit the building.

Utopian proposals Not many children had proposed utopian projects but still, we found some incredibly creative designs.

“The Bride Tower” was just one of the ambitious projects, another consisted of bridges linking the existing tower with another building built close by.

We also found one design with slides coming from the top of the tower, plus another that showed bouncy mushrooms on the grass to create shade in summer. We encouraged the children to open their minds and make proposals with no restrictions.

We explained that their ideas today could be very valuable for the unknown future.

Future Proposal - Ethan

The Urban Proposal.

There was one child who designed the whole urban plan for the area. The design shown his ideas to make the park a more lively place. He considered issues such as better transport links, more culture, leisure, sport and commercial opportunities. This boy in particular had attended our lessons during the school workshop then came back on Saturday with his parents to the Family Event to explore some more proposals.

Future Proposal in progress - Ethan

Parents joining in on the proposal

Future Caledonian Clock Tower

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Future Proposal - Tahsin

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“A place where nobody has been, with lots of cool things and places that nobody has seen”

January 2015

Little Architect Director Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido AA Visiting School Director Christopher Pierce Workshop Contributors Catarina Sampaio Cruz Laura Lim Sam Sorina Ana Siddall

London Borough of Islington Heritage Service & Greenspace Service workshop contributors: Chris Hariades Cheryl Smith Rebecca Campbell Alison Porter