Berthold Lubetkin, Bevin court & Little Architect AAVS

Who is Little Architect?

Little Architect is an education programme teaching architecture and the urban environment in primary schools, both in and outside London, led by the Architectural Association School of Architecture, a UK registered charity. We teach schoolchildren from Reception to Year 6 (aged 4 to 11) how to observe, understand and enjoy architecture, and to become active citizens in what we hope will be a more sustainable future. Our in-school workshops are delivered in partnership with the class teacher and embedded into the UK national curriculum. We help children achieve their learning targets through architecture and art, while the programme provides the opportunity for pupils to think and communicate about buildings and cities through drawing. We encourage children to create new, futuristic urban environments and to pay attention to the amazing world around them. We want to trigger a new relationship with contemporary architecture and its local surroundings, encouraging children to care for but also to be critical of the cities we all inhabit

Our Heritage Lottery Funded Project “Your future local area” Clerkenwell Parochial Primary School- Berthold Lubetkin&Bevin Court Summer Term 2016/2017 “Dynamic Heritage” We had the opportunity to teach about Bevin Court and Berthold Lubetkin. It was important for us to convey to children that the city is a constantly changing place, and as such as citizens of the city, they are able to change it for the better. Children realise that they are part of our future heritage therefore they are empowered now to improve their present and ready to engage with and care for their local area. Children learnt that their local area is rich in architecture from different periods in history but we made emphasis in the period just between the end of WWII and the late 50´s.

Active learning, our methodology incorporates walks, sketching journeys, research time in order to engage with the children and ignite an interest for their local heritage.

Learning through Games & Powering their imagination. Prior the last section of our project and after visiting Bevin Court building we presented several examples of contemporary and utopian buildings and introduce students to the importance of clean energy, urban walkability, encouraging the coexistence of other species with humans and buildings (urban ecosystems) we talked about the concept of urban farming, extensions, rehabilitation etc.

We created strong links with Science, History and Geography. One of our main objectives was to foster creativity: Incorporating the future in our lessons we open children´s minds to imagine their local area and heritage in their own way to develop a proactive attitude towards their city.

We are incredibly thankful to Sean McEleney, Year 5 teacher for his open attitude towards this project and for all the preparation and talks that he gave to his class prior our lessons, and to David Sulkin OBE, Ex Chair of Governors, because he put us in touch with John Allan ( expert in Lubetkin) and the rest of great contributors to the project.

Who was Berthold Lubetkin?

What did we learn during these architectural lessons?

-We learnt about B.Lubetkin architecture and social commitment.

-We discovered our local area and Lubetkin´s legacy.

-We learnt how to observe and pay attention to our built environment.

-We visited Bevin Court, an important British Heritage piece and drew its main features.

-We heard interesting stories from The Bevin Court residents association.

-We had an expert visiting us in class: John Allan. He has written Berthold Lubetkin biography and he let us know plenty of relevant facts about his social architecture. He gave us a signed copy of his book for the school library!

-We discovered the richness of our local area in terms of architecture.

-We designed temporary structures to be placed in the car park, a place where Lubetkin designed a nursery and a playground but sadly it never was built!

Julia Barclay, has lived in Bevin Court since she was a child, she is member of the residents association and spent the morning explaining to us the main features of the building, the mural painted by Peter Yates and some “secrets� about the bust placed by the main door. We are thankful to the rest of residents involved that fabulous day!

John Allan, architect, visited us and said a lecture about B. Lubetkin.

He highlighted our fabulous location in Clerkenwell because we can enjoy up to three buildings designed

by B.Lubetkin: Bevin Court, Finsbury Health Centre and Spa Green State in less than ten minutes walking from our school. How lucky we are!

Paul Thornton, chairman in the Amwell Society, visited our class and enjoyed our comments, drawings and ideas about architecture.

Our class, designed lots of different cinemas and fun fair attractions for the car park.

What about building a temporary Summer Cinema there?

What about installing kiosks and structures to buy food and have a picnic while watching the movie?

Our drawings and ideas for the Bevin Court car park will be sent to the Amwell Society Association and the Bevin Court residents association. They are delighted with our interest in this relevant piece of the local heritage. Little Architect will maintain conversations with them to try to implement our ideas and consider some of our designs for building temporary structures there.This project is just the beginning of our commitment with Clerkenwell Parochial local area!

YOU are a relevant part of the local area history!

Heritage Lottery Funded project in Clerkenwell Parochial Primary School

AA Visiting School

School Team: Sean McEleney, Year 5 School teacher & Urban Planner.

Mathew O´Brien, Clerkenwell P. Headteacher.

David Sulkin OBE, Ex-Chair of Governors.

Julia Barclay, Bevin Court resident, local guide.

John Allan. Architect, expert in B.Lubetkin.

Paul Thornton, Chairman of the Amwell Society.

T +44 (0)20 7887 4014 F +44 (0)20 7414 0782 Littlearchitec@aaschool.ac.uk Twitter: @AAlittlearchi Facebook: AA little Architect http://littlearchitect.aaschool.ac.uk/ visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk

Little Architect team:

AA School of Architecture 36 Bedford Square London WC1B 3ES

Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido, Architect & Little Architect Founder and Director.

Sofia Krimizi, Architect.

Little Architect Director: Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido AA Visiting School Director: Christopher Pierce