Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Carter.

And I'm gonna be guiding you through our lesson today on Belonging: a sense of place.

We're going to be looking at all of the aspects of what make us feel connected to where we live and thinking about the designers who create these spaces in today's lesson.

I'm gonna need you to be willing to do a little bit of hard thinking and to have a real try at everything and being really engaged.

And I'm sure we're gonna have fantastic learning, as well as some wonderful outcomes that we're gonna produce.

Let's get started.

In order to be able to do today's lesson really effectively, there are some keywords that we need to be comfortable using.

These are built environment, the human-made spaces around us that create our local environment, landmark, an important place or thing that is recognisable and stands out, such as buildings, artworks, natural features, that help people know where they are and what a place is known for.

I want you to think about it.

You can probably think of quite a few landmarks for your local area.

Structures, which are the built elements, such as buildings, streets, roads, parks, and bridges.

By the end of today's lesson, you're gonna be able to say, "I can design built environments that foster community, pride, and connection." Our lesson today has two learning cycles.

Firstly, we're going to be mapping structures that reflect our local community.

So it gives the opportunity to think about our local area and how we move through that space.

Then we're gonna move on to creating a landmark structure for our community, which is where we're actually gonna start to build what we think we need in our community.

Let's get started.

Mapping structures that reflect local community.

What is a built environment? These students are considering that and share, "Built suggests made by people, like buildings or roads." "Yes, and environment is the area or space around us." The built environment is the human-made structures and spaces around us, like buildings, streets, parks, and bridges.

I'm sure you can name many more.

Who designs these built environments? Decide in your mind what you think the correct answer is.

Lucas shares architects and urban planners from creative industries plan our built environments.

So check for understanding time.

What is the built environment? Is it a, animals and plants in the community? Is it b, human-made spaces and environments? Is it c, natural landscapes, like forests and oceans? Or is it d, the sky and weather patterns? Pause the video and decide which you think is the correct answer.

Well done if you said b, human-made spaces and environments.

Architects design built environments to serve the local community and create landmarks which reflect the local area and create a sense of pride by designing with an understanding of local culture and history, gaining community involvement, using local materials and techniques, promoting accessibility and inclusivity, and considering sustainability.

Okay, so another check for understanding.

What is missing from this list of ways that an architect designs a built environment to serve and reflect the local community to create a sense of pride? We've got designing with understanding of local culture and history, gaining community involvement, our gap, promoting accessibility and inclusivity, and considering sustainability.

Pause the video and decide what you think is missing from this list.

Well done.

How did you get on? Excellent work if you said using local materials and techniques.

This is a really important way for built environments to connect with the local area.

Izzy and Lucas have been discussing this further.

Izzy shares, "I thought that architects just designed one building." Lucas answers, "I think that's sometimes true, but buildings don't exist alone." "Ah, yes, they need to consider the area and its needs as well." "It's actually more complicated than I thought." I wonder if you were thinking a little bit like Lucas and Izzy and now are beginning to wonder about the wider space, or if you already knew that architects could be in charge of quite a large area, or have to take into consideration what is already there.

Architectural structures which reflect local history and communities include the Green River Park, or Capital Park, in Cairo, Egypt, which is designed to mirror the flow of the Nile, the V&A in Dundee, a museum in Scotland which reflects the city's rich history in shipbuilding and innovation, and the Casa de la Musica in Havana, Cuba, which is a venue designed to promote and celebrate Cuban music.

Do you know of any architectural structures that reflect your local community? A landmark is a recognisable structure.

It's often significant in a local area and serves as a point of reference or a symbol of the area.

These can include buildings, artworks, natural features like trees or rivers, human-made structures like bridges or roads.

Landmarks can create a sense of pride in a community.

What are important landmarks in your town? Okay, check for understanding.

Which of these is not a landmark? Is it a, a recognisable building, b, a public artwork, or c, a road sign? Pause the video and decide when you have the correct answer.

Well done if you said road sign.

Road signs aren't significant or recognisable enough to act as a landmark because they are intended to be seen in many places to get us around.

A landmark is specifically something that's quite unique and recognisable that we can orient ourselves around.

You might have an important building in your local area that you refer to when you're trying to navigate somewhere or possibly an artwork, like a sculpture or maybe a mural, that you can use to navigate where you're going.

Maps are a key tool to navigate an area.

Symbols are used to represent landmarks and other structures in those maps.

These hand-drawn maps show the use of symbols to identify the key landmarks in an area, such as train lines, rivers, and shops.

Can you see any other landmarks in these hand-drawn maps? What symbols and landmarks are used in this map? You can pause the video and decide what you think.

Try and look closely at what kind of symbols there are and what that might be trying to communicate with you.

Well done if you noticed the park, which has got a tree used as a symbol to show us where it is.

We've got houses which are just drawn as various cuboid shapes.

We've got a rail track, a crossing of some description, pedestrian crossing, the river, which has just been drawn as a nice thick blue line.

There's the post office.

Can you see why that post office is different to the buildings? What has been added? What does it look like? Well done if you recognised it.

It looks a little bit like an envelope.

What can we learn about an area from the symbols in a hand-drawn map? So these students have been sharing their ideas.

Sofia includes, "We can see a river and a bridge." So you can see that blue line running through and then that kind of arc that sits over the top of it to show where the bridge would be.

Andeep has included that he's noticed that there's a skate park, which is a little bit abstract.

It's that pink shape which is sort of made up of three connected circles, which I imagine is the shape of that skate park.

And Izzy's noticed there are quite a few buildings.

Can you see where there might be a tower block? Okay, so our first practise task of this lesson.

We're going to create maps using symbols to show significant landmarks and structures in your local area.

Firstly, I'd like you to discuss significant structures and locations.

So I want you to think about places that are significant to you, so your home or the homes of people that are important to you, where you meet with your friends or family, and places you go regularly.

Consider the structures in these places and what symbols you will use to represent them.

Pause the video and give yourself time to have this conversation with the people that you are with.

How did we get on? Did you find that actually once you started thinking about it, there are quite a few important structures to you and your local community? You may have said something a little bit like this.

So Aisha is sharing, "I often ride my BMX at the skate park and cycle over a bridge spanning the stream.

I'll create a skateboard as my symbol." And Alex added, "I use the top of a steep hill to indicate my route to swimming.

I will use the symbol of a mountain with arrows." What did you come up with for your symbols? Okay, so for our second task, I would like you to draw your map to show the significant structures and landmarks.

You need to aim to only take five minutes.

This is a quick task.

We're not looking for it to be really, really accurate.

And you would need to include your map routes, any key structures, and create your symbols to show those locations.

Add colour.

And pause the video so that you can create this work.

How did you get on? Did you find that you were actually able to map quite a lot of your local area quite quickly? You only had five minutes, but I imagine there's quite a lot of information you were able to include.

You may have created something that looks a little bit like this.

Sam shares, "I have been able to create a map using symbols in my town.

I've included landmarks like my home, school, and gymnastics, as well as structures of the roads." I'm impressed by how Sam's been able to do this with only including the word school.

Most of the information is actually through her use of symbols.

For our next part, a third part of this task, I'd like you to discuss as a group which significant structures and landmarks came up the most in your group.

Have you got some that everybody shares or a lot of people share or were there some that were quite unique to different individuals? Pause the video and have this discussion.

How did you get on? Did you find that a lot of you were noticing that the same structures are important to you? You might have said something like this.

Lucas shares that we noticed that the chip shop featured a lot in our maps.

We do meet there at the weekend.

Izzy added, "A lot of people had included the woods behind the school as we go through it to go home." Jun noticed, "I saw the railway track on the edge in quite a few maps as it runs along the edge of town." I wonder what structures have featured in your maps.

Okay, so we're moving on to looking at how we can create a landmark structure in our community.

Architects will research an area to discover what's already there and what's needed.

Positive aspects that exist and create connections may be there, but there might also be things which are missing which alienate community groups.

What do you think are positive parts of your local community? Pause the video and give yourself a little bit of time to think about this.

Are there any things that you feel need to change in your local built environment? Pause the video and consider this as well.

How does this structure connect or alienate communities? The image includes a series of staircases coming down the side of a hill.

Pause the video and decide how you think this might connect or alienate communities.

Sofia shares that these stairs look like they connect two areas, which might join two different communities together, or it might join, if you look in the back of the photo, there are some cars.

So maybe it connects from one activity or one location to another.

Andeep's noticed that without the ramp, anyone with a pram or mobility problems would have to find a different route.

You may have also noticed that there aren't, as far as we can see, any street lamps.

This might be a really useful route in the day but actually be an area that people feel alienated from once it gets dark.

Built environments can create a sense of connection through designing shared spaces, creating walkable neighbourhoods, mixing shops, homes, and recreational spaces, having inclusive design, green spaces and sustainability, public art and cultural spaces.

What do you think is the impact if these things are not included in a built environment? Pause the video and decide what you think.

Okay, check for understanding.

Which of the following is not a way built environments can foster a sense of connection? Is it a, inclusive design? Is it b, prioritising residential zones? Or is it c, walkable neighbourhoods? Pause the video and decide which you feel is the correct answer.

Well done if you said prioritising residential zones.

It's actually often a better way of creating connection if we mix residential shops and recreational spaces.

Architects think outside of the box to design new ways to create connection between communities by experimenting playfully with materials, building models both digitally and physically, taking inspiration from the local areas, like prominent shapes and textures found in the community.

Okay, so check for understanding.

So true or false, architects are very rigid in their ideas, creating designs which are the same as historical buildings.

Pause the video and let me know if you think that is true or false.

How did you get on? Yes, it's false.

Well done.

The reason for that is that architects need to think outside of the box and experiment playfully with materials, as well as taking inspiration from many wide and varied sources.

Now, that might include historical buildings in the area, but it's not exclusive.

Architects who employ materials playfully and look to the local area to develop ideas for their models and designs include Frank Gehry, who makes playful use of manipulated paper to inspire his designs, Shahed Saleem and Tosin Oshinowo, who take inspiration from the local area in their designs, Amanda Levete, Toyo Ito, and Dame Zaha Hadid, who all use organic shapes in their designs.

Okay, so moving on to our practise tasks.

We're going to be creating a landmark that would benefit your local community.

First step, I'd like you to reflect on your Task A map and discuss what you feel would improve your community's built environment.

You should aim to decide on a structure or a landmark which you will design to benefit your community.

Pause the video and have this conversation.

How did you get on? Did you find you had lots of ideas of things that could be done to improve the community? You may have said something like this.

Jacob shares, "We don't have a lot of places to go as teenagers.

I'd like to design a landmark which is a place for us to meet and hang out." So Task 2.

We're going to be inspired by a range of the architects that you've looked at and you're gonna manipulate materials playfully and quickly to create a range of structures and forms. Experiment with rolling, folding, twisting, scrunching, and scoring the materials you're using.

I suggest paper 'cause you'll have lots of ability to be quite flexible with that material.

Don't give yourself too long to do this.

I'd spend maybe 10 minutes really having a go at experimenting.

And I would say 10 minutes is the absolute max.

How did you get on? Did you find it really fun? Good.

So you might have made something that looks like this.

So Laura shares that she tried to use fluid forms like Dame Zaha Hadid.

And she thinks they've been successful.

She's also impressed with how many structures they made in five minutes and how different the shapes are.

Did you give yourself longer than five minutes? I imagine that might have started to make you think a little bit more about what you were doing rather than letting yourself be free.

Using that shorter timeframe means that you have to work quickly and you can't overthink what you're doing.

So into our third section, we're gonna discuss what this student's paper manipulation could be used as in the local community.

Have a look at the range of shapes and structures that have been produced and decide what you think it could be if it was going to be transformed into a built structure.

Pause the video and have your conversation.

Welcome back, how did you get on? Did you have lots to discuss? You might have noticed that the folding and rolling of the paper created an integrated stair and ramp or possibly a slide that might connect the local community.

You might have thought it looked like a slide in a waterpark.

The top part could be a viewing platform to look at the stars at night, with shaded areas underneath for the daytime.

Did you come up with lots of different ideas? So for our fourth section, initially I would like you to use materials playfully to create a landmark structure to benefit your local community.

You should take inspiration from your experiments and the architects that you've looked at.

Be open to all kinds of building shapes.

Think about the needs of your local area and what you said you wanted to create.

Pause the video and give yourself a little bit longer for this task so that you can really have a go at constructing your built landmark structure.

Pause the video here while you develop your landmark structure.

How did you get on? Were you able to construct what you'd envisaged or did you surprise yourself with coming up with something that was beyond what you'd had in your head? You may have created something like this.

And Andeep has said that he's created a community hall inspired by their local history.

I wonder if he works in an area that has a lot of history of textiles, 'cause his structure almost looks like a sewing machine.

Sofia says that she was inspired by the shape of the river in their town for a playpark.

What did you create? So you could extend this task further and develop your landmark structure into a community city.

If you did this, you could add additional features, like benches or playgrounds, or you could use your maps from Task A to create a layout.

It'll be lovely to see all of your work combined together if you have time for this.

Pause the video and see if you can have a go at this task.

Okay, and so for Task 5, I would like you to reflect and discuss your landmark structure, answering these two questions.

So firstly, how does your structure benefit the local community, and would you adapt anything if you made it again? Pause the video and answer those questions about your landmark structure.

How did you get on? You might have said something like this.

Lucas shares, "I spent time looking at which areas might be dark and could add cutouts and street lamps." I wonder if he was thinking about that staircase we saw earlier.

Jun adds, "I've already added rolled paper to create gentle ramps so that all parts of my design are accessible." That's really inclusive thinking.

In summary of our lesson, Belonging: a sense of place, we've covered an awful lot of ground.

And we know now that architects design built environments to serve the local community and create landmarks which reflect the local area and create a sense of pride.

Landmarks are important structures, but what is considered significant can vary between locals, visitors, and different communities and individuals.

I imagine what you've noted down as an important structure might not be the same as everyone else in your class.

Built environments can create a sense of connection or alienation.

Architects often think outside of the box to design new ways to create connections between communities, playing with materials to inspire interesting design.

Well done for all of your efforts today.

I'm so impressed with all your hard thinking and the wonderful different experimentations that you've produced.

I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson.