An educational community project which gave young people the opportunity to learn about the design professions by developing a design concept.
The winning design was taken from concept to competition in just six weeks. Three canopies created a performance and seating area, formed with spliced cantilevering plywood fins. Computational design tools were used for geometry and extracting key forces.
This rewarding project put the community, awareness of surroundings and environment at its core. During the codesign workshops, the young people had the opportunity to work with, learn, teach and be inspired by practicing engineers, architects and other design and creative professionals. The creativity of the young people in their design propositions was unbounded. Reuse and deconstruction were at the forefront of the young people’s considerations from the outset of the project, and skill sessions on sustainability and reuse took place.
Exposing young people to the challenges, rewards, and possibilities of the engineering profession should be a top priority but actually the project was mutually beneficial, as professionals had the opportunity to learn about the things that matter to young people.