When you've pounded the aisles at the BSEC exhibition, and sat through the speeches and seminars, what's a good way to get the creative juices flowing again? Visit the learners at Design My Learning Space.

By Bill Hicks

It was like stumbling on an oasis after trudging through a desert. We’d heard the politics, the pedagogy, the problems and the practicalities of building schools for the future, we’d examined the stands displaying furniture, flame-retardant materials and noise-absorbent flooring. Then we found the Design My Learning Space area at BSEC 2010 (Building Schools Exhibition and Conference). Real children were making real, wonderful, three-dimensional models of their own ideas for desirable learning spaces.

Looking closer you realised they were not all children – some of the young people   cutting up cardboard were in fact professional architects and designers, working with the children under a scheme run for BSEC by the architectural practice, Surface to Air.

The practice, which has an impressive back catalogue of working with schools and local authorities on BSF projects, both as architects and client design advisers, started out with the aim of matching young architects and designers with clients. This soon developed into a desire to bring the ideas of students into the BSF process at the earliest stage.

“To us, BSF seemed very top-down,” Surface to Air director Pascale Scheurer said. “We wanted to change that and make it bottom up.” She was also keen to amplify the dimension of sustainability in BSF design – and ‘green’ ideas feature in some of their most successful work with schools.

A school in Camden, for example, involved its 140-student  eco-committee as a direct result of their workshops. The children’s  eco-friendly design ideas were used to develop the BSF sustainability briefs for both the school and the wider borough.

The BSEC feature – supported by EC Harris,  the RIBA Young Practitioners Panel and Steljes – gave a glimpse of the sort of work Surface to Air facilitates all the time.

“We do a whole range of projects, from one-hour sessions to whole days or weeks, working with gifted and talented children, and in pupil referral units”,  Pascale added. “We work across all ages – from about eight upwards. The primary children’s ideas are often the best – they have amazing ideas.

"As architects we help find pragmatic and affordable ways to bring these ideas to life – teachers are often surprised at how much of the students’ work can be taken forward within BSF.”

Prizes were given each day of the show for the best children's designs – and an overall winner will feature in Building magazine.

How did the participating schools enjoy their time in the spotlight? “Thank you and the team so much for organising a really great day yesterday," Richard Dunne, headteacher of Ashley Primary School, Surrey, told Surface to Air. "There were some excellent, innovative and eco-friendly designs and it was so good for our children to be exposed to such a memorable experience. As you can imagine, they couldn’t stop talking and smiling all the way home.” 

More about Surface to Air:
www.surface-to-air.com