A A Visiting School Little Architect is an education and learning platform for teaching architecture in London’s primary schools, led by the Architectural Association School of Architecture.
Architecture surrounds us from birth and stays with us for our entire lives. How do we understand and enjoy the built environment and its complexity? The Little Architect teaches school children how to observe, understand and enjoy architecture and the built world to become part of a sustainable future. Our in-school projects and workshops are built around interesting, creative and fun cross-curricular activities for five to nine-year-olds. They provide an opportunity for students to think and communicate about buildings and cities through experimentation and drawing.
Lessons cover the statutory and non-statutory KS1 and KS2 curriculum: design and technology, citizenship, history, art and design, ICT, geography, science, social and health education.
Above: Cameron’s new cinema and police station with fantastical sun-shaped solar panels. Left: Gonzalo’s Skyline Crown maps a futuristic London of flying buses and cable cars arriving at a new rooftop aquarium.
The Little Architect is based on Projects and Workshops that can be tailored to specific learning levels. Through a variety of activities children will see that cities and buildings are fascinating places to observe and experience. Each activity is organised around one lesson that can be selected from our existing offering or designed to fit your school’s needs.
Projects (max 30 students) develop one of seven activities (see list overleaf) over three 90-minute visits to your school. Activities are directly related to architecture and sustainability and all tasks have been created especially for KS1 and KS2 students. These multi-day lessons allow students to deeply explore and question the topics addressed in class. Workshops (max 30 students) take place in one 90-minute school visit. Content is similar to the Project, but key concepts are covered in a shorter amount of time.
This page: David, 4, painting the town hall as an abstract tower of power. Left: Zoe’s new sponge system cleverly collects rain water through a bendy network of external pipes to avoid any household inconveniences.
All activities are designed to meet your school’s attainment targets by helping students develop communication, organisational and observational skills while working individually and in groups. Varied lessons will help students to socially and creatively develop while learning about architecture and sustainability. Any one of the following activities can be taught as a one-day workshop or as a more in-depth project:
Skyline Crown The class will learn about their urban environment through a variety of London landmarks, the city skyline and aerial views. Students will put this visual material into practice by creating and cutting out their own skyline drawing that communicates ideas about past and future cities.
Making Your Own Architecture Book Students will learn about architecture – from skyscrapers to caverns – and explore different kinds of houses and landmarks to make a book that presents the history and future of architecture using their own drawings.
Our Future Local Area Using collage techniques, students will become explorers who document existing neighbourhood buildings and invent new ones to create the local area of today and tomorrow.
Flying City Students will make a floating city by sticking their designs onto balloons, which will be released in the classroom. This in-flight environment will spark a class-wide discussion on the movement of the balloons (and real-life cities), and the different ways drawings and ideas mix together.
Future City Mural Working as a team of architects, engineers, biologists, gardeners, car designers, urban farmers and heritage experts the class will create a future city. Each student will decide what buildings and artefacts to design. This will then be pieced together to create a big mural.
City of a Thousand Pieces The class will work together as a team of architects, engineers, landscape designers, artists, biologists, farmers, museum directors, sport facilities managers and shop owners to design a city by drawing, cutting, folding and glueing together hundreds of paper scraps to create new buildings.
Rethinking Your School Students will take photos and make drawings of their school to encourage new ways of seeing their everyday space. After exploring and learning about materials, shapes, energy and colours, the class will ‘collage’ found images and their own drawings to redesign their class, playground, building – and maybe even their teachers.
Fees The basic programme fee for interested schools is £100 / 1.5 hour activity. We can also develop custom programmes and fees depending on your school’s needs. All activities include a visit from at least two DBS-certified A A tutors and all required materials. The Little Architect is part of the Visiting School at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Please visit the A A Visiting School website for further information on the Little Architect, including links to the microsite and examples of previous workshops.
A A Visiting School www.aaschool.ac.uk/visiting Visiting School Director Christopher Pierce A A School www.aaschool.ac.uk A A School Director Brett Steele @A ALittlearchi
Little Architect
To obtain further information or to speak with the Little Architect Director please contact: A A Little Architect littlearchitect.aaschool.ac.uk Little Architect Director Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido T +44 (0)20 7887 4014 F +44 (0)20 7414 0782 E littlearchitect@aaschool.ac.uk E visitingschool@aaschool.ac.uk
Previous page: Blanca’s shining future city collage with a ‘Bridge-Flying Bus Station’ powered by windmills. Right: Ines’s new apartment towers with colourful solar panels on the roof and tomatoes growing on the facade.
Little Architect littlearchitect.aaschool.ac.uk A A Visiting School www.aaschool.ac.uk /visiting A A School www.aaschool.ac.uk
Architectural Association, 36 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES. T +44 (0)20 7887 4000 F +44 (0)20 7414 0782 Produced by A A Print Studio Design: Claire McManus. Art Director: Zak Kyes Architectural Association (Inc), Registered charity No 311083. Company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No 171402. Registered office as above. A A Members wishing to request a large-print version of specific printed items can do so by contacting A A Reception +44 (0)20 7887 4000 / reception@aaschool.ac.uk or by accessing the A A website at www.aaschool.ac.uk