Design and Technology biophilic architecture project - St Andrew's College

Design and Technology biophilic architecture project

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Design and Technology biophilic architecture project

The Grade 10 D&T class recently enjoyed a beautiful day on Middle Beach at Kenton-on-Sea for their biophilic* architecture project. The pupils started their design process by doing their own primary research, taking photographs of plants around the D&T centre to use as their source of inspiration. From here, their imagination had to take over as their thinking becomes more abstract, by extracting valuable lines and shapes from each photograph which could then be used to create their architecture. Extractions were then merged or joined to make interesting shapes, forms and lines. From their merged drawings, learners chose two ideas to develop on the beach.
The purpose of the development is to look for opportunities to enhance, emphasize, improve, scale, or change a single idea three times. It is a process of elimination and exploration of what could be, and it is at this part of the process where the abstract thoughts must be channeled back to the real-life application as they consider the possible function of their building. The sand development is beneficial as it helps pupils to make the transition from 2D shapes and lines on paper to 3D forms and structures. They also get a sense of scale and proportion. Sand is easy to alter and move around, making it a great medium to explore various forms and possibilities of a single design.
*Biophilic design is a concept used within the building industry to increase occupant connectivity to the natural environment using direct nature, indirect nature, and space and place conditions. Used at both the building and city-scale, it is argued that this idea has health, environmental, and economic benefits for building occupants and urban environments, with few drawbacks. (Wikipedia)