Our team of Elyssa, James and Graham from Fereday Pollard took a group of children from three classes at Julian’s Primary School in Streatham to Tate Modern on an ‘architective’ building exploration, with Open City Education. Outside the Tate we held a ‘spot the difference’ workshop where the children looked at the buildings around the Tate and compared them with Bankside Power Station and the historic context. We talked to them about ideas of accessibility, connectivity and sustainability.
Inside the Tate, we tried to identify the different materials used in its construction and how different people were using the space. At the Living Cities exhibition, we looked at Untitled (Ghardaïa) by Kader Attia, a large scale model of Ghardaïa in the M’zab Valley in Algeria, made entirely out of couscous. Inspired by this the children drew and talked about how the model made them feel, and they left full of exciting ideas to take into their own projects.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be heading into the classroom to deliver two workshops aimed at developing the children’s drawing and modelling skills, which will help them to visually express their ideas for ‘A Smarter City’.