Year 7 visit The Building Centre

With a propelling trip to The Building Centre, the Design Future London team took their next steps in developing a sustainable plan for the future of South Croydon.

Design Future London is a regional competition organised by the Mayor of London that asks young people how they would like the future of their city to be so it works for everyone. With our chosen focus on South Croydon, the challenge has prompted us to make a site appraisal and think though the workings of our area (are our streetlights LEDs? How many different types of housing are there? Where can children and young people get together?). It’s also presented us with difficult decisions when we have to prioritise considerations such as increasing accessibility (e.g. wheelchair ramps and wide pavements) and clean air solutions (e.g. wind turbines) with other important things such as developing different types of housing and outdoor recreational spaces for all ages.

During our trip to The Building Centre, we took part in a range of workshops and discussed our ideas with architects and members of the London Planning Office. Our favourite workshops were a cardboard modelling one where we constructed models to make our ideas for Croydon come to life. This gave us visual ideas of what we were trying to achieve and the practice was similar to how designers would start off their work (such as how the Shard building in London was a model and now is a famous London tourist destination). We also enjoyed a City Bingo activity as this allowed us, as young people, to express our ideas on what we think more and less important for a city.

Participating in the Design Future London challenge has raised our awareness on the practicalities of a space. It’s taught us about the Global Goals and encouraged us to design inclusively and innovatively.

From members of our team:

“This is our and the next generation’s future city so we have to make it nice for them.”
Mahi, Year 7

“I feel really inspired and now that everyone can see what young people think it means that we have a chance of making South Croydon a place which everyone loves.”
Eshal, Year 7

We’re excited to complete our model and submit our competition entry to the London Planning Office in January, 2024!

Ms Jade Greaves
Teacher of 3D Design and Art