V&A Schools Webinar Live: Make-Along: Animal Architecture

Join architects, Jack Cardno and Finbar Charleson of Sylva Studio in this live Make-Along. Students will learn about the importance of design that considers nature and wildlife in the context of climate change, inspired by the display by organisation Climate Change All Change, Imagining Tomorrow. In the session, students will make simple but playful structures, then use drawing to transform them into exciting homes for their favourite animals. 
 
For this session, teachers will need to prepare the following materials per student in advance:

 

15-18 blunted cocktail sticks (if you don’t have cocktail sticks, alternatives could be golf pencils or paper straws cut in half - they should be approximately 8-10cm long.)

1 large ball of blu-tac or plasticine

1 pencil

A small selection of felt tip pens / coloured pencils

1 sheet of A4 paper

1 sheet of A4 card

5-10 twigs, vines (not more than 10-20cm)

5-10 fallen leaves

 

Please note, the quantities given above are per student - please multiply up according to your group size. Suggestion – why not set a class or home learning activity to collect twigs and fallen leaves for the session?

 
Once you register, you will receive further information about the session, including step by step slides showing you what the students will be making in the session. It will also include instructions on how to blunt the cocktail sticks for health & safety reasons.

Climate Change All Change is a charity established to introduce design within early learning as a crucial tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation. 
 
Sylva Studio was founded in 2021 by Finbar and Jack to combine diverse skills in architecture, furniture, landscape and ecology to offer research driven design for ambitious institutions and individuals. The studio is nomadic, seeing regenerative design as a global problem requiring local solutions.

The session will support the following components of the KS2 National Curriculum – 
 
 Science 
 Year 4 programme of study - Living things and their habitats: 
· recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things. 
 
Design & Technology 
Design 
· use research and develop design criteria to inform the design of innovative, functional, appealing products that are fit for purpose, aimed at particular individuals or groups 
· generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through discussion, annotated sketches, cross-sectional and exploded diagrams, prototypes, pattern pieces and computer-aided design

Please book using your schools email. Once booked, you will receive an automated email to confirm that we have received your booking. You will receive an email via V&A Schools Zoom with your joining link at least 1 day before the event. If you have any queries, please get in touch on schools@vam.ac.uk.