On the 14th of March, we visited Ridgefield Primary School in Cambridge to introduce 30 year 5 students to some exciting careers in property development including architecture, project management, and landscape architecture.
This fantastic Railpen Project Day brought together individuals who are currently working on the brand-new Devonshire Gardens development in Cambridge.
Liam Ronan-Chlond ran the day along with Joel Colthart, Senior Project Manager at Socius, Anna Boldina, Senior Architectural Designer at R H Partnership Architects, and Nicola Longland, Landscape Architect at LDA Design.
The students began with a practical exercise, examining their school courtyard and describing what they liked about it and what they would change. This gave them an idea of how a landscape architect might look at an outdoor space.
In the classroom, they were then introduced to the Devonshire Gardens development. They were all given a bird’s-eye view plan of the site and were asked to fill it in with their ideas of what should be on the site, including, accommodation, office space, shops, playgrounds, and whatever else they could think of that they’d want to add.
There were some really interesting ideas on display, and to inspire them even more, they were given the chance to see how the development might look using a virtual tour which they could explore using a gaming controller.
Finally, the students learnt about play streets. This is something that will be included in the Devonshire Gardens development and will give children a safe space to play. Once they understood the concept, they were invited to the school playing field where they worked in teams to design their own play streets before presenting them.
Anna Boldina, Senior Architectural Designer at R H Partnership Architects
“It was great to have an active day with children. I hope many of them may become landscape architects, scientists, or architects. It’s great to give children more ideas of what they could be doing, and it’s fun to step in and tell them about our exciting jobs.”
Nicola Longland, Landscape Architect at LDA Design
“It’s been great to tell young people about what I do as a landscape architect. It’s so important because it’s bringing nature and people together in the environments we’re creating outside. Being able to share with young people that there’s this whole career avenue for them is really important to me. To be able to get them to share their ideas for what outdoor space could be is really rewarding and fun and it’s sparked more imagination for what I could be delivering in my designs.”