Masterplanning Workshop

Masterplanning isn’t the first thing you would think of for a typical Easter break activity for the kids, but that’s exactly what we’ve been doing with students from local Havering schools and colleges at the Mercury Mall in Romford.

Working closely with our clients at the Mercury Mall for their very own Architecture Week, we set up an interactive 2-day workshop for local 11 – 19 year olds interested in finding out more about Architecture and Masterplanning. The workshop included interactive games, quizzes and the challenge of producing and presenting a masterplan for the carpark site next to the mall.

This was undeniably a big ask for students who perhaps hadn’t even heard of masterplanning before they arrived, but our students were able to pick up complex concepts like sustainable design, design at different scales and even SWOT analysis highlighting how ready most people are to absorb new information if presented in the right way. The biggest win from the event was probably from the discussion around climate change and sustainable lifestyles that the event sparked.

The success of the event reinforced the importance of involving young people in planning, as not only did they all leave with a better understanding of sustainable place making principles and plenty of enthusiasm for the often inaccessible world of architecture and masterplanning, they actually came up with some pretty good ideas! Read the local-press write-up below. E mail us at: info@wsms-studio.com if you would like us to run a workshop on architecture, masterplanning or sustainable design principles.