Archimake’s informal learning workshops introduced children to sustainable architectural design. The work related to the school curriculum through developing the childrens art and drawing skills and their understanding of physics and sustainability. The outputs were drawings showing passive house principles and internal heat gains in a building. The children then drew proposals for sustainable refugee housing. These designs resulted in successful group models. By the end of the term children understood that it is possible to have a warm home without conventional heating.

Category: One-off activity - children / COMMENDATION

The Soho kids xmas lights project had inclusion at its core. 130 pupils from a local school explored the built environment and the role that lighting can play within it. They researched local Soho buildings, communities, cultures and traditions to understand the role light plays within each of these elements, and to explore how feelings of identity and a sense of place from the areas inhabited are created. Pupils used their findings to investigate how different forms of light can alter the architecture of neighborhoods, and our own sense of place, and to create lighting designs that celebrate their local neighborhood and personal feelings of identity to be displayed in the streets of Soho.

Category: One-off activity - children / COMMENDATION

Forest of Imagination is a contemporary arts and architecture event in its tenth year co-created with Andrew Grant, Grant Associates and Peter Clegg, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, alongside Bath Spa University, House of Imagination and others. It reimagines a familiar space to inspire everyone's creativity and heighten a sense of nature in an urban environment. In 2022, an installation ‘the Living Tree Mirror Maze’ integrated action research with local schools to elicit children's ideas.

Category: one-off activity - children / WINNER

The project helped the local Reading community allowing some 450 children to connect with architecture, engineering, and railway history. The broad approach of the project helped the children to think critically and creatively about their own communities and enhanced their learning journey outside the classroom.

Additionally, the touring exhibition brought to a wider audience awareness of how children can learn through architecture and the public space which surrounds them and what they can achieve with simple materials

Category: One-off activity - children / COMMENDATION

Build Studios’ Built Envionment Careers programme aims to provide secondary age children (Y7 and Y10) with an introduction through a six week programme of presentations, practical tasks and visits from professionals in the sector. It aims to increase understanding by young people of the vast range of careers available and where to find further information. It is designed to empower teachers to deliver broad ranging and inspiring careers enrichment activity in a classroom setting. 205 pupils completed interactive careers sessions over two years.

Category: Long term programme - children

The key aim of this pilot project was to get master planning, planning, design and community empowerment into the classroom. The tool for doing this was through providing materials, challenges and opportunities for teachers in a way that would be attractive to students, culminating in a competition for the best submissions and achieving recognition from the Mayor of London and George Clarke, architect and TV presenter. Over 1000 students were able to attend over the course of the three events.

Category: Long term programme - children / COMMENDATION

Sculpture in the City (SITC) is an annual urban sculpture park, set amongst the architectural landmarks of the City's insurance district. Every summer, the City of London, in partnership with local businesses, unveils a selection of public artworks by internationally acclaimed and emerging artists activating public spaces and enriching the cultural offer of the area. Every year Urban Learners' deliver the SITC education programme, where 200 children from 9 local state schools benefit from participating in their exploratory and creative learning activities that support the Art and Design National Curriculum.

Category: Long term programme - children / WINNER

This partnership project between AHMM, RIBA and inclusive theatre Chickenshed explored whether RIBA’s HQ building could be made accessible, inclusive and welcoming to ALL in the twentieth first century?’ This project commissioned Chickenshed students to explore this through research and performance, providing a response to share with HQ refurb architects Benedetti Architects to inform their design.

Category: One off activity - youth

Full Circle @ Docklands strive to enhance life opportunities for young people. In 2020 they appointed Askew Cavanna Architects for the re- design of their youth centre. Their aim was to co-design the refurbishment with the young people from the outset. They wanted to empower them to lead the conversation on what the building should represent, how it could be used and what it should look like. The project architect was also keen to break down preconceptions of who an architect could be, being a black woman.

Category: One-off activity - youth / WINNER

The project aimed to test youth engagement approaches to increase young people's participation in the city-making process and demonstrate the value of lived experience through the qualitative collection of first-hand stories based on urban observations. Engaging 16-20 year olds from diverse ethnic backgrounds in London, each of the resulting urban stories took a unique format such as poetry, creative writing, photos, mental maps, that allow new ways of listening and inclusion.

Category: one-off activity - youth

We Rise is an award winning Lambeth based social enterprise with a mission to empower young people to create successful futures. Engage the Future was a work experience project where the outcome was to create a piece of work in the same way that a consultancy would do in the real world of work. The format of the ‘Engage the Future’ project was a short film capturing a design engagement process with young people that was researched and created in just 5 days by a group of seven 13-19 year olds from South London with the support of architects and a filmmaker.

Category: One off activity - youth / COMMENDATION

This collaboration with The Kingston Academy is a successful initiative that encapsulates how businesses can make a difference for young members of their communities by mentoring them and giving them a voice on local regeneration matters. Co-designing with WRAP, 16 students had the opportunity to visit the site, take pictures and notes, explore ideas with sketches and develop the initial concept for the competition entry. The students presented their ideas to the Jury panel from RBKuT and members of the GLA. The Jury selected the project as the winner primarily because local young people had designed the submission.

Category: One off activity - youth / COMMENDATION

Shape My City is a talent accelerator programme for 15-18 year olds that seeks to change the future workforce across the built environment. Students from Bristol schools are recruited, prioritising under-represented groups. A module is co-designed with each partner organisation and a variety of experiences are programmed throughout the year including site visits, design challenges, visits to inspirations buildings & places. By By working with their peers, educators, university student volunteers and sector professionals, young people developed increased self-esteem, skills in sculpting and communicating their needs and experiences, and grew confidence in working with and speaking out to their peers and communities.

Category: Long term youth programme / COMMENDATION

David Miller Architects devised a unique work experience programme to bring diversity, digital skills and innovation into both the practice and the wider sector, recognising that YP were the solution. 20 placements were made each year, on a 5-day programme using a real client brief and structured to follow the design delivery process. Each YP is given training to research/analyse the brief and learns to use Revit software. They are guided to create workable designs, considering the impact of materials, sustainability and off-site construction methods. Finally, they create a design report and present their project to a “client”/DMA Director for feedback.

Category: Long term youth programme

Accelerate by Open City is a well established annual outreach education and mentoring programme which champions diversity and inclusion in the built environment industries. A 9-month programme for 16-18 year olds from underrepresented backgrounds in London who have expressed an interest in a career in architecture or a related field, it delivers 12 workshops and facilitates mentor partnerships with architecture practices across London and hosts a public exhibition.

Category: Long term youth programme / WINNER

Estate Endz is SPID’s award-winning North Kensington youth program of free workshops to improve the prospects of 13–25-year-olds with lived experience of housing injustice by giving them the heritage and arts skills to create events celebrating estates’ living history and challenging stereotypes surrounding social housing. Termly blocks are themed on dramatizing the history of social housing, everyday life on the estates, and architectural design. Key learning activities are facilitated by relevant professional bodies and experts to help develop research skills and access artefacts, interviewing and questioning, film making and editing, storyboarding, script writing, oral history making and editing, design skills, drawing plans, model making and exhibition design. The young people’s work is showcased every 6 months.

Category: Long term youth programme / COMMENDATION

My Place is an initiative that empowers local young people aged 13-18 from an estate in Finsbury Park to be researchers, advocates and leaders for the diverse communities they represent, and support them to build a positive future for their place and their community. A paid group of ‘pioneers; underwent 2 weeks of intensive training in the various methods of citizen research and received mentorship from PhD students. The pioneers were also taught to recognise the value of their lived experience. Through the remaining Summer weeks, the Pioneers applied these skills to undertake research in Finsbury Park and worked with the Local Neighbourhood Forum, Councillors and Developers to co-create solutions to the concerns raised by the public.

Category: Youth community engagement

Recognising the open character of Claridge Way, London, and in response to conversations with the youth club, JKA proposed a set of exercise equipment distributed along the path ensuring that play opportunities feel open, safe, and do not become dominated by a single social group. The brief for this strategy of the Common Plan was strongly informed by the input of Hawksmoor Youth Hub members. They observed that, for both social activity and play, concentrated and enclosed spaces can quickly start to feel exclusive or even threatening.

Category: Youth community engagement / Commendation

Urban Symbiotics led a team that included Fabrik, Quota heritage and worked with the poet Lewis Buxtonwere to prepare a Masterplan for Swaffham, part of a High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ). Their objective was to ensure that young people were a focus instead of being excluded which often happens when discussing heritage assets. They gained quantitative data through demographic data, statistics and youth participation levels, and qualitative data through conversations with key youth leaders, teachers and community partnerships. They mapped youth spaces and activities, which indicated a need for more open space and youth-dedicated areas and facilities. Safety, pride and wellbeing were identified issues. They responded by designing various engagement methods from interactive activities, playful events, surveys, targeted focus groups and more comprehensive workshops to cover all genders, age ranges, literacy and abilities.

Category: Youth community engagement / WINNER

WR-AP’s collaboration with The Kingston Academy (TKA) for the The Kingston Riverside regeneration project is a successful initiative that encapsulates how businesses can make a difference for young members of their communities by mentoring them and giving them a voice on local regeneration matters. 16 students, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, participated in an architectural competition. Co-designing with WRAP, the students had the opportunity to visit the site, take pictures and notes, explore ideas with sketches and develop the initial concept for the competition entry. WRAP were facilitators and the students led the design thinking process. For the final interview for the project the students presented their ideas to the Jury panel from RBKuT, local representatives, and members of the GLA. The Jury selected the project as the winner primarily because local young people had designed the submission.

Category: Youth community engagement

The Architectural Thinking School for Children in Belarus created a project centred around conflict arising from the war in Ukraine. They worked with a group of Russian and Ukrainian refugees in Portugal, developing a special interdisciplinary educational programme for children of these families, with the partial and imperceptible involvement of their parents

Category: Diversity in action / WINNER

CLTH engaged with the Newham Virtual School mid-pandemic for two eight week workshops for participants from the school. Leaving the care system and getting a first accommodation is a difficult transition point for many. This programme explored how participants can best inhabit and look after their flats, most of them having recently moved into new accommodation. The young people were taught how to measure a room in their flat and subsequently draw scaled plans and elevations. They studied the existing qualities of their room, including materials, colours, textures, and light. This was then made into propositional drawings focusing on individual participant’s ideas and needs.

Category: Diversity in action / WINNER

MATT+FIONA is a child-centred build project - a collaborative venture between architect Matthew Springett and educator Fiona MacDonald. Phoenix School is a school for young people with autism in Bow, east London. MATT+FIONA has partnered with the school’s Art & Design and Design & Technology departments, led by Amanda Benson and Paula Farley, over many years. The aim has been to give the students ownership and agency over their school environment and to shape it through co-design and co-fabrication to better suit their various sensory needs. The most ambitious collaboration was for a semi-permanent play space on the school’s meanwhile site. This had additional complexities of being on a site managed by a third party provider & requiring planning.

Category: Diversity in Action / COMMENDATION

Mountford Growing Community is a resident led community organisation. It responds to a situation where many youth clubs have closed and local young people don’t have the spaces to meet - whilst the architectural industry lacks the diversity of their community. Taking a learning by doing approach, this project took a group of local underrepresented young people from a council estate in Hackney, London to explore how to reinvigorate the community hall. It introduced them to architectural skills while working alongside professionals and building portfolios.

Category: Diversity in action

Design Lab is an architecture education programme that sees local creatives paired with secondary school students in Galway. Partnering with grassroots architecture organisation Matt + Fiona in its development, Architecture at the Edge set out to spark a curiosity about the built environment though constructive teaching, playing and making, building confidence in creative thinking and cultivating young people’s essential skills in making which are lacking in the current curriculum. The framework consists of an introduction, followed by three 3 hour workshops and culminating in a large scale build. The program is in the students hands.

Category: School collaborations / COMMENDATION

Category sponsored by ADP

In the Let’s Dance project, Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (GCSP) reached out to 60 Year 5 & 6 children from a local primary school in a deprived area in Cambridge. The project aimed to ensure they have genuine input into public art design in Cambridge Science Park. It enabled children to work with their peers, teachers, architects, artists and Officers collaboratively to make a real difference to the quality of their built environment through public art that incorporates their design ideas. The LED public art Latent Façade is designed by artist Jason Bruges and the children’s drawings are reflected in the LED patterns.

Category: School collaborations

Category sponsored by ADP

The Common Plan for Claridge Way realises a moment in an ongoing dialogue between residents and local institutions as they take increasing ownership of their public spaces. JKA worked closely with secondary and primary school classes, a local gardening group, assembled a multi- generational virtual reality group to generate the elements of a spatial brief. They used physical modelling to generate ideas for play and leisure that couldappeal to older siblings, parents and grandparents too. A scale model helped students map the movements and territories of different groups on the site and generated ideas for negotiating any perceived conflicts. A bulb and tree-planting exercise established a convivial mood where people shared frank views on the challenges with community.

Category: School collaborations / WINNER

Category sponsored by ADP

LOOK DRAW BUILD @ Reading Station is a learning programme which was delivered during April-July 2022 to 9 Primary Schools across Reading. It used the transport terminal of Reading Station to inspire some 450 KS2 students, giving them the opportunity to connect with their built environment and explore how a train station works; Develop their design and modelling skills; Understand about sustainability, accessibility, and safety in the railways; Become interested in STEM careers. The touring exhibition brought to a wider audience awareness of how children can learn through architecture and the public space which surrounds them and what they can achieve with simple materials.

Category: School collaborations

Category sponsored by ADP

MATT+FIONA is a child-centred build project - a collaborative venture between architect Matthew Springett and educator Fiona MacDonald. Phoenix School is a school for young people with autism in Bow, east London. MATT+FIONA has partnered with the school’s Art & Design and Design & Technology departments, led by Amanda Benson and Paula Farley, over many years. The aim has been to give the students ownership and agency over their school environment and to shape it through co-design and co-fabrication to better suit their various sensory needs. The most ambitious collaboration was for a semi-permanent play space on the school’s meanwhile site. This had additional complexities of being on a site managed by a third party provider & requiring planning.

Category: School collaborations

Category sponsored by ADP

A programme delivered for the Grimshaw Foundation. In response to the climate crisis and how sustainable designs can lessen future impact, their brief was to explore Grimshaw’s and other practices’ innovative buildings, to create and deliver engaging learning resources that integrate with the KS3 National Curriculum. The programme was delivered over 6 sessions, in school, visits to exemplar buildings and Grimshaw’s (with volunteers) covering ways architecture can provide for sustainable future living locally and globally. All teachers agreed the sessions raised awareness and ambition for potential career pathways into architecture and creative industries.

Category: School collaborations

Category sponsored by ADP

The LSE Cities Apprenticeship Programme in City Design is is an exploration into alternative ways to work and engage with young people and what this means for a university and for a developer. The Apprentices are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, paid a living wage and come from London Borough of Brent to learn through practice at the LSE. Their methodology is also helping to shape 5 public space projects at Wembley Park and undertaken by the developer Quintain.

Category: Further education/ Higher Education / COMMENDATION

The historic built environment requires skills for it's maintenance and repair. The Foundation has awarded scholarships to 6 outstanding craftspeople within the built environment for a 12-month programme of learning and training in heritage skills. The craftspeople are young to mid-career and are trained across Northern Ireland (UK) and the Republic of Ireland. There is cross-border capacity building, young craftspeople in the buildings sector being trained as heritage craftspeople and immersed in the holistic elements of the heritage sector. There is an emphasis on craft, on place, on heritage and on training the next generation.

Category: Further Education/Higher Education

The PlanBEE initiative was launched in 2013 when Gateshead College and Ryder Architecture formed an alliance with a network of architects, designers, contractors and engineering specialists. Together they developed a flexible training programme designed to attract and retain the brightest new talent in the region. PlanBEE gives students the chance to work across several companies and therefore gain a more rounded understanding of the built environment industry. The programme delivers practical and relevant industry skills that provides an introduction into the built environment.

Category: Further education/higher education / WINNER

Arkki, the School of Architecture for Children and Youth, was founded in 1993. During the worldwide Covid quarantines, they supported children and families in lockdown by launching a selection of free hands-on architecture projects to promote curiosity, imagination, and creativity. Using recyclable materials, children could explore a set of inspirational photos of architecture, a small quiz related to architecture, and a section with information for the parents about the aims and HOT skills that the pupils practice while realising the project.

Category: Online resources

CLIMANIA: The Climate Action Game is an engagement, educational and discussion tool aimed at informing the public of the role of the built environment in the climate emergency – specifically focusing on urban planning and retrofit. The game is free to download, print and play from: https://climaniathegame.com/play-climania/. Young people from Balsall Heath, Birmingham co-created the ideas, focus, rules and name of the game. Through the game output, the project engaged with at least 100 young people locally via intergenerational Community Game events and was downloaded more than 1,000 times from more than 60 countries across the world.

Category: Online resources / COMMENDATION

During Covid lockdowns, DMA wanted to continue providing meaningful work experience for disadvantaged young people (YP) to help them access architectural career opportunities. Their long-term programme enables social mobility for YP whilst bringing diversity and innovation into our profession. The challenge was to replicate in-person work experience so that the YP can learn skills, use industry software and interact with office teams. Using technology together with individual mentoring, DMA’s VDA offered a unique and engaging initiative for the YP. they provided 40 work experience opportunities in 27 months, supporting their career interests and future university and job applications.

Category: Online resources / WINNER

Forest of Imagination is a contemporary arts and architecture event in its tenth year. It reimagines a familiar space to inspire everyone's creativity and heighten a sense of nature in an urban environment. In 2022, an installation ‘the Living Tree Mirror Maze’ integrated action research with local schools to elicit children's ideas. The research was interdisciplinary and co-produced with an emphasis on creative processes and critical making as research – thinking through making in a live creative ‘classroom’ environment, co-designing a creative installation that invites pedagogical innovation. They co-created the answers to research questions alongside children and young people, using multi-modal documentation.

Category: Research / COMMENDATION

The research was interdisciplinary and co-produced with an emphasis on creative processes and critical making as research – thinking through making in a live creative ‘classroom’ environment, co-designing a creative installation that invites pedagogical innovation. We co-created the answers to our research questions alongside children and young people, using multi-modal documentation.

Category: Research

Özlemnur Ataol’s Ph.D. thesis aims to contextualize a roadmap towards comprehensive rethinking of cities from a child-focused point of view through participatory urban planning with children. addresses the research question, ‘How can children and their caregivers be better supported in the creation of child-focused urban environments in Istanbul through participatory planning?’ The thesis adopts a critical approach utilizing a comprehensive range of qualitative methods: systematic literature review, policy review, participatory methods, such as questionnaires, mapping with caregivers and artwork-elicitation via online interviews with school-age children.

Category: Research

As part of a programme to improve Chingford Mount town centre, ZCD Architect’s project aims to deliver participative research to identify how Chingford Mount can become more child friendly, focusing on the needs of children and young people who are regularly overlooked. The children and young people engaged analysed the town centre themselves, carrying out extensive survey work and testing different ways of reviewing and discussing space and place. Research findings provided a set of recommendations for the local authority and a pilot upon which to base future town centre research.

Category: Research / WINNER

Meridian Water is Enfield Council’s £6bn regeneration project seeking to bring forward 10,000 homes and 6,000 jobs benefitting local communities. A lack of qualified workforce and limited understanding of the opportunities available for local people within the construction sector has a direct impact on the delivery of Meridian Water. As part of their Skills & Employment Strategy, Enfield and Vistry Partnerships are working together to deliver inspiring experiences alongside training and employment pathways for young people. This includes :Young Makers at Building Bloqs – Young people from the West Lea Special Educational Needs School have been encouraged to experience the UK’s biggest open access makerspace, observing and interacting with woodworkers, metal fabricators, cabinet makers, and learning about traditional methods alongside Computer Aided Design.

Category: Social value / COMMENDATION

Category sponsored by The Centre for the Built Environment

Freehaus were appointed by Haringey Council, to oversee the transformation of a high street retail unit into a youth space in the centre of Wood Green. They worked with a group of young people aged between 14-17, known as the Wood Green Young Voices, to understand their concerns about their local area. A significant number of young people in Haringey are made vulnerable to involvement in youth violence and Wood Green, and where Rising Green is sited has consistently high counts of youth related violence.A cohort of 25 dedicated young people over 20 months, took part in a focused co-design programme, framed by an ambition for each young person to be afforded the opportunity to share authorship of a youth centre that will drive changes to their community and the provision of youth services.

Category: Social value / WINNER

Category sponsored by The Centre for the Built Environment

In the Let’s Dance project, Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (GCSP) reached out to 60 Year 5 & 6 children from a local primary school in a deprived area in Cambridge. The project aimed to ensure they have genuine input into public art design in Cambridge Science Park. It enabled children to work with their peers, teachers, architects, artists and Officers collaboratively to make a real difference to the quality of their built environment through public art that incorporates their design ideas. The LED public art Latent Façade is designed by artist Jason Bruges and the children’s drawings are reflected in the LED patterns.

Category: Social value

Category sponsored by The Centre for the Built Environment

As part of a programme to improve Chingford Mount town centre, ZCD Architect’s project aims to deliver participative research to identify how Chingford Mount can become more child friendly, focusing on the needs of children and young people who are regularly overlooked. The children and young people engaged analysed the town centre themselves, carrying out extensive survey work and testing different ways of reviewing and discussing space and place. Research findings provided a set of recommendations for the local authority and a pilot upon which to base future town centre research.

Category: Social value