IMAGINE

Built Environment Education

The Imagine Programme

We are pleased to announce the first ever Imagine Awards Scheme for schools, teachers and built environment professionals.

The Imagine Programme celebrates teachers and built environment professionals who incorporate architecture and the wider built environment into education. 

Linking real-world places, problems and design thinking to classroom subjects can support children to connect with the world around them and engage with their environment, developing their creativity, critical thinking, curiosity and confidence across the curriculum and their daily lives.

We believe that, by gathering and sharing examples of inspiring practice, exploring creative teaching methods, and celebrating educators who are leading the way - we hope to inspire and support other teachers and collaborators to join in.

Creating small changes in education and building stronger partnerships between the built environment industry and schools can lead to long term impact, creating passionate and knowledgeable young people that care about the places they live, and develops their understanding of architecture and design. 

Imagine evolved from the 2023 Architecture into Education Awards, which celebrated innovative ways of incorporating architecture into the classroom and highlighted the collaborations and resources making a difference. Recognising that this passion needs to be embedded from a young age, Imagine has a focus on education from primary through to FE.

HOT OFF THE PRESS - PRIMARY TEACHERS RESOURCE - THINKING SPACE

  • Three years in the making and in collaboration with hundreds of people from acoss the country. THINKING SPACE is a series of free resources produced by MATT+FIONA to support primary school teachers to explore architecture and the built environment with their students.

    There are three topics:

    1. Exploring Our School

    2. Designing Through Model Making

    3. BIG BUILD

    Each one has a full set of teacher notes, a pupil-facing visual presentation and require minimal resources. For example the final lesson plan enables you to support your pupils to transform their whole classroom or playground with just a single ream of A3 paper and a roll of masking tape.

  • Why explore the built environment with your KS2 students?

    • Bring to life subjects across the curriculum

    • Introduce your class to careers across the built environment

    • Build teamwork & confidence in your class

    • Demonstrate the power of creativity to improve lives

Mission:

To engage children and young people with the built environment and support and equip teachers with innovative ways to incorporate architecture into school education.

Key Objectives:

1) Incorporate architecture, urban design and the built environment as a topic in the curriculum

2) Explore and gather innovative teaching methods and approaches

3) Build a supportive community of teachers who are passionate about delivering creative lessons

4) Nurture cross-sector collaboration between educators and built environment professionals

Programme Structure:

  • Teacher training: Practical workshops to help teachers incorporate architecture and the wider built environment into lessons. With examples, resources, and templates for adapting lessons and delivering engaging activities that bring subjects to life. Watch the recording.

  • Design competition: The Christina Smith Design Competition highlights projects that make a contemporary intervention into a heritage setting. This can be a past project or something new, related to topics across the curriculum. There is a cash prize for the winner.

  • Imagine Awards: The first ever awards celebrating teachers for incorporating architecture into their lessons. These awards shine a light on school-led projects - past and present - encouraging collaboration and inspiring others. There is a cash prize for the overall winner.

  • Network & Resources: A supportive network of teachers who are passionate about creative, place-based learning. A community where resources and lesson plans can be shared, as well as ideas, and encouragement, no matter where youʼre based.

Watch teacher training

Imagine’s Inaugural Partner is the Christina Smith Foundation

"The Christina Smith Foundation are proud to be named the inaugural partner of the Thornton Education Trust’s ‘Imagine’ programme. Christina was a passionate supporter of architectural education. She would be delighted by the ambition of this initiative in enabling future young creatives to take their first steps in understanding how they can shape the world around them."


 Deborah Saunt, Trustee, The Christina Smith Foundation and Founding Director, DSDHA