The outdoor classroom with the brick fire pit as its central point was designed and built by our Year 1 BA (Hons) Architecture students in 2018.19 was shortlisted for the 2020 RIBA MacEwan Award. It was one of 11 shortlisted projects. The context of the outdoor learning environment was developed in collaboration with students from BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies and Education from the University of Plymouth.
The sophisticated design – which enabled the students to engage in various stages, from briefing, design to post-completion evaluation – is an ecologically strong and socioeconomically robust structure. The outdoor classroom follows the established ‘live projects’ structure where students form teams that model and propose a design concept design to the client. The winning design, chosen by the client, is then built by students. The outdoor learning space was constructed out of 130 recycled timber pellets.
