I devised the event ‘Play+Design=Learn’ with my colleagues from Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, School of Design and Moray House School of Education as a process of learning for children while engaged in playful design activities. The event was organised as part of the Innovative Learning Week funded by the Institute for Academic Development, the University of Edinburgh.

The event took place at Lauriston campus of the Edinburgh College of Art where children were engaged in designing the courtyard at the heart of the campus. We planned a day of inter-related activities, including an ice-breaker craft activity, an accompanied walk-along audit of the college grounds, a re-design of the outdoor space using drawing and modelling, and plenty of group discussion and presentation.

This event provides the evidence that we can work with children more effectively to generate creative and effective design ideas. We worked with children of different age groups from 5 to 12 and based on our experiences we knew that children of different age groups engage in the design process in different ways. Therefore, we worked on how we can bring the best out of them and empower them through the process.

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You can find more about this project here.