St Angela's, Cork and O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects

Students at St Angela's College, Cork are in for a particular treat with their ASFL project: architects O'Donnell + Tuomey are designing an extension for their school, and A Space for Learning is an opportunity to get the students' input in the design. Here are some drawings and photos from the group's sessions in school as well as their architectural walk in Cork city.

Sacred Heart Clonakilty and Margaret Walsh

Architect Margaret Walsh of Mike Shanahan & Associates has been busy with the students of Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty. Art Department Coordinator Judy O'Connell is in the thick of it too, as they all work together on the design & analysis challenges. Interviews, drawings, ballot boxes, photography, measuring, walkabouts and internet research are just some of the methods they've used to develop their ideas for A Space for Learning.

St Joseph's, Fairview with Aine Nic an Riogh & Monika Olanrewaju

Things are looking colourful at St Joseph's, as students finalise their ideas with architects Aine Nic an Riogh and Monika Olanrewaju.
See their work on the St Joseph's blog

East Glendalough School, Wicklow & DMOD Architects

Students from East Glendalough School have been busy examining and re-thinking some key areas of their school. Check out the work they've been doing with Michael Bassett of DMOD on their blog

Our Lady of Lourdes, New Ross and Isabel Barros

Ideas are flowing fast from the students of Our Lady's in New Ross, Co Wexford, working with architect Isabel Barros.
Check out their albums of drawings and photographs:
Latest design album 
New Ross architecture concepts

Pobalscoil Rosmini, Drumcondra and Patrick Hunt and Adrian King

Architects Patrick Hunt and Adrian King are working with Pobalscoil Rosmini in Drumcondra, Dublin. Here's what they have to say about the project so far:

"We have been visiting the T.Y. students on a regular basis and have undertaken a number of small architectural projects with them, including a space for contemplation and a live-work conglolerate for a small community. We also took the students to see Liam Mc Cormick’s Our Lady of Delours Chapel in Glasnevin and divided the students into small groups making observations and sketches about threshold, structure volume and light.

We have posted up some of the student’s sketches which we find evocative and can take some inspiration from. One is an abstract idea about the relationship between landscape and the classroom exploring the connection between space and nature. The other sketch is a section through a house for 50 people and shows a student’s idea about what this might include. Through this exercise we were able to highlight shared and private spaces within a building and where these overlapping spaces might occur.

These exercises highlighted the love affair modern students have with technology. Play stations, nintendo DS and all manner of electronic media featured in the majority of the drawings produced. Even when asked to consider the quality and character of the spaces themselves, students still tended to design a place for their machines. From these observations we have noticed the effects that this technological obsession is having on the student understanding of the world around them. We feel it is important to remake the lost connections between nature, growth, play and learning."

-Patrick Hunt and Adrian King

St. Paul's College Raheny and Robert Bourke

Students from St. Paul's College Raheny have spent the last two weeks doing an analysis of their existing school with architect Robert Bourke. They're tracking progress on the St Paul's blog - Keep an eye out for their upcoming design ideas.

Alexandra College and Minka McInerney

Architect Minka McInerney and the TY students of Alexandra College are using the Consensus Design process to design a space for contemplation on the school grounds. The Consensus Design process what evolved by the British architect Christopher Day from the idea of social inclusion in the decision-making process, allowing all those involved to have their say.

The students have been spending time in their chosen site on the school campus to record physical characteristics as well as the mood and atmosphere of the site, and some of their sketches and mood impressions are above. They've also been researching the site's history, studying the school's history and historical maps.

Up until now, the group has purposely not spoken about how the finished work will look - only about how the feel about the site as it is, and how they would like it to feel when it's complete. Their design should "grow" from this work organically. It's an interesting approach, and one we're excited to see the results of!

Gorey Community School and Winkens Architecture

The Transition Year students at Gorey Community School are working on A Space for Learning with Zeno Winkens of Winkens Architecture. The group has decided to look at how their own school environment can be improved, focussing on the school reception area. To have a look at what their doing, visit their project blog here:

Sligo Grammar School and architects James Siggins and Sile Stewart

Sligo Grammar School have a number of teams working with a number of architects. This group, working with James Siggins and Sile Stewart, seem to be making a lot of progress with sketches and models - looking forward to seeing how it develops!

St Benildus College Kilmacud and Ciaran O'Brien

The Transitition Year students at St Benildus College in Dublin have been meeting with architect Ciaran O'Brien to discuss their project. If they enjoy architecture as much as they enjoyed those biscuits, I think they're going to get a lot from A Space for Learning :)

Dundalk Grammar School: brainstorming

The students at Dundalk Grammar School have been brainstorming with Ryan and Eoin from idir architecture. Take a look at some of their inspirations over on their blog :)

St Kilian's Deutsche Schule Clonskeagh and Simon Keogh

Architect Simon Keogh is working with St Kilian's Deutsche Schule in Clonskeagh in Dublin, and they seem to get generating some interesting ideas so far... looking forward to seeing more from them!

Sutton Park School and Studio Red Architects

Sutton Park School students have created Sutton Park blog to help pool their ideas as a class and organise themselves. Their collaboration with Grainne Dunne & Nicola Ryan of Studio Red is cooking up a storm of ideas.

Dundalk Grammar School and idir architecture

A Space for Learning is well under way at Dundalk Grammar School, and students there are collaborating with Ryan Hamill and Eoin McElroy of idir architecture. Visit their learning spaces blog to see what they've been up to so far.