Playscape Project Year 5 -
Michael Faraday Primary School

The project "Playscape" is about how a community can take ownership of its own environment. "Playscape" was instigated by The Faciltity architecture practice, in collaboration with Michael Faraday Primary School (MFPS), the local community and a multi-disciplinary design team including a dance tutor, Artist Howard Matthew and photographer Nilu Izardi. MFPS is located at the centre of the large inner city Aylesbury Estate. The population of both school and estate is multi-cultural and recognised as having high levels of social/economic deprivation. The Facility proposed a series of workshops aimed at helping the school to "re-discover" its own understanding of "play". The Facility gathered £10,000 from The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, SEBA, The Mercers Foundation and Burdens Ltd (builders merchants). Workshop 1 - Architectural tour/dance workshops titled "play" - Laban Dance Centre Deptford Workshop 2 - Dance workshops in the school playground reinvestigating "play" on-site. Workshop 3 - Model making/collage workshops Workshop 4 - Used children friendly materials to make a full size igloo, a whispering tunnel and a musical forest. Workshop 5 - Putting together the exhibition. Exhibition - a public exhibition of the project photographs, including a film where the children described and were inserted into their own models. This exhibition formed the basis of current playground designs.