Urban Learners

Wishing you all a wonderful festive and restful break. As the year comes to an end, we're reflecting on our work engaging with children, from ALL backgrounds, in the worlds of art, architecture and design (some of whom create our spinning snowflake) and we'd like to say a big thank you to our clients, partners and volunteers who make all this possible. We've enjoyed working with you all, we're looking forward to what 2025 has in store for us. Venetia Wolfenden Andy Costa Hannah Bergstrand

We're delighted to be a finalist for the TET (ThorntonEducationTrust) Inspire Future Generation Awards 2024 in four different categories . . . Performance Architecture Design - Youth Long Term Programme and Children Long Term Programme Awards Grimshaw Foundation and the Royal Albert Hall supported by Urban Learners Architecture for Change - Climate Change Award  Grimshaw Foundation supported by Urban Learners Urban Learners - Best Not-for Profit Organisation The #ifgawards recognise noteworthy initiatives and organisations empowering young people in the built environment. We work with several incredible, likeminded organisations and certainly wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them. It was a joy to work with Grimshaw Foundation and The Royal Albert Hall on Performance Architecture Design. This programme enabled 160 young people to come together, to be curious, problem solve and make. Teams of students designed and built 8 installations at the Royal Albert Hall. Architecture for Change with The Grimshaw Foundation, is a programme that empowered young people to address the most pressing issues of our time: climate change and waste, through the power of creativity. Discovering sustainable design ‘Building Sustainably’ and creating new spaces with recycled and waste materials ‘Recycled Room’. Urban Learners EMPOWER children and young people, especially those from diverse and under-represented communities, enhancing their ACCESS, SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE of architecture and creativity. Aiming to give them the tools and voice to engage in and advocated for a better built environment. A big shout out to our team, all the young people, teachers, volunteers, clients, partners and collaborators! Including The Grimshaw Foundation, Sculpture in the City Camden Highline Acland Burghley School It’s an honour to be recognised by the incredible expert panel of judges, and in such great company. Huge congratulations to all the finalists and thank you TET. Venetia Wolfenden Andy Costa Hannah Bergstrand #ifgawards #ifgawards2024 #childrenandarchitecture #workingwithyoungpeople #diversityandinclusion #creativelearning #STEAMlearning

The HALL for ALL _ THE BIG GIVE Students from Acland Burghley School are reaching out to their local community for support in their ambitious fundraising campaign to transform the iconic brutalist Assembly Hall into a world class community focused arts, culture and heritage venue in North London. The Hall for All is the home of the Museum of Brutalist Architecture (MoBA) created by Urban Learners. Starting TODAY and until 10th December, The Big Give has pledged to match every pound donated. Donations can be made through the Big Give Website The Museum of Brutalist Architecture _ MoBA. The #museum aims to amplify the value of the #heritage of #Brutalist Architecture and celebrate the #communities that live or work near or within them AND to share their #cultural and #community contributions and stories. Andy Costa Venetia Wolfenden Hannah Bergstrand Kat Miller hannah newman #MoBA #MusuemofBrutalistArchitecture #Culture #Heritage #Arts #love #design #concrete #architecture #brutalistarchitecture  #nationallotteryheritagefunding https://lnkd.in/e-TgnGwr

I N T E R P R E T I N G our C I T I E S We’ve been investigating FIVE locations around London with first year architecture students from Ravensbourne Architecture & IDEAs ✏️ 🏙️ The workshops explore, sketch and record places and buildings enhancing students observational and analysis skills. With a particular emphasis on ‘how buildings work’, students are encouraged to analyse materials, structure and impact. We are super inspired by the student’s individual and collaborative sketches and their interpretative model making too. Special thank you to all the buildings and locations and especially Ravensbourne University Architecture Department, Alberto Villanueva Galindo, Luke Murray, Hwei Fan Liang, and others. Workshop locations: #southwark #cityoflondon #boroughmarket #olympicpark #greenwichpeninsula #kingscross There were so many incredible buildings explored on these tours, too many to mention individually but ranged from high tech modernist masterpieces such as RSHP Lloyds of London building to Leadenhall Market, from Stirlings 1 Poultry to RPBW Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s Shard from Grimshaw Architects London Bridge Station to Heatherwick studio’s Coal Drops Yard. With special thanks to the teams at The Leadenhall Building and Argent LLP’s King's Cross N1C for supporting our tours. 📸 Photographs and interactive 🗺️maps by Urban Learners - Urban Learners are a not-for-profit #architecture, #art, #culture and #heritage #education organisation delivering bespoke, #creative and aspirational #learning experiences for #young people and #children #architecture #architectureinschools #creativelearning - Venetia Wolfenden Andy Costa

📣Calling all kids and their grown-ups . . . this Saturday 24th August! 📣 We will be running free children’s Sculpture in the City Tours to discover some of the sculptures in the 13th Edition, alongside exciting new places in the city!  We will be following the friendly🔥dragon’s 🔥blue trail! Which we designed alongside the very talented illustrator Danielle Rhoda. We will be running tours (starting at The Leadenhall Building at:  10:30 am / 12:00 pm / 2:00 pm/ 4:30 pm Follow this link to book your place https://lnkd.in/eYwujVVd! Sculpture in the City is a free outdoor exhibition in the City of London open until spring 2025. Delivered by City of London Corporation alongside LACUNA - Leading Cultural Studio. The SITC Family tours are kindly supported by activation partner EC BID and the City of London Corporation. #sculptureinthecity #activationprogramme #familyactivities #summeractivity #freefamilyactivities #publicart #sculpture #arttrail #sculpturetrail #creativelearning #kidsculpture #destinationcity #cityoflondon Stella Ioannou Venetia Wolfenden Andy Costa Hannah Bergstrand

Camden Highline in partnership with Urban Learners has launched a new series of FREE immersive, off-site education days, designed for KS2 and KS3 students. Funded by the The National Lottery Heritage Fund , these workshops are part of our exciting Tracking the Heritage initiative and will run from Sept 2024. Tracking the Heritage aims to bring #Camden's rich industrial history to life, making it both engaging and accessible for local students. These workshops, co-created with input from local young people, feature an interactive walking tour of Camden Town, followed by creative activities at Camden Collective. This initiative places the voices of the local community at the forefront, exploring Camden Town's storied past and its vibrant future. Don't miss out - SIGN UP YOUR CLASS ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY https://lnkd.in/e5Uhpczc Venetia Wolfenden Andy Costa

We at Urban Learners are so proud to have collaborated with The Grimshaw Foundation and Grimshaw architects to develop and deliver this incredible #art and #architecture programme at the Royal Albert Hall and of course to all the amazing people and organisations involved who helped us bring together 160 students from 8 schools culminating in the ‘Big Build’ day. Thanks to the incredible artists Anna Lapwood, Rhael 'LionHeart' Cape Hon FRIBA, Corey Baker and Jess Gillam and special thanks to Chloe Grimshaw and Kirsten Lees for being amazing advocates for the programme to provide young people the opportunity to #create #collaborate and #explore. Thank you from Venetia Wolfenden and Andy Costa and the whole team at Urban Learners.

Urban Learners director Andy Costa and Year 2 architecture, interior architecture and urban landscape students from Ravensbourne University London were on tour at King's Cross N1C last week. Our students explored and were inspired by incredible projects by design practices including WilkinsonEyre, Bell Phillips, Heatherwick studio, David Chipperfield Architects, Allies and Morrison, Bennetts Associates, Eric Parry Architects, Piercy&Company, Squire and Partners, Stanton Williams among many others. Kudos to Argent LLP for their vision _ can’t wait to see how the students interpret what they’ve seen. We are loving working with Ravensbourne University and the amazing staff Alberto Villanueva Galindo, Jerome Tsui, Derek Yates, Luke Murray, Hwei-Fan Liang. #architecture #architects #interiorarchitecture #landscape #urbanlandscape #urbandesign #urbanlearners COSTA + WOLF

Urban Learners are delighted to be collaborating with the Grimshaw Foundation and the Royal Albert Hall to develop a new programme — Performance. Architecture. Design. (PAD). Which brings together over 160 secondary school students from across London and the RAH's four Associate Artists - Rhael 'LionHeart' Cape Hon FRIBA, Anna Lapwood, Jess Gillam and Corey Baker.  At the heart of this project is a shared vision: to empower and inspire the next generation through the transformative power of creativity. Through exploring how the worlds of performance, architecture, and design work together to redefine spaces and experiences.  A jam packed day at the Royal Albert Hall launched the programme, providing an immersive introduction into how light, space, sound and movement can be manipulated to alter or enhance the design and experience of a performance. The year long programme involves 32 workshops across 8 schools and will culminate in a 'big build' project bringing all the schools together at the RAH. We are thrilled to be working as part of such a talented team to spark creative minds and inspire young people. Grimshaw Andy Costa Venetia Wolfenden Hannah Bergstrand  #UrbanLearners #Education #design #innovation #GrimshawFoundation #RoyalAlbertHall #Architecture #art #creativity #childrenandarchitecture #diversityandinclusion

Great to be part of this exciting project.