The uni architects plotting kids' greener tomorrow

Architecture students are using their skills to design and build an outdoor classroom for a city school's allotment plot.

Earlsdon Primary School, which opened in Coventry in 1890, uses the plot to teach pupils about science and horticulture, while its produce is included in school meals.

Now some Master of Architecture scholars at Coventry University have become involved in its project to create a shelter for teaching that would also protect pupils in wet or hot weather.

Postgraduate student Rosemary said: "It's exciting to be contributing to something real, especially a project that will be used for educational purposes in the community."

Rosemary has worked with young people through the church she attends and likes the idea of creating a space "specifically designed for children".

She was also excited to work on "a real-life project and not a theoretical or fictional" one.

Rotimi, one of the four post-graduate students involved, added: "The most valuable part of this project to me is the opportunity to contribute positively to the next generation in my own little way."

Philippa Skipp, an architect and teaching fellow at the university, said her department often worked with communities and this collaboration happened as part of its "critical investigations" module.

"I had an idea that it would be really interesting to get involved in prototyping and or building something maybe like a solar greenhouse," she said.

Course director Hossein Sadri suggested contacting allotments in the area to see whether there was interest.

Ms Skipp soon discovered the primary school, which had begun renting a community allotment on Beechwood Avenue, needed a shelter.

Although the plan is in its early stages, the school has permission to go ahead from Earlsdon Allotment Committee and the city council, and has begun fundraising for the project.

Efforts included raising about £2,000 during a "restaurant takeover" of establishment Millsy's for two nights, with pupils becoming chefs and cooking produce from the plot.

Deputy head Rebecca Bollands said the "learning shelter" would provide an indoor space for children's written work and data recordings, and to grow seedlings.

The school also wants to use it to hold more community events.

Earlsdon Primary, which has mainly hard playgrounds, had had the allotment for just over a year, Ms Bollands explained, but the plot had become "a really important part of our school life".

Children learn about science in a natural setting, with subjects including plants and life cycles, and growing food locally.

"There's so many benefits, particularly to the children's physical and mental well being," the teacher said.

"As children arrive at the allotments, suddenly they put being in a city centre [behind them], they put aside phones, iPads, devices, and they get to enjoy being outdoors in the fresh air, working as a team, growing the produce and learning about nature."

Gareth Owen, from the allotment committee, said the school was among a number of organisations and charities with which it worked; groups that gained benefits from gardening and being outdoors.

"The allotments are there for the community," he said.

The university students building the shelter had researched the allotments and school's history as part of their work, Ms Skipp explained.

They are hoping to be involved in building the shelter in the summer, with the structure opening in time for September.

Those taking the module next semester are expected to build on the others' ideas and help develop the design, which will utilize solar energy and include storage areas.

Ms Skipp believes experience such as working with a client and community will provide "incredibly valuable skills to learn very early in their career".

She added: "As an architect, it tends to be quite a few years before you are in a position where you have followed a project from beginning to end."

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