Architecture students at The Cass get the opportunity to build and learn more about working with natural construction materials.
Date: 4 December 2018
Every February, second year undergraduate Architecture BA students are given the chance to travel off-campus to Mudchute Park and Farm where, in groups, they engage in a 1:1 scale making workshop.
The workshop promotes creative and adaptive ways of working collaboratively with natural materials. Students learn skills needed in their future careers when working alongside structural engineers, materials suppliers and builders. Through the workshop students also learn to get to grips with handling natural construction materials, methods of material processing, and efficient ways of assembling structures.
James Lathams Ltd and Silva Timber, two UK based timber suppliers, kindly sponsored the Mudchute Workshop after the School of Architecture established links with industry to connect students to the same supply chain they will navigate once they graduate.
George Fereday, Technology Coordinator of Materials, Fabrication & Manufacture, runs the workshop and recently had an article featured in the Timber Trade Journal, focusing on Applied learning - the use of timber in architectural education through the Mudchute Workshop.
George said:
"Thanks to generosity and quality of the materials provided by James Latham, Silva Timber and other sponsors, our students gained valuable exposure to the same timber supply chain that they will navigate as professional Architects in practice. Most importantly, the materials sponsorship allowed our students to be ambitious with the scale of the timber structures they built and to explore the multiple uses of timber in the built environment. We look forward to collaborating with them again in the future."