Design for Education 2009 was organised by the RIBA Young Practitioners Panel as a fun and collaborative way to explore design challenges in real schools with real clients.
The day brought together young architects and schools in a workshop to figure out how architects can create efficient, secure and inspirational spaces for students and teachers to work and learn in.
The Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime briefed a team of young architects to work with school students for a day to design some secure storage for possessions. That might have meant better lockers or a way for pupils to monitor their possessions wherever they are in the school. The team, called E/R/C/S, came up with a solution that’s both secure satchel and 21st century locker.
The team say the Klunk Klick locker bag offers:
- Security of high-value personal belongings
- Less clutter around lockers in corridors
- Mobility. Students can keep their stuff with them more easily
- Another part of the school uniform that becomes part of school culture
Sebastian Conran, member of the Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime says: ‘If you anticipate issues of crime when you are designing buildings you can deal with them sensitively. If you have to deal with them after the building is built you have to be quite brutal about the way you deal with it and you end up with barbed wire fences, CCTV cameras everywhere and you end up with something that looks like a prison. And what we don’t want are schools that look like prisons.’