Have you ever walked into a corporate foyer and felt as though you've stepped into a modern-day cathedral, with its grandeur either welcoming you or intimidating you? Now imagine that as a learning space for D&T...
Join Alison in this episode as she explores that potential connections between space, values, and D&T education. Reflecting on personal experiences and professional insights, Alison examines the impact physical environments could have on pupils' learning, from corporate offices to renowned museums.
Alison talks about how design choices communicate inclusivity or exclusivity, and how teachers can use these choices as learning points with pupils.
(Text generated by AI, edited by Alison Hardy)
Ciaran Ellis posted a thought-provoking question on LinkedIn recently: Do design decisions involve value judgements?
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Alison Hardy:
I really enjoyed the conversation with Alice and there's another one coming out shortly which is a follow-up from this conversation with Alice about the use of museums and artefacts and what they represent in terms of values. It really got me to thinking about my experiences as a teacher and taking children into non-school settings to look at design and I'm sure, like some people are listening, they've done school trips and we do them for all sorts of reasons. I remember this is going a long way back when I was doing my degree at Brunel University and we did a placement and they did it with a school's partnership company and it went very simplistically organising placements for children. But it was along the A4M4 corridor in London and I went with the gentleman I was shadowing into a number of different company houses, businesses that were really majestic I have to say quite majestic on the A4, and I remember walking in and saying actually you could just bring children to look at this and we could do a whole analysis of this space. I mean they were cathedral-like. Which is really interesting now when I look back is the way these buildings were creating this idea of a cathedral and majesty, so you would almost feel in awe and overpowered when you walked into these spaces and it would have been interesting to take children in for a number of different reasons. My first reason at that point was to inspire them to think about whether these were places that they could work in and be part of, which does link a little bit to the conversation that Alice and I were having around how space can be exclusive as well as inclusive. And, looking back, I wonder if I it was a simplistic view to take children into these spaces and think about how they could be there.
Alison Hardy:
But I think actually now, and reflecting on some of my maturity now in design and technology in terms of my experience and some of the conversations I've been having, most recently this one with Alice is thinking, if I took children into that space, what would I be thinking about and using that for as a point of teaching? And actually I think, looking at that as a space about how values are implicit in these spaces and they send out messages where people feel excluded or discomfort or part of it, just by and what they're trying to represent by the materials that they're using. So I remember these spaces. They felt like they were filled with marble, so there's an opulence, so that also really starts to indicate you either want to aspire to be part of that or you don't feel part of that because you're not comfortable in it and also it's very sterile. Marble is, in some ways, a very sterile material. We can think about using it in kitchens and bathrooms and what does that say about that space?
Alison Hardy:
I can imagine having those conversations with children to think about when they walk into a space, how do they feel and respond to it and what might that do to other people walking into that space. And what are the designers, the owners of that space trying to say to other people? Whether they know they're trying to say it and, by the way that space is presented, you're welcome here. You're not welcome here, don't sit here for long. We're giving you seats that are uncomfortable that you perch on, or we're giving you something comfortable, because then you are lower, you are sinking into that space, or we want you to feel relaxed.
Alison Hardy:
You know and you think about how Facebook and Google, you know, become known for their, for their spaces of creativity. What does that say about them? That, how space represents a culture and, I think, taking children into some of these non-traditional settings, these non-traditional learning spaces, like a foyer or like a museum, we can start to explore with them, beyond the artifacts that we're going to see if, when a museum, but just looking at the space, about what's been chosen, why it's been chosen, what it represents, how it makes them feel as a user because that's what they are if they're going into a museum space, but how might it feel to other people, and that then starts to build in them an empathy and awareness as well of how they're feeling, but an empathy for others in their group and others that are different to them coming into that space as well, and that might they might then take that into their own design work. So I think when we now, when we organise trips out into spaces, into alternative learning settings as simple as a foyer, as complex as the V&A you know, I know people have taken children abroad.
Alison Hardy:
I flew students up to Glasgow for the day to go and look at the Macintosh worked to kind of immerse them in that. But actually thinking about how they feel in that space gives them an understanding of designing for others and their values and how values can be embedded in spaces. I think just doing that adds to a richness for the curriculum that maybe his teachers. What I know I didn't always think about I did as I matured, I think, in the profession, and maybe now with these conversations with people like Alice, I'm thinking about that more. But so then, working that through and thinking about how different cultures are represented in design when we're going to places like the Design Museum, the V&A you know I took students to the Stillworths Museum up in Rotherham or said, the Glasgow School of Art and Places, how is culture represented? How are the children that you're taking into these places represented? Do they see themselves as part of that? But also getting them to think about how others are represented and then thinking about inclusivity when they're designing and how these exhibitions reflect or don't reflect the polarity of human experiences and different perspectives, and I think then taking that back into their design work and their design thinking would be really, really empowering beyond the exhibition, if that makes sense.
Alison Hardy:
So there we go, there's some deep food for thought. It really got me thinking, that conversation with Alice, and I hope it did you as well. There's another one coming out which we've pushed the boundaries, I think, even further and we're hoping to record a third but have another person as part of the conversation, ideally a practicing teacher who'll come and join that conversation and share their thoughts about how they are thinking about design education in museums and the decolonising of design education and ethics and values and how that's embedded in the curriculum. Anyway, thanks for listening. As ever, come back to me. If you've got any thoughts or opinions, or if you'd like to be the third person in the conversation with Alice, please do let me know.