St Benedict's Pupils Scoop Prestigious Architecture Awards

Published on isbi School News dated Wednesday 11th of January 2012

Ben Medlam and Pablo Wheldon, Year 10 pupils at St Benedict's School, Ealing were presented with Architecture awards at a prestigious ceremony at the Cowcross Gallery on Tuesday 13th December, hosted by Open City. Ben won the Key Stage 4 Model Making Architecture in Secondary Schools Award, while Pablo won the KS4 Imaginative Design Award.

Open City has been delivering architecture education programmes for over 10 years and works with 3,000 young people a year. They offer direct experience of contemporary architecture and provide a starting point for developing design skills and awareness of the built environment, together with creative workshops.

The process started in September, when Ben and Pablo decided to redesign the St Benedict's Parish centre, giving it a more contemporary aesthetic look. They researched contemporary architecture as well as visiting the Broadgate Tower and then began their design through card modelling and Google sketch up. Grimshaw Architects helped the students finalise their designs before they embarked on producing a final model made from foam board.

Ben was delighted with his prize. 'I now have a fantastic opportunity to spend a day in an architect's modelling workshop.' Pablo was equally pleased. 'The hard work paid off. I want to study architecture at university and this was the perfect opportunity to get my foot in the door and pursue a career in architecture.'

Design and Technology teacher Charles Lethaby said, 'Architecture in schools has been one of the most rewarding initiatives I have introduced at St Benedict's, both for the pupils and myself. Ben and Pablo produced two exceptional projects and well above the quality that I and the judges expected from their category. The awards that they have won are extremely prestigious and recognised by the architectural industry as well as other design disciplines and are an achievement that will feature on their Curriculum Vitae for years to come.'