I attended the talk event at the RIBA discussing the project, Hackney School of Food by Surman Weston, for the “Building Stories – Celebrating the Stephen Lawrence Prize 2022 winner” talk on the 22nd of March. The project was awarded the annual prestigious Stephen Lawrence Prize, recognising the best project with a construction budget of less than £1 million.
The live event was hosted at the RIBA, by RIBA Role Model Satwinder Samra and had guests’ speakers from the founding Architects themselves, Tom Surman and Percy Weston, to Henry Dimbleby MBE, the founding partner of Hackney School of Food and the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation. The headmisstress of the school and the lead teacher at the food school who runs the lessons also sat down and talked through the impact the school has had on the children.
The talk was very insightful into the success of this kind of project involving children and food. For one, the building took over an existing caretaker house that was empty on the premise. The headteacher of the school spoke about that many vacant buildings exist on school premises, so to re-utilize this space brought the school to life. The project brought the community together during construction as they gathered volunteers from the area, teachers and those who were furloughed to dig up the overgrown garden, clear tree stumps and rejuvenate the land. “The heart and soul was given into the project” by the community says the headteacher which continued as it was built. A foundation of love was developed from the beginning, and the project is a reminder of the strong teamwork that was put into it.
“This truly noteworthy scheme provides a service unlike any other to the community; an inspiring place to teach children to grow, cook and eat food.”
RIBA
The project was an effort to tackle childhood obesity, especially in a deprived area such as Hackney. This motivation links with my project and demographic in Lewisham, Deptford tackling unhealthy eating and diets and it all starts with children. The ethos of growing, curating your own diet from fresh produce whilst teaching children in an interactive and positive environment directly correlates with my main project and aims. Seeing the success of this type of project strengthens the direction I want to advance in.
The project incorporates an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven, a mural outside which potentially I can add into my project as there is an abundance of graffiti and murals in Deptford that add colour to the area and a playful environment for the children at school where they could draw and be inspired. Utilizing the outdoor learning space, the architects covered the teaching and dining area with a canopy. This is a feature I should consider for my project and think about multi-use.
Surman weston decided to strip out all the walls and floors to create one big room, which meant they were working with half the square footage intended so they had to really consider functionality and each sq m of space. This is something to consider for my project as space is a restricting factor in my existing building, and problem solving is the way to go. By exposing the roof insulation and beams, it opens up the space and also educates the children on the make-up and history of the building. It allows them to become curious and think about the structure.
The cooking units are adjustable to accommodate all heights of children that attend the classes. There was an understanding from the lead teacher that the kids were more encouraged to eat the healthy food if they are growing it themselves. The growing beds also broke up in height, from front to the end of the garden so children of all ages could comfortably work at their own height.
Rainwater is collected at a agricultural bin from the roof where the children can collect this water source with their watering cans to water their produce. The teacher spoke about the kids surrounding the bin and having fun in taking part of this process of collecting and watering. It teaches kids about water conservation, re-cycling and the cycle of water. A watering system should be embedded into my project of some sort, and the method should be considered that is beneficial to the children’s learning and experience.
Overall, the affects of this project seemed transformative to the children’s behavior. It allowed them to show love to the landscape in creative lessons that influences everything that they do. They take this information and bring it into their daily lives and other lessons such as P.E., food tech, design and science. Generational teaching will extend further than the children themselves. This project has strengthened my project objective and importance it plays in Deptford.
References
RIBA (2023) Building stories – celebrating the stephen lawrence prize 2022 winner, Eventbrite. Available at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/building-stories-celebrating-the-stephen-lawrence-prize-2022-winner-tickets-539230381587 (Accessed: April 19, 2023).
Surman Weston (2020) Hackney School of Food, Surman Weston. Available at: http://surmanweston.com/projects/hackney-school-of-food/ (Accessed: April 19, 2023).
Hackney School of Food. Available at: https://www.hackneyschooloffood.com/ (Accessed: April 19, 2023).