The Glasgow School of Art

MATT + FIONA BUILD

Title: Taking Control

http://mattandfiona.org

How many young people look around them and feel that they have a say in what they see? MATT+FIONA is a collaborative venture between architect Matthew Springett and educator Fiona MacDonald which responds to this question. We ask young people how their built environment might be improved and empower them to bring that vision to life. Each project has a clear pathway: briefing, design and build, with the children and young people at the centre of every stage.

Prior to establishing MATT+FIONA, we met and worked together in various capacities through outreach programmes at Open-City and the RIBA, opening children's eyes to the possibilities of architecture, mainly through model making. We realised our ambition could be amplified following Matthew's experience with the trailblazing Beam Camp in New Hampshire. His idea for a rowing boat which moved a constellation of stars in the treetops, based on the book Light is like Water by Gabriel Garcia Márquez won their annual design competition for a design which 88 teenagers could build over three weeks. He saw at first hand the raised aspirations and confidence that working collaboratively and being given the responsibility and skills to use real tools and processes gave the young people.