A competition for school pupils to design a house, using media of their choice, which attracted more than 400 entries from across the UK, has been won by school pupils in Aberdeen and Dundee. Architectural practice Halliday Fraser Munro, devised the competition as part of their online work experience portal, launched in place of the in-office work experience they usually offer to pupils. Entries were received from the length and breadth of the UK from Cambridge to Edinburgh and Darlington to Glasgow. Winners receive a gift voucher and a Halliday Fraser Munro architect will create their design as a 3D model on screen for them.
Fifteen year old Callum Grochla from Portlethen Academy, Aberdeenshire took first prize in the 13 – 17 year old category with his sleek, contemporary design for a modern house.
Murray Garness (12) of Monikie Primary School in Dundee takes first prize in the 8-12 category, with his whimsical deign for ‘an ever expanding house’.
Seven year old Camilla Kemp from Kingswells Primary in Aberdeen scoops the prize in the up to seven year old category for her Minecraft designed family home.
The judges at Halliday Fraser Munro were impressed by the diversity and maturity of the designs submitted and admit that selecting winners was a significant challenge.
David Halliday, managing director of Halliday Fraser Munro explains, “The quality of entries was excellent and ranged from tree houses to log cabins and Lego houses to cantilevered structures. We loved the creativity of the younger age group entries and were inspired by skills, spatial awareness and understanding of place of the secondary school pupils.
“It was a huge disappointment to us that we were unable to offer our usual programme of work experience for pupils considering a career in architecture and planning. The work experience portal was our way of making sure we could still offer support and encouragement to these young adults. It also gave us an opportunity to give younger pupils the chance to try out their design skills.”
Callum Grochla, winner of the 13 to 17 category said of his winning design, “I entered this competition as I was due to complete my work experience at this company and also because I really want to become an architect and have done for several years. First, I sketched it onto paper, then I made a basic floor plan. Next I made the floor plan on Minecraft , then created the house on Sketch Up. I learned a lot more about the way in which you design a house due to the competition.”
Twelve year old winner Murray Garness welcomed the opportunity to design his ‘ever expanding’ house saying, “This means a lot because I, and many other people, missed out half of our final year of primary, and doing fun things like this is what I will remember of my years at Primary School.”
Seven year old winner Camilla Kemp cited George Clark and his television programme ‘Old House, New Home’ as the inspiration for her design.
There are two runners up in each category who also win prizes:
13 – 17 years category
Danika Halai (17) Harrow College London, who designed a St James’ Park house with an underwater section and views of Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.
Sofia Coromoto Mejas Fernandez (17) Aberdeen Grammar, whose design was for a ‘tree house’ contemporary style home with an internal garden of trees.
8 – 12 years category
Layla Parsons (8) Edzell Primary, who designed a log cabin and then created a 3D model from bamboo, logs and leaves.
Teigan Farley (11) from Monikie Primary School Dundee, who create a ‘surface house’ sitting on water.
Up to seven years
Adam Barnett (7) Strathmartine Primary Dundee, who clad his structure in rainbow colours to support the NHS.
Katie Allan (7) Newmachar Primary who designed a Lego house complete with balcony and slide from the first floor to the garden.
“Although we’ve not been able to deliver our work experience this year,” says David Halliday. “I feel we’ve been able to give a meaningful introduction to the world of architecture and design to more pupils than ever this year. It’s a programme we aim to continue in coming years even when we are able to reintroduce office-based work experience.”
Although the competition has ended, the Halliday Fraser Munro work experience portal remains open for all ages of pupils. It can be found at workexperience.hfm.co.uk.
Halliday Fraser Munro is an award-winning firm offering architectural, urban design and masterplanning services along with a specialised planning consultancy team. It has offices in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Belfast. Further information is available at www.hfm.co.uk.
