Architects in Residence participants come from varied backgrounds across the UK. They are all passionate about architecture and want to inspire and share their knowledge with teachers and students. To find out more about our architects, read the stories of past partners. 

Grant Erskine, Grant Erskine Architects

Grant Erskine is an architect and company
director of Grant Erskine Architects. Grant
worked with the teacher Neil Smith and Year 9 pupils from St. James’ Church of England School
on an exciting tall building project.

The aim of the project was to encourage students
to learn more about maths and architecture
through exploring heights and designing their own tall buildings. This was delivered in three 2-hour sessions.

Why did you decide to take part in
Architects in Residence project?

Our company ethos is to strive to achieve the diversity in work load to allow us to maintain a continued excitement and interest in all aspects
of the built environment. We aim to allow ourselves a percentage of our week for alternative activities, as part of our CPD and individual professional growth strategy. This includes projects like Architects in residence, Competition entry, lecturing at universities, editorial writing etc.

We believe that this allows us to bring more to our services and outputs than those who are just a 'production machine'.

What was your role in the project?

Designed workshops, liaised with staff, worked with students one on one and one on group, made presentations, answered questions.

What were the highlights of your involvement in this project?

In session 2, one student who was struggling to understand why we were doing what we were doing had a sudden epiphany. It went from 'Grant I don't see why we need to measure the distance to the building' to an exclamation by the student of 'the height of the building is the adjacent side'. You could actually see the shift to realisation and understanding on the students face.

I've always maintained that if a student understands as opposed to just learns, then that student will always remember. What better way to explain trigonometry than in a real life applicable context.

Matthew Lewis, 2020 Liverpool, Liverpool

 

Matthew Lewis is a Chartered RIBA Member who had previously worked in large commercial practices. He joined 2020 to be part of the Stockbridge Village Regeneration team which is
a 26 Million pound job in Knowsley. Before 2020 Liverpool he was involved in a lot of Health
Projects but started to undertake BSF Bid Project.

Matthew partnered with Whitby High School on a
10 week Architects in Residence project. The students were given the brief of designing a
series of homes based on a site in the Peel
Holding Wirral Waters scheme which has recently been in the pubic media. The brief took
inspiration from Borneo-Sporenburg, where Architects had to work within a specified volume
of site to create individual houses. The students
acted as the Architects but also the Client for each other by creating briefs to work from. The focus of the project was gaining an understanding of scale, shape and space, geometry and measurement.

Why did you decide to take part in Architects in Residence project?

I have an interest in teaching at all levels and wish to become a Part time tutor at some point in the future. Therefore I wish to gain any experience I can so the AiR project seemed a perfect platform. I also liked the fact it was all about engaging younger students which I thought would be a unique challenge.

How much time did you spend on the project?

The main project took place over Ten weeks, this was broken down into Architect led and teacher led sessions on alternate weeks. While at the school I took two classes at one hour each with two three hour sessions at the start and end with the two classes combined.

What were the highlights of your involvement in this project?

Most defiantly seeing the students succeed and achieve in the different tasks of the project. Even after their initial reservations they proved to themselves that they could do it better than they could have imagined.

What do you feel were the positive outcomes for the pupils and teaching staff?

For the students I believe its all about being inspired to achieve anything, for the staff its all about seeing am Architect from a non-teaching background view on how to undertake a project with students and their ability to engage and get the goals across.

Getting Involved

If you would would like to partner with teacher at a local school, please visit our Getting Involved| page and register your interest.