Written by:
Jake Stephenson-Bartley
Over the next 2 months, we will be working alongside two interns from Sheffield University who are enrolled on an internship programme called Transforming and Activating Places (TAP). TAP is a two year ‘student knowledge exchange’ project that brings together 140 students from under-represented backgrounds with organisations and businesses from Sheffield and across the UK for internships and projects with a focus on place and/or placemaking.
It is a project funded by Research England and the Office for Students and aims to facilitate a reciprocal exchange between students, who are studying in a broad range of degree courses not traditionally linked to design and placemaking, and the partnering organisations that are actively involved in transforming and activating places.
The two students will be working with The Glass-House team to help us develop a programme for our gaming workshop model, which we hope will include prototyping a new workshop model for families at the end of August.
We would like to warmly introduce Enrico Phillis and Vince Doyo and welcome them to The Glass-House team for this summer.
Enrico/Rico
I am in the final year of my undergraduate degree in Japanese language studies at the University of Sheffield, coming to an end in July. I have learned a lot of cultural studies during this time at University. I look forward to improving my interpersonal skills, learning from everybody involved, and contributing my knowledge and lived experiences to the program. I am a creative individual, and I believe this is something I can bring to the internship. I noticed there are so many opportunities where creativity and patience are required.
Through the TAP program, I got paired with The Glass House. I learned about their development of an educational program centred on empowering children through gaming design. Gaming is a hobby from which I have learned much about myself and others. As such, I entirely agree with the use of learning through gaming, and I have plans to teach and become a teacher in the future. This project is something I would have loved to experience as a kid. Overall, I’d like to help a project to continue making a difference to the broader community and exchange perspectives while learning from each other.
Vince
I recently graduated from the Accounting and Financial Management Programme at the University of Sheffield and joined The Glass House team through the Transforming and Activating Places (TAP) programme. While at the university, I enjoyed exploring how finances impact societies and day-to-day operations.
I am currently assisting in the Empowering Children Through Gaming Design programme. I aim to explore how concepts differ in digital and real-life contexts and how we can empower children through community-led design.
One of my main motivations for wanting to work with The Glass-House was the possibility of being introduced to new concepts from the team. I am excited to be able to share a unique perspective for our project; knowledge exchange is an integral part of development. I hope to challenge how I think and learn more about the universal language of design.
“I really think that since I have no clue, anything is possible.” – Frank Ocean.
The Glass-House
Through this collaboration, Vince and Enrico will put their own spin on our gaming workshop model, which was originally created to explore the role children can play in collaborative design, as well as creating a space to introduce children to architectural concepts, urban design, and principles of co-design through play. The approach seeks to explore how gaming can empower children as enablers of design conversations, to give them more agency in design conversations happening around the built environment.
Our interns will work with us to develop an outline programme design which will help us explore how we might formulate a more structured programme around this workshop model, and consider how we can make it as accessible and useful to as many communities as possible. An important part of this exploration will involve working with the young people who co-designed and co-facilitated the original version of this workshop with us, then aged 10 and 11, and consider the role that children and young people, as well as university students, can play in the design and delivery of a programme of workshops.
Throughout the internship, The Glass-House will be working with our interns to share our experience and learning in the areas of co-design, workshop and programme design, and facilitation.
At The Glass-House, we constantly try to iterate and innovate how we work with, and introduce co-design processes, so we are looking forward to Vince and Enrico further developing and iterating this initiative with their own thinking and knowledge bringing a fresh perspective informed by their diverse backgrounds and skills.