Climate Demonstrator 2021

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In 2021 the Climate Demonstrator Summer School involved students from the School of Architecture and Cities and St John the Divine Primary School in Kennington. 

The brief was to design and build playground installations to demonstrate the science of buildings and their interaction with climate and biodiversity.  Students worked in teams, supported by mentors from local architectural practices, presenting their design ideas to 9-10 year-olds, then building the interactive playground installations for an open afternoon, attended by school pupils, parents and London Festival of Architecture visitors.  

Demonstrator instruments

Flooding in cities: showing the positive effect of planting in cities in reducing surface-water run off when compared with paved surfaces

Glacial ice melt: to demonstrate the impact of land-based glacial meltwater on sea levels. 

Greenhouse effect: explaining the impact of rising CO2 levels on atmospheric temperatures

Heat absorption: demonstrates the effect of a surfaces colour and reflectivity in absorbing light energy. 

Biodiversity in the playground: low benches invite close study of a simple grass patch. 

Participants 

Students: Yusuf Arfaan, Polina Bouli, Lloyd Butcher, Naciimo Cali, Paul Chung, Anissa Colaco Souza, Janka Docs, Hannah Dollond, Imran Haque, Sami Kassim, Jonathan Ma, Nausheen Mahmood, Harry Mellor, Izzu Mills Lyle, Pablo Pimentel. 

Project Manager: Alexandra Arad 

Tutors: Michael Spooner, Julian Williams  

Photography: Kareem Elshehawy