Promotion: Hong Kong-based school My ArchiSchool has launched a course and competition that aim to teach children and young people about wooden architecture.
With an emphasis on digital design tools and 3D printing, MyArchiSchool offers teaching about the fundamentals of architectural design to kids between six and 17.
Students on the wooden architecture including Alexander Zhang Yong (top) and Albus Oscar Chung (above) made models
In the wooden architecture curriculum, pupils were encouraged to consider the implications for high-rise cities like Hong Kong of growing calls from sustainability campaigners for the construction industry to embrace timber as a building material.
"Students were asked to design and build a 'mockup' paper model of their own design idea for the selected building type, for example, a mini-city, or a hideaway house," said the school. "Then they build a wooden model of the same. The young designers started to design with different forms of building components, namely shading devices, main frame of structures, interior deckings, etcetera."
Zhang Yong used Rhino3D to develop a timber building model
The course required the children to think about the benefits of building with wood as well as the practical challenges, from joinery to issues such as maintenance, wind- and waterproofing and fire safety.
Digital modelling tools Rhino3D and Grasshopper are used to try out and test different possible approaches.
"Bit by bit, the young ...