Broadway Malyan's work with Aylesford School has been recognised at the Thornton Education Trust's inaugral Architecture Into Education awards, winning 'Best Collaboration between Schools/Design Practices'.

Following on from its Reimagined Village report, that re-evaluates the traditional village and looks at how it needs to evolve to meet the changing needs of communities, Broadway Malyan worked with a year 4 class at Aylesford School in Warwick to design their own villages of the future.

Led by two of the practice’s senior urban design experts, the workshop saw groups of children assume the roles of different stakeholders before being asked to design a new settlement that responded to a range of potential real world scenarios facing society over the next 25 years.

The aim of the collaboration was to provide the children with the opportunity to explore important built environment themes such as sustainability, resilience and creating places that meet the needs of the whole community – while also encouraging them to push the boundaries of their imagination.

From Broadway Malyan’s perspective, it was an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the existing knowledge and aspirations of young people – who will ultimately be the residents of the future developments that are being designed – while providing them with a better understanding of the different job roles involved in the built environment sector as well as promoting key life skills such as teamwork and presenting.