We’re proud and excited to share our ongoing voluntary collaboration at Springfield Primary School as part of the national education initiative Climate Change All Change, which aims to introduce children to the transformative power of design in addressing the climate crisis and adapting to its effects.

Over the past five weeks, Architects Gina Windley, Harriet Francis and Jamie Potter have been teaching year five pupils about the crucial connection between the design of our built environment and climate change - what an architect does and how we as designers can help, and indeed have a responsibility to do so. We started with the children designing a room of a house and then moved on to modelling that house in groups. The following week, the children received a letter from the future - from Greta Thunberg - explaining the impact of climate extremes. In response, the children have been adapting their houses, responding to the climate scenarios of too wet, too cold and too hot.

We are now working on our collective streets for the future, responding to the same climate scenarios. We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and breadth of fantastic ideas that the pupils have come forward with, and look forward to the final outcomes as they continue to re-imagine housing in Sale with designs that are resilient and responsive to future weather extremes. We will then be taking these designs away to create our version of their prototype houses and streets for the future, to present back to these climate design heroes!