Pupils from Havering Village School get to grips with Minecraft
London schoolchildren have been using their gaming skills to test and improve the design of one of the capital’s biggest regeneration projects, as part of a scheme run by Wates Residential and Havering Council.
Fifteen pupils from Rainham Village Primary School, aged 10-11, spent a morning using Minecraft to explore and redesign the Napier House and New Plymouth House sites, which are being redeveloped.
Led by BlockBuilders, which imports map details into Minecraft so models of real-world places can be created, the children used avatars to walk and ‘fly’ around the site’s proposed designs, which have been developed by architects and masterplanners JTP.
The children were then given the chance to think about what they treasure most about the site, what they would discard and if they had any big ideas for improving the area.
The final part of the session gave the Year 5 and 6 pupils the opportunity to demolish and rebuild parts of the site through the Minecraft model.
The three-hour workshop saw pupils come up with ideas including a garden bridge, trampoline park, rooftop swimming pool, shopping mall and a water park, complete with showers and a ticket office.
One of the pupils, Hetty Brown, said: “It’s a really fun way of designing buildings that you might use when they’re built and you can see what it might be like to design things for a career when you’re older.”
The best ideas will now be considered for inclusion in the final scheme by joint venture partners Wates Residential and Havering Council. A video fly-through showing their ideas is also being produced.
The interactive workshop is part of the joint venture’s wider pledge to unlock meaningful opportunities for local residents and school children through the scheme, in response to reports from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) that the industry will need to find 157,000 new recruits by 2021 in order to keep up with demand.
The joint venture will see an overhaul of Havering’s existing council accommodation, with the council’s current stock of 856 homes replaced with around 3,000 homes of mixed tenure over the next 12 to 15 years.
Kate Ives, development director for Wates Residential, said: “Computer games like Minecraft provide a great opportunity for young people to experience some of the most exciting elements of construction and planning.
“Using innovative and engaging ways to encourage interest in career opportunities in the sector is vital for the success of the industry and a great way of inspiring young people to think about their own futures.
“We are really excited to review the best ideas with Havering Council and look at how we can use them on the scheme, which will deliver thousands of new homes for local people as well as a borough-wide lasting legacy.”
Rebecca Taylor, partner at JTP, added: “The use of Minecraft in our collaborative planning process has been an eye-opening learning experience.
“JTP understands the need to adapt and evolve our practices alongside our audiences. In effectively utilising Minecraft as a collaborative planning tool we can engage more young people in the process of designing responsive, inclusive and socially sustainable new neighbourhoods with a unique identity.”
