King Alfred School: Q&A with Michael Marriott

Most designers will tell you just how important their school lessons in Design and Technology (D&T) were, especially when it came to deciding to follow a creative career path. This is true of furniture designer Michael Marriott. The value he places on design education has led him to teach in many universities, but never before in a school. Until now…

In September 2017, Michael joined forces with Andrée Cooke, an expert in contemporary art and design, to revamp a neglected common room in King Alfred School in north London. But rather than wade in and do the job themselves, Michael and Andrée recruited 15 students aged between 12 and 14 to help get the job done. Through a series of hands-on weekly afternoon workshops, that were run by Michael, the pupils learnt how to use tools to reinvent reclaimed wood, recycled plastics and pieces of old furniture into an assortment of seating booths that now proudly sit along the length of the common room.

Below, Michael tells us more about the project.

The brief was to refurbish the school’s common room. What was the end result of the project?

We made a series of different sized seating booths along the length of the room.

How did students respond to the project?

I think they enjoyed it. It was different to normal D&T classes: the students got to realise something large scale and for general use,  something with a legacy that many pupils should be able to enjoy for many years.

The budget for the project was very minimal – how did you approach the redesign to make sure you came within budget?

The scheme I proposed was mainly to allow a maximum of student involvement in the making of the key components. We kept the budget under control by refurbishing some existing picnic tables, and using some timber from an ash tree that had been cut down on site the previous year.

Tell us about the format of the weekly workshops?

It started out with a couple of sessions establishing how the space might be used and what needed to change. Then a brief was formed. After that I proposed a solution that was designed with the students’ skill set in mind and then each week we did production.

What’s the value of this sort of hands-on learning in schools?

The pupils were able to see the value of teamwork and also gained an understanding of the production of things outside of a prototyping workshop scenario. They got some hands-on use of tools and gained experience of assembling and finishing things.

What were your own experiences of learning Design Technology at school? Do you think you would have benefitted from a project of this sort?

I was very lucky to have a really great D&T teacher who encouraged me and could see it was my thing. I definitely would have benefitted from a project like this, I think anyone would!

What skills did students develop as a result of the project?  

I’m hoping they understand the importance of measuring and its impact on everything else!

Working with children is notoriously unpredictable – did the project throw up any surprises?

It definitely had challenging moments, and it’s left me with a fuller understanding of the challenges of teaching school kids, as opposed to degree students (where I’ve have a fair bit of experience).

How do you think the sense of context – creating pieces for a space that they would benefit from every day – affected the students’ approach to the project? How important is it that students felt a sense of ownership?

It was really important for them. Throughout the project they felt ownership of the idea and vision of a space that would become theirs.