Insight
Summer Work Placements
14 Oct 2022
Lillie Bamford
Senior Architectural Assistant
Over the summer holidays the Leicester office architect’s team welcomed a number of work experience students each staying for a week-long placement. The students were all around GCSE-year age and had shown an interest in a career as an architect.
The students were given a local site, on Horsefair Street in Leicester, and were asked to formulate their own brief for a building that they think Leicester city centre is lacking. Some of the ideas for buildings included an art gallery, an art supplies shop, a sports centre and a digital art exhibition space.
The students had the opportunity to visit the site and make a note of any of the opportunities or constraints, as well as taking spot measurements and checking these against scale drawings.
They then spent the week exercising their creativity and working up their scheme in plan, section and elevation as well as 3D sketches, interiors mood boards and a final presentation. Working on this mini-design brief was interjected with time spent with various members of the architecture team – and sometimes other disciplines depending on the student’s interests. This gave them a feel for life in the office - to learn about different roles within the architecture team and to catch a glimpse into a range of live projects.
At the end of the week, we encourage the students to pin-up their work for an informal design-crit by members of the architecture team. This is a great opportunity for the students to show off their work and gain feedback and for us as they bring a fresh perspective into the office.
Over the week, we aim to demonstrate what life as an architect is like, we encourage the students to ask questions and discuss with them the various routes into the profession so that they can make an informed decision about their future career.
