ImagineNewmarket Design It Day at Tattersalls Thank you to everyone who gave permission for the use of their photographs... 'It's as tall as the London Eye...and has a swirly stair case that goes right to the sky...' young people commenting on their design ideas. We had a great day. The sun was shining, the ideas flowing  and the boot of our project car was crammed with drawings, ideas, key words, models and inspiration for our new building. We were sponsored by the Johns Practice - Chartered Architects of Newmarket, with generous support, materials and help for the young people attending from Joan Weingaertner and her team from the Little Angels Day Nursery site in Bury St Edmunds. As part of the Little Angels team a group of students from Thurston Community College engaged with our groups, helping to deliver the designs. Thank you to all the schools and the children who took part in our ArchitectureWeek Design It Day Our young contributors were from Fairstead House School, Cheveley C of E Primary School and Exning Primary School. (Thank you to all the children, teachers, parents and carers for their permission to use these images to tell you about our day). The ideas generated by the children were an inspiration and we are now working to convert them into drawings and displays that we can share with other young people - as we go out and about to talk about our project. We had a lot of concentration... As well as working in groups, everyone had time to reflect on what they had seen and hear during the sessions. Everyone had time to sit quietly and create their own images, designs and words about an ImagineNewmarket building. We were able to offer everyone in the afternoon, when we came to construct our models and make our ideas a reality, a fantastic range of materials, textures and fixings. The photographs below give you an idea of the fantastic range of shapes, colours and facilities that the children decided that they would like in the building. Water features, quiet spaces for thinking about exhibits, glass lifts to a roof garden, perspex domes to let the light flood into the working spaces, special shutters and solar panels to use warmth from the sun in the building.... ...the ideas flowed thick and fast from the sessions we worked on together in the morning. We had a lot of group work... We worked in small design groups to mark out and discuss our ideas from the stories, talks and pictures that we were given as part to the morning. We talked about space, scale and the power of ten. Numbers were clearly important in designing a building. Some groups started from the outside - with the overall grand design already mapped out. Others started from the inside - beginning with the detailed layout of rooms and the type of carpet and floor covering needed. It was great to see ramps, lifts and access as an integral, unprompted part of the thinking about a new building. We had innovative and futuristic designs... No one single theme emerged from the day. We were able to develop a diverse range of  building shapes and sizes. We are planning to produce a slide show, with a story board about the designs and ideas created on the day. If you would like a copy of the design material on CD to share with your young people let us know. Send your request to information@imaginenewmarket.org.uk We also have templates for risk assessment, the detail of the work plan for the day and the policies that we use to deliver all work with young people in our project.  We are happy to include these on the CD, if it will help other projects in their development. Or you can write to us at ImagineNewmarket, c/o The Johns Practice, The Studio, Oaks Drive,  Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 7SX.  Address your correspondence for the attention of Kate Lockett - we'll be pleased to hear from you. We had tall buildings and short... By the afternoon the tables, supplied by Tattersalls in their High Flyer building, were just not enough. We had to take to the floor in order to get all those ideas out. Kate Lockett from The Johns Practice had brought along a range of design and photographic material and this proved helpful in getting our first principles organised. We started a 'wall of ideas' - pinning up the key drawings that were produced by the group. Each group of young people then gave a presentation to the assembled audience about their design. The proceedings were handled expertly by ImagineNewmarket Chair, Tim Young, whose subtle questioning bought out the key ideas from each group to share with others. Everybody got a big round of applause, especially after the storytelling session.... We built towers, with roof gardens, glass lifts and water features. We built quiet, restful areas for thought and reflection. We built door ways with ramps, so that everyone can get in.  Most of all we had fun... It was a great day and we produced loads of great ideas. Everyone went home tired...but happy. A big goodbye and thank you from the crew at Architecture Week - Tattersalls, Newmarket. June 2006 The Architecture Week  Design It Day was part of the national celebration of architecture. It was facilitated and sponsored by the Johns Practice - Chartered Architects, Newmarket - Little Angels Day Nursery Group - Tattersalls Newmarket and the SmithMartin Partnership. ImagineNewmarket thank the organisations for their generosity in supporting community projects.