We have just ended the 5th edition of ArchiVisit. ArchiVisit is a yearly educational trip to London organised by SACES in collaboration with iAS, where students get hands-on experience through visiting international architectural firms, construction sites and more. During this year’s edition of ArchiVisit we had a mixture of students from different years, spanning from Diploma up to B.Sc. third year students.
Starting off the week we went to LOM, who hosted us in their newly finished building Unity Place in Milton Keynes. They showed us around the building, giving us an overview of the design and thought process. Following this visit, we had a walking tour with Thornton Tomasetti, where Facade Engineers walked us through different projects they worked on in London, and explained to us in detail how the façade system of each building worked, and the thought process behind it.
On Tuesday, we started our day with an office visit at ARUP, in which the students had a form finding workshop in which they had to design a canopy for the National Football Ground. This was then followed up by a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens with Mizzi Studios. They gave us a tour around the garden, showing us various structures and explaining to us some of their works. The students then had a workshop session where they formed groups and had to design a new footbridge.
We started off mid-week with a visit to the Bartlett School of Architecture, where our host, a lecturer in the University itself, gave us a tour around their building, where the students were very interested to see certain parts of the building, which would be very useful to have in our faculty. The main feature, which was the most appealing, was a timber and metal workshop area, which was accessible for students to use, to buy materials and to learn new skills. This was followed by presentations by some of the students, who presented to us their past scholastic year’s projects.
To end this visit, the students had some time to browse the exhibition. Afterwards, we had an office visit, with Squire and Partners, where we were given a presentation about the history of the company and their works. Students were shown around their office space, The Department Store, in Brixton, where they explained to us the decisions they made during their design process which helped them retain the history of the original building whilst also giving it a new life.
Following this, on Thursday morning, we went for an office visit to SOM, where the students had a presentation which spanned from the history of the architectural firm, to the structural planning decisions behind some of their best works, as well as a presentation on their sustainability sector, their work and calculations. The students then had a design workshop, where they had to design a mid-rise building, with certain specifications and requirements to take into consideration, and afterwards present it to the group. Following this visit, Hilson Moran hosted us in an ongoing construction site, 1, Broadgate. We first had a presentation about the project as a whole, the design, structure and sustainable decisions they had to make during the whole process. The students were then given a tour inside the construction site, whilst wearing the necessary PPE.
Finally, to close off ArchiVisit, we had our last visit with Wintech on Friday, who gave us a tour of another ongoing project. The students wore the necessary safety equipment and were split into groups, to have more focused discussions about the ongoing construction they were witnessing.
Post-trip feedback from students who participated in this experience shows that they really appreciated the initiative and found it really helpful in their studies. As SACES we gratefully thank our sponsors, who helped make this trip possible for students, as well as iAS and Perit Mark Borg for helping to organise this trip.