Your favourite designs

You all liked the bottom two design ideas best (see below), and split into groups to scale the designs up 25:1. That means the atrium roof light is 25X the size of these - still huge!
Scaling up designs gives you a chance to make changes, and to see if they 'work' on a bigger scale. Sometimes designs look good small, but don't look very good when they're big. We made a fair bit of mess in the library, but the results are great.
At the end of the workshop, you unanimously agreed - and that included Mr Peplow - that you preferred the bottom one and that it would work better in the dining hall space than the circles.

Some ideas emerge...

Here are the four design ideas Striking Glass came up with after seeing your classmates designs from the first workshop (see post below). The bottom two were chosen by the students as their favourites. They were seen as a lively and fitting centre piece for the dining space in your new school.

Now it gets real - site visit!

First of all the obligatory Health and Safety saw us all putting on welly boots, hard hats, bright yellow waist coats and even gloves (yes, in case we fall over and put our hands onto something sharp...) I think everyone looks rather dashing myself.


This is your future dining room space. The space above everyone's head, right down to the green digger at the end is where the atrium window is going to go. I think everyone got a sense of just how BIG this window design is going to be. Scroll down to the first entry if you want to see the architects' drawing of the atrium, to compare his impression with the reality.

1st Atrium Design Workshop

So what didn't you like about your current dining room? It's always good to find that out first, so we can work towards creating something you do want... I learnt that it was dull, cramped, sometimes cold, used for everything under the sun - and even smelly! The things you wanted in the new dining space sounded much more positive - colourful, lively, upbeat, yet also relaxing, orderly and calm. You stressed the importance of space and you wanted a stand out statement that was exciting and inviting.
So how do all those ideas translate to colours and shapes? We talked about the different colours and the feelings they evoked. You thought the 'cool' colours - blues and turquoise - were calm and relaxing, and the 'warm' colours - red, orange and yellow - were lively and active. The shapes you preferred were the flowing, organic ones - you weren't too keen on the sharp and orderly geometric look.
Next the students had a go at designing very small, scaled down versions of the atrium - and here they are! As you can see, lots of different exciting ideas... which ones grab you the most? Leave any comments below - they're always helpful.

What on earth is an atrium, and how do you design one?

This is what your new dining space will look like. See that glass roof? That's the atrium. It's as long as Easton swimming pool - 32metres - and needs an exciting design inspired by students to make it special to your school. Once the design has been chosen, it will be carefully scaled up and digitally printed onto transparent film, which will then be stuck on the underside of the glass in the atrium. Think stained glass windows - but for the 21st century and ENORMOUS!

In case you're wondering, I'm Milly, and I'm a glass artist here in Bristol. My job at Filton is to gather lots of ideas from you, and then distill them into several designs for you to choose from. I'm really excited about this project - the dining space will be at the centre of your new school, and it's a fantastic opportunity for students to have a hand in a HUGE piece of artwork that will be the first thing that people see when entering the building. First impressions count - let's make sure it's a good one!