About the project

In July 2024, MATT+FIONA teamed up with the Floating Classroom to deliver the final session of Life Afloat, a five-workshop programme delivered to local Year 2 students exploring the past and future of London’s canals.

Our workshop, Young Placemakers, was delivered to two different groups and explored the future of Stone Wharf, an underused green space across the canal from the Floating Classroom’s mooring. Students were asked to imagine potential built interventions on the site, following three briefs: places to explore nature and wildlife, places to make and eat food and places to play.

They then modelled their ideas at scale in situ, using materials such as cardboard, recycled scaffolding fabric and paracord, after thinking spatially about where their designs might sit on the site. There is an ambition for their ideas to inform the future of Stone Wharf, which the local authority is planning to transform into a green community space.