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Professor Penny Hay shares her journey from disaffected student to Professor of Imagination, exploring how reimagined learning environments can transform education for children and young people. Her pioneering projects challenge traditional educational models by creating immersive spaces where creativity, architecture, and nature converge to empower young learners.
• Art teacher saved Penny after friend's death at 16, leading to combined degree in education and fine art
• First professional experience included teaching drawing to architects and engineers
• School Without Walls project places children in residence at cultural venues for 6-7 weeks
• Forest of Imagination transforms urban spaces by bringing nature into the city
• Co-design and co-production with children central to all projects
• Creating "beautiful living classrooms" where children's ideas are valued alongside professionals
• Built environment and learning spaces critically impact how children engage with education
• Reimagining education means seeing "the child as the curriculum and the community as the school"
• Every classroom could be a studio – an immersive, multidisciplinary environment
• Child-friendly cities benefit everyone and create more sustainable futures
• Professor of Imagination role focuses on nature, wellbeing, and creative responses to global crises
Subscribe to Architecture for Kids podcast and follow us on Instagram @archforkidsCIC, Twitter @AntCapelao, and LinkedIn. Visit antoniocapelao-portfolio.co.uk, buildingcenter.co.uk, thorntoneducationtrust.org, and cardiff.ac.uk for more information.
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Hosted by founder Antonio Capelao, and co-produced with the Built Environment Trust, the Thornton Education Trust, and the Welsh School of Architecture Cardiff University .
These short and to-the-point podcasts hope to improve the interplay between the fields of the built environment and education as we share knowledge between the practitioner, the creative, and the primary school teacher. Exploring how to prepare children and young people for economic, environmental, and societal challenges, and for their professional lives according to today’s needs and those of a sustainable future.