Bradford’s National Saturday Club Benefits from Design Masterclass Session

Bradford College has collaborated with the National Saturday Club since 2013 to deliver a free creative education programme for 13–16-year-olds in the local community.

The Club is designed to engage young people experiencing disadvantage. It supports the next generation by building skills, nurturing wellbeing, and introducing ways of additional learning and career development. 

Paul Allnutt, UK Network Director – National Saturday Club, said:

“Lisa Edwards and the wider team of Club tutors at the Saturday Club run an excellent programme of weekly classes which support the College’s outreach and engagement initiatives and recruitment of future students.” 

As a result, the Bradford College National Saturday Club (along with six other Clubs) recently participated in a thought-provoking Masterclass in Leeds with engineer and design organisation, Arup. This first-ever digital/in-person hybrid Masterclass saw members from the seven Clubs visit six Arup offices across the country in Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, London, Manchester and Nottingham.

Ed Clark, Director of Arup, introduced the design firm as a world-class enterprise of designers,

planners, engineers, architects, consultants, and technical specialists. To connect all of the Clubs

across Arup’s locations, Ed launched a ‘global virtual conference’ – linking Clubs via a

group video call.

After setting a plan for the day with Balduino Del Principe, Associate at Arup, each Club, in their respective offices, explored the UN Sustainability Development Goals to develop related architectural sketches.

After selecting a site for development and creating a project brief, offices responded to each other’s work. Working closely with the Arup team and using a range of materials, each concept transformed into models, including community centres, housing for the elderly, flood defence systems, and landscaped gardens. At the end of the Masterclass, Club member projects were shared on the end-of-day ‘global conference call’.

Throughout the day, members embraced the opportunity to learn more about a client/designer relationship, design development, and how sustainability and future-proofing can be built into urban design and development, with consideration for social needs, health and wellbeing.

The event was a huge success and proved an excellent opportunity to engage young people with some of the future career pathways open to them.