George was unable to attend the celebration event on 15 September, but he sent us this message:

I’m really glad to have been given the opportunity to work with the amazing people at the architecture foundation, especially Ruby and the other Urban Pioneers. For the first time I’ve begun to appreciate the architecture all around London, and the design processes that led to their creation. I particularly enjoyed visiting the Olympic site and learning about their plans for the stadium after 2012. I’m very grateful for the time the workshop leaders spent teaching me and the other Urban Pioneers. It’s been great getting to know the city I still consider to be my home. I wish I could be there for the launch but I’m already back to work in Scotland. I look forward to being back in London during the October holidays.

On 15 September, The Architecture Foundation's latest group of Urban Pioneers presented their work from this summer's education programme at The AF project space.

Speaking to a packed room, Alex, Anthony, Ciarra and Vanessa talked about the ten days they spent with architects, engineers, planners, artists, filmmakers and radio producers exploring the architecture between Tower and Blackfriars bridges. In a discussion chaired by Paul Harrington from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the Pioneers contemplated the area's good and bad urban design and described how the programme has influenced their plans for their future careers. The audience also heard from More London's Fergus Low and saw the premiere of the Pioneers' film made in five hours. See the film here.

Photos: Daniel Hewitt / The Architecture Foundation

In July, Architecture Centre Network commissioned the Urban Pioneers to document its Discover the Greenway event, and to find out how local people feel about the 2012 games. Listen to their podcast here (to download, ctrl click and 'save target as')

To hear other audio made by the Pioneers, please visit the Podcasts page

I arrived an hour early, so I update my blog and caught up on everything that i've missed while I was on my National Youth Theatre course. Then Barney Sutton got here,Me and Tony have worked with him before (Opt happy) so it was nice to see him again! we started by watching clips of  films that had a Bridge in the scenes... because that is what we have to involve in our film challenge. then we learnt about film techniques and the correct terminology. then we had to create the plot that we would later film. It was quite hard to come up with an idea that the whole group was happy with.I love filming and I know tony does, but Vanessa and alex didn't look so sure. Once we finalised our plot, we set off to Tower bridge! In the first scene I was behind the camera filming alex, all the cars where looking at us! my scene was quite funny because I had to be a street performer!I had to stand there next to a hat with money in and say my poems out loud. and we picked a good day to film,it was so sunny!=) in my last scene we had to find a stranger to play my mumThe whole day was fun, and a little crazy but i loved every second of it!

...I can't wait to be a professional actor! thats it from me Ciarra Nevitt.     

OOOOOOHHHHHH YEAHHH at last my adventure has led me to being a star or some what of a star and it is my time to shine. I left early because I didn't want to miss anything at all but I was still late by 5-20 min Hey at least it wasn't 1 hour they were about to go out side at the back with the building to talk about the film we talked about what it had to be about. We based it on changing lives but we had to put a bridge in each scene so we choose Tower Bridge and the whole thing is about changing someone's life. We made it a square connection but it was hard to connect four people and work out how they each changed each other's life for e.g I was about not having money because I didn't find a job i wasn't really inspired or determined to do anything until I saw Alex walking and talking about having papers on her desk by tomorrow seeing her change my life then I meet Vanessa and I change her life about her friends when she sees me and Barney talking and asks me a question but at the end I get a job at a cafe - man it was hard trying to get the cafe to let us in the cafe to film but we ended up filming outside and that's that. I am becoming a film star. I'll see you guys at my big premiere...

My day making a film... well let's start. Erm... people I cannot act so if you see emotion, that it is real, so me acting, well.......

Had a good start - learnt the theory and I can do that so I learnt about the names of the shots - hooray something I am used to. Wait hold up. HE HANDS ME THE CAMERA!!! ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! I don't know what to do - bunser burners, yes, I've mixed a few chemicals maybe, a playstation I know what to do with, but film making oh please help me. First I learnt if I was left eyed or right eyed which was not too hard, it just involved me looking in the camera. Now we had to find the plot of our story and finish it in only 5 hours. So I think Me and Alex thought yep this is going to be easy I mean this is Tony's and Ciarra's element. Thats what we thought! Until Tony was like he is leaving it up to the girls. WHY???? The last film I made was in secondary school for my English lessons that the only people who saw it were my class who realisically would have thought anything was a laugh. So after a good hour of going over ideas and a lot of silent moments, we came up with a good idea. Want to know what it is? Then turn up to the launch day. 

Then started the actually film making, so I am trying to do this like a class experiment, aim- check, instructions- check, equipment- check, deadline- check, my acting skills- ????????. So we ended up getting our roles with Tony & Ciarra jumping at the chance to get in the film I thought yes I can be an extra, (unknowingly thats what Alex thought as well). To make it fair for me and Alex we both decided that we had to have the same sort of roles (no one's getting out of acting; no matter how hard we might have tried).  So hear we are on Tower Bridge, ready to do our acting. It was going really well, Alex's walk went fine (natural walker), Ciarra did her rap ( Go Girl). Makes you wanna see the film now! Then I heard 'Vanessa you ready?'. err yeah? SO it started fine Tony was in his element directing away. So I did my walk also. Afterwards talks of my lines. My lines, sorry, when did that happen? Yeah nessa dont you remember. Me thinking they forgot I was fine no need to worry. So after about 5 minutes of me trying to remember my 3 lines I was finally ready, 2 takes and done. Hollywood here I come! Maybe not when I heard " now nessa we have to hear you?" That was a fall back down to earth.

So the scenes went by, nearly finished wrapping up the day which was good. I have to admit film making was fun. I learnt how to hold the camera, which I know doesn't sound like a lot but believe me when you have no idea what you are doing, I felt like running screaming. Obviously I didn't! For the last scenes we needed extras as we only had a 5 of us. We had a lovely lady play Ciarra's mum she was such a good actor. I mean what happened to my acting skills. We was all gasping thinking hold on is she an actor and she thinking are these people mad! LIFE UNFAIR! Also the group of people that played my friends, they were so funny!!! They looked like 'what do you want us to do', I was like I dont know errmm improvise, it has to be realistic. That is the best line I have ever come up with, when not knowing what to do.

But overall I enjoyed every minute. It was a great way to say goodbye to these guys and end the project. I have had a great summer doing this I would have never thought I would had done and I think secretly we were all a bit sad to say goodbye.

Vanessa and I had arranged it so that there was NO WAY Tony could be late!  We got the bus to Shoreditch (Vanessa showed us her bendy bus-riding skills), and arrived on time.
 
We were at the YCN, 72 Rivington Street.  It is a fantastic space - the YCN has recently moved there and the interior has been designed by architect Tomas Klassnik.  His main aim was flexibility, so that the ground floor could be a library, events space and shop, simply by moving the furniture around.  We were all very impressed!
 
We were shown how YCN helps illustrators to work for companies, mostly to do with advertising.  They showed us various projects they have done in the past, and some of the websites they have designed.  Then it was our turn - we were given a brief: to design some kind of 'visual communication' to promote the use of parks.  We had very little time but managed to get some ideas down on paper.

 
Then Tomas Klassnik gaves us a tour of the building, pointing out specific features and problems he'd encountered in creating the office space upstairs and the ground floor.  I was fascinated by how seemingly successful the office space was, and combined with the lovely people we met, I really liked the YCN as an organisation - we all joined their library!

 
Having so enjoyed our time at the YCN, we were almost late for our workshop at PricewaterhouseCoopers!  The aim of the afternoon was to get their advice on how we should stage our event in September.  At the beginning I had no idea about what our event would be like, and at the end we had made a plan.  I can't detail any of it here though, it has to be a surprise!  We wrote down our aims for the event and then focused on ways of achieving them, and on techniques for public speaking.  It was such a helpful workshop and combined with the shortbread biscuits it was a very enjoyable afternoon!

Space Syntax was just mind blowing! they had maps with every road in england, they could work out everything. They use their High-Tech technology to analysis spaces, they are really good at working out possible crime areas, the fastest route, they know where people are most likely to walk even if there is no set path! they also know how to make good use of a space e.g by changing where you have your entrances can change the whole content of the space and the amount of people that use that space will change. Space Syntax are really good at designing, they have worked on a number of projects. They have produced re-designs for Elephant & Castle and Trafalgar square!   

We arrived at YCN, after me meeting Tony & Alex. Tony wasn't late GO TONY !!!! YCN is for young artistic people and allows them to manifest their skills. Also to make some really cool advertisements for big companies such as Barclays and all sorts. I enjoyed it. We saw people of my age making these films that were so impressive and really creative. The people that worked there were around our age and were fun and hip. So after some nice choco bars - they know how to win our hearts! we were set a challenge, it was to divise a poster for an old ad to show what you can do in parks. My poster was a bit more of those D & T first draft guides that involved a lot of boxes showing what would be where and why.

After this we then meet the architect who actually designed the bulding. He was so sweet looking all proper. I think he was the only one in a tie. He was talking about the building and why he did certain things. I mean if I am ever going to need a designer trust me I have his card. It was such a clean fresh design and he hit the nail on the head. Everything in there had fit the aim of what the business needed, it was tidy but still had the freedom to be versatile. It was a really lovely day. I met people who had a dream and not only this, but ambitions to be heard and follow their ideas. The thing that really was shown to me was their pride of what they do and the love of it it was like the job was created for them. It was really inspiring!!!

image copyright YCN