Light Night Leeds 8th October

borrowed tarpaulins, left over bunting, pegs, tape, old banners & bubble wrap, freshly cut bamboo, garden canes, material, kids' window designs, string.....

Spring Bank Primary School. outdoor structure

The most fantastic day with blue skies, and at the end we ate buns inside.

The windows looked great to see everyone's windows come to Park Square tonight 5pm-9pm .

Spring Bank Primary School, Leeds

Today we spent the time making models with Year 3 at Spring Bank and windows for Friday night.
Tomorrow morning we make a big structure together at school.
Here are some of the great models and the city they made when put together.

Chapel Allerton Group Structure

Chapel Allerton Designs 2

Chapel Allerton Designs

Chapel Allerton Designs

After looking at pictures of buildings in Leeds pupils at Chapel Allerton made models of buildings using mainly found material.
Then they tested bigger spaces and built together.
These are some of their great ideas.

Light Night Leeds 8th October

To coincide with International DenMaking Day on October 8th 2010 we will be building a temporary structure in Park Square Leeds.
Workshops with pupils from Year 5 at Chapel Allerton Primary School and Year 3 at Spring Bank Primary School will suggest ideas of what the structure might look like and each pupil has designed a window to be part of it.
Open from 5pm bring a torch and you can get inside it.

international den making 3

Recent explorations

Light Night

The Den Project will be making materials with children from Spring Bank School and Chapel Allerton School over the next 2 weeks for a structure to be built in Park square, Leeds on October 8th 2010.
This will also coincide with International den-Making Day this year occurring on the October 8th.
Posters / info to follow.

Coney Island Sand

The description evokes something new while the experience remains personally intact for each visitor.
Alternatively - this plasticine from the Coney Island construction with real sand was a constant during the 42 occupation witnessing all the activities, changed once by a cheeky participant and returned to its former state for the last event.

I just thought I'd describe the den we made for the 1st April as the pictures I've got don't.
We hung a washing line from above our heads at the entrance to waist height at the back of the first room. Then we pegged bedsheets along the line, it became a tunnel. When it turned left it became a cardboard tunnel along the foot of the room, it turned right and up some stairs, this part was made of plastic sheets, it was easier to crawl rather than walk.

There was a table at the end of the tunnel. On the right a small entrance to the cinema was made from orange plastic sheeting. Inside it was dark, very low and quite quiet. At the far end a film was projected onto some material hanging underneath a table.

The film showed 3 den building events:
1. A Brutalist Den made October 2nd 2008
2. Mass den building at "Playing in Urban Spaces" a conference at Leeds Metropolitan University, 3rd October 2008
3. Den building at Coney Island, New York, 21st January 2010.

The cinema den was made of:
3 tables
cardboard
black out material
there was also black out material over the stained glass windows
paper
tape
2 pairs of trestle table legs
pegs

There was space for about 7 people. Some people said they really enjoyed the quiet darkness of the cinema den compared to the big front room space where people were chatting and drinking. The exit of the den was to the left of the projection, after leaving people found they could stand up straight in the darkness for a few steps before having to crawl under the table and back down the stairs to get out again.
A film made from images of the March workshops was projected against the side of the bed sheet tunnel.

April 1st Film Screening Den

And finally ...

And then...

Open weekend - 28th March

Today each construction became attached to the one before until the mission seemed to be to fill the space - it was almost complete leaving enough room to get in and out.
Meanwhile in the office at the back a beautiful small house was constructed with a domed roof followed by a triangular unfinished toblerone.
Another fantastic day.

Open Weekend 27th March

From 11am til 7pm number 42 was was a hive of activity - constructions built, occupied, changed, reconstructed, reoccupied by everyone who came in and the den project memory archive expanded into italy and zambia. Brilliant day.