About Us
To read more what we have going on, click here to view our monthly blog.
Our Teachers
Kate Byrne is a passionate and experienced teacher and the founder of Our Creative Community. Her expertise lies within the field of architecture and she received a BArch from Newcastle University before spending time in practice. She has been teaching for over a decade and has led classes within many prominent institutions including the Royal Photographic Society and Badminton School.
Her time in practice has influenced Kate to create the UK's only weekly Architecture Club for students aged 7 - 18. She seeks to define how children’s architectural education can be harnessed to improve the inclusivity of our built environment and its social value, by developing a social awareness of space alongside a feeling of shared responsibility and a critical attitude towards the built environment.
There is an inherent value in architectural education for children and young people as they are members of, and future adults in, society. Educators and practitioners from a range of disciplines have espoused the ‘manifest value’ in children’s built environment education; regardless of whether they are to go on to work in the built environment. By providing architecture education to children, our future adult citizens will have different expectations of quality regarding their built environments - they would be less likely to perceive architecture as primarily a matter of ‘decoration’, and more likely to take an active role in its development.
Elena Hayward is an multimedia Artist based in Bristol. Her work is often playful and energetic with a focus on character, colour and humour. She is influenced by film, television, science fiction and history - the odder the better! The combination of the surreal and the mundane is a reoccurring theme in her work and often features Monsters, Myths and Aliens.
She also teaches alongside her practice, and is passionate about community and storytelling, and shares this sentiment in workshops for OCC and for other institutions around Bristol.
For example, she recently completed a set of workshops for the RWA entitled Making the City Home which showcases the visual stories of women who have made Bristol their home. Elena worked with several Women's groups including Refugee Women of Bristol and Dhek Bhal Women's Group to create beautiful textiles to describe how they experience the city. Their heartfelt and beautiful pieces celebrate these women and their work and can be viewed at the RWA from 4 July - 10 September 2023.
Our Studio: Studio C, 14 Backfields Lane, BS2 8QW
Backfields Land Studios was bought in 2008 by Askew - an Architecture Practice who still own the building. It was refurbished into 4 individual studios, one of which is still the home to Askew.
We have our home in Studio C on the first floor. Upon arrival, please ring our the buzzer by the building's entrance and we will come down to escort students to our space. We will also bring the group back down when the class has finished. There is a bathroom on site and we will have drinking water available.
Arrival Information
Studio C, Urban Design Studios,
14 Backfields Lane, BS2 8QW
Please ring our buzzer when you arrive
Bristol bus station is a 8 min walk from the studios.
There is bike storage within the building which you are free to use.
If you are dropping a student off there is space to stop and turn around at the end of Backfields Lane.
For car parking, Brunswick Square Short Stay is a 3 min walk away.
We work with and have collaborated with several brilliant local companies and institutions, including:
