LANDE returns to co-design with Tupton Primary School “The Farm of the Future”

PC: Shaun Taylor

Architect and designer Polly North, founder of LANDE, completed her second successful co-design project with CCAC in July. Polly led an ambitious six-week initiative entitled “The Farm of the Future” with the Year 5 children at Tupton Primary School in Derbyshire.

LANDE champions architecture that reduces waste, uses locally sourced low-carbon materials, adapts existing structures, and creates durable spaces built to last. Bringing this approach into the classroom, Polly invited the budding designers to explore how regenerative agriculture and flood-resilient architecture could help protect and sustain their local community in the face of future climate impacts.

Site Research Trip with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust 

Field Trip to The Avenue with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust led by Polly North with Tupton Primary school Yr5s. Photo Credit: Shaun Taylor (Loft One Studio)

To ground the children’s designs, the project began with an immersive research trip to The Avenue, a local nature reserve managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. The Avenue is the site of a former coking works which, since closure in 1992, has gradually been de-contaminated and transformed into 90 hectares of nature-filled green park. Mark and Emily from Derbyshire Wildlife Trust showed the children how to sample the soil for contaminants, following which the children surveyed the site to recording native flora and fauna.

Back in the classroom, Polly introduced the climate challenge: by 2050, increasingly unpredictable weather and extreme rainfall could severely disrupt traditional farming in Tupton. Because conventional agriculture depends on reliable seasons, she asked the class to design a community farm that could flourish in The Avenue and withstand severe climate impacts such as flooding and drought.

 “The children gained valuable teamwork experience and felt real responsibility for the project’s success. They especially loved making their models, and the investigative visit to the local area with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust was fantastic for them. I don’t think many of them knew The Avenue’s extraordinary history.” – Polly North, LANDE

Designing “The Farm of the Future” 

Before getting down to designing, the children explored how architecture could optimise agricultural systems. The children learnt about multi-use land practices such as:

• Horticulture & Agroforestry: Growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, and integrating timber forestry alongside crops.

• Specialised Cultivation: Beekeeping for pollination, cultivating mushrooms and mycelium, and growing hemp for sustainable building materials.

• Green Technology: Pioneering techniques like hydroponics (vertical farming using water instead of soil), aquaponics (symbiotic fish and plant farming), and integrated solar and wind energy generation.

To support these systems, the Year 5s specified functional farm infrastructure within their masterplans, designing customised hay barns, rainwater harvesting tanks, processing sheds, irrigation networks, polytunnels, and community farm shops.

Working in small teams, the pupils mapped out ideas as detailed floor plans and elevations before making 3D models in cardboard and repurposed materials.

Because flood resilience was a core brief requirement, the children put their engineering to the test by floating their physical model farms in water basins to verify buoyancy and stability!

Tupton Yr 5s demonstrating their models’ flood resistance during their presentations. Photo Credit: Shaun Taylor (Loft One Studio)

The resulting masterplans were full of creative climate adaptation: structures elevated on stilts, floating timber buildings, elevated pedestrian bridges, renewable-powered transport links, and living rooftops.

As one Year 5 student reflected:

“I enjoyed the creativeness and the building side of it… I also enjoyed being involved because my team all got along, which was really important.”

The Designer’s Reveal

The six-week project concluded with a high-octane Reveal Event attended by parents, carers, teachers, and the children. The school hall became a pop-up exhibition celebrating the children’s physical models and drawings.

The children were super-excited to see Polly’s professional digital renders of their design concepts. To reward the class’s hard work, Polly awarded individual group commendations, celebrating categories such as Best Drawing, Most Detailed Illustration, Strongest Narrative, Most Flood-Resilient Design, and Strongest Collaboration.

Polly North’s digital interpretation of a child-group’s design shown during the reveal presentation.

We extend huge thanks to Polly North for delivering another transformative co-design experience which the Tupton children say has equipped them with new knowledge and inspired them to feel more confident and less anxious about the changing climate.

Polly North, one Yr5 design team, and class teacher Abbie Wass. Photo Credit: Shaun Taylor (Loft One Studio)