Design students create a bit of festive magic
Barking & Dagenham College students brought a festive touch to life with their latest project; they designed and built a giant gingerbread house for the popular Christmas attraction, creating a magical space for children to enjoy.
The live project began three months ago with all the students competing to conceptualise and design the best gingerbread house. At the end of October, the Havering Mind team visited the College to judge the students’ innovative ideas. After much deliberation, two designs were selected as joint winners; judges decided to incorporate the best elements from both winning designs to create the perfect gingerbread house backdrop.
Ciaran White, Events and Partnership Development Manager at Havering Mind, praised the students’ efforts: “We were delighted to have the students from Barking & Dagenham College get involved with our Havering Christmas Land attraction this year. What they have designed and created has added a magical new element to our attraction that thousands of local people will see and enjoy! Well done to the students and their dedicated teachers for all their hard work.”
The winning students Becky Fletcher, 17 from Romford and Ayelet Shatz, 18, from Hornchurch then led their peers to bring the designs to life. They spent several weeks, hard at work in the College’s art studio, creating the life-size gingerbread house into a magical space for visitors. Then, like magic, the wooden house was transported to its final location in Christmas Land.
They also had the exciting opportunity to visit the venue to help dress and decorate the gingerbread house in preparation for Christmas Land’s grand opening at the end of November.
Tutor Will Colley reflected on the project, saying: “It has been a pleasure working with Havering Mind. The students have gained so much experience, and we have had a great time doing it! It’s been the most Christmassy I’ve felt in years.”
Winner Becky Fletcher also shared her thoughts: “I am proud to have worked on this project. It was very fun, and I loved working with everyone involved.”
The students’ handiwork has been enjoyed by countless visitors to the festive attraction; so, to celebrate their achievements, Havering Mind hosted a ‘thank you’ event on December 18th, attended by the students, their friends and family, and the Mayor of Havering, Councillor Gerry O’Sullivan, who said: “Absolute pleasure to be invited to Havering Christmas Land. Great to see the wonderful work the students of Barking & Dagenham college have done, by designing and creating the fantastic Gingerbread House and story boards and bringing their designs to life. Particular congratulations to the winners for creating the amazing story boards.”
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