'Ultrawild'... transforming the world's cities into urban jungles

Last week the year 7/8s had industrial designer and author Steve Mushin come into Seatoun School and give a workshop about design and future cities. He also showed us his new book, Ultrawild. He spoke to us about the history of technology, design and inventions. We learnt about how quickly inventions and designs change over time. He spoke about the need to transform the world's cities into urban jungles. Steve explained why we need to plant trees to draw down carbon dioxide and pollution in cities. We learnt so much about future cities and why we need green spaces for people to enjoy, and how plants and trees can keep temperatures cooler. We had the chance to draw and invent things to improve life in cities. We had to use scale and labels to describe our inventions. There were timed drawing challenges too and we had to do quick thumbnail sketches, then we got to pitch our idea in front of the class.

• Cyrus "I learnt a lot about how people can actually make designs. I found it interesting that design is actually a job. I enjoyed the drawing because you can be creative. I liked his drawings and designs, they were cool."
• Nate "I enjoyed that you can design literally anything, then invent it and build it. I liked being able to draw in the workshop."
• Claire "I got to invent unusual things that can help solve problems in our world, which was fun."
• Harry "I enjoyed inventing things. I also really like the front cover of his book Ultrawild."
• Curtis "I enjoyed the whole session because it was really inventive and interesting. It was fun. You can invent anything, even crazy things. I am going to be buying his book because it looks quite interesting."