Ara Students Design Kids’ Activities For Open Christchurch

Ara Institute of Canterbury Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication Design) students are looking forward to seeing their latest projects put through their paces at the Open Christchurch Festival this weekend.

The Monster Architecture Treasure Hunt and Colour Me Mountfort colouring-in pages have been created to encourage children to learn more about many of the central city buildings featured in the 2025 festival programme.

Those who join the monster trail will be rewarded with colourful stickers for each of the buildings they visit.

It’s been a monster learning curve navigating the real-life design project, but the Ara team is proud of the final product.

"It’s been great to be part of," said student Tyson Haglund. "It’s the biggest thing we’ve seen through from start to finish and now it’s awesome to look back and think ‘we did that’".

With more than 50 open buildings, guided walks and special activities, the Open Christchurch celebration of architecture event is a key fixture on Ōtautahi’s calendar.

This year, Ara students have made their mark on the weekend event thanks to the connections of their tutor, senior academic staff member Carl Pavletich.

"I was on the building selection panel for this year’s event and Open Christchurch were keen for students to get involved. This has been an excellent way for them to complete a professional practice project," Pavletich said.

Sam Weavers, one of the students behind the colouring pages design, said they were quick to volunteer.

"Once we had the Open Christchurch brief, we started brainstorming and pitched our ideas in design meetings before preparing drafts to be approved. We had one-one-one meetings which were really valuable as we worked on the final edits and ended up with the finished product," Weavers said.

Haglund said the project was truly collaborative with creative freedom for the students matched with a clearly expressed brief from the team at Open Christchurch.

"We both got what we wanted out of the design process without restrictions, which was really helpful. It’s been so satisfying to experience the client reaction. They were super stoked, and it was a good feeling to have delivered on the project for them."

Classmate Paulina Harrison said the project had presented real-life challenges.

"It was a big reality check needing to be on top of your communication and not wanting to let anyone down on the job. We needed to have time management, perseverance, patience and professionalism to complete the work," she said.

Phoebe Dutton said teamwork skills also came to the fore as they met the deadline.

"It was hard because it was the end of term, so we had class projects and final assignments due as well as getting the project done. It was a juggle, but it worked out so well," she said.

Many of the team plan to be out on the monster trail seeing their work in action this weekend.

"We’ve spent so long working on these files we’re looking forward to seeing people actually holding it in their hands," Haglund said.

© Scoop Media