Our Story

We are Heuishil and Raffaella, two architects who developed a passion for creative education, after teaching architecture to primary school children for a charity organisation in London. The sheer curiosity and excitement of the children made a huge impression on us, so much that we decided to create a space where children could give expression to their imagination in a way simply not catered for by the school curriculum.

Our dedication led us to research a wide variety of creative pedagogic traditions together with contemporary studies on creativity, child psychology and child brain development. We came to appreciate the importance of a healthy, resilient mindset for creativity to flourish, and started to develop our own teaching tools for building such a mindset. This journey led the launch of SENSING SPACE in Oxford, the capital of education in UK.

SENSING SPACE is where children experience and explore both the external space of the senses and the internal world of the imagination. It is a space dedicated to understanding the world and each child's unique creative response to it.

Heuishil

What did you do as a child?

I had two favourite things – fantasy stories and Lego blocks. I spent all day reading fantasy books and making my imaginary worlds and towns with Lego blocks. I also loved making a secret base with bed mattress and blankets. In later years, I became an architect in Tokyo. I worked for various projects for Arata Isozaki - who was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal and the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Then my interest in designing sustainable society brought me to the UK to study geography and the environment at the Oxford University where I attained MPhil and DPhil.

When I finished my research....

I had an operation. It gave me an opportunity to ask myself “what is the best thing I can do with what I’ve got?”
What came up my mind was the memory of my childhood playing with books, blocks and blankets. Those moments were not only fun but crucial to discover my primary creative inclination. I was inspired to make such moments for children so that they could find, free up and foster their unique creative passion and confidence.
Today, I love designing children’s creative moments at SENSING SPACAE. It is my wish that our programmes empower children to relish their childhood and flourish in the future.

Heuishil

What did you love as a child?

I had two favourite things – fantasy stories and Lego blocks. I spent all day reading fantasy books and making my imaginary worlds and towns with Lego blocks. I also loved making a secret base with bed mattress and blankets. In later years, I became an architect in Tokyo. I worked for various projects for Arata Isozaki - who was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal and the Pritzker Architecture Prize - including the national museum of civilisation in Cairo, Egypt, and the university complex, in Doha, Qatar. Then my interest in designing sustainable society brought me to the UK to study geography and the environment at the Oxford University where I attained MPhil and DPhil.

When I finished my research...

I had an operation. It gave me an opportunity to ask myself “what is the best thing I can do with what I’ve got?”
What came up my mind was the memory of my childhood playing with books, blocks and blankets. Those moments were not only fun but crucial to discovering my primary creative inclination. I was inspired to make such moments for children so that they could find, free up and foster their unique creative passion and confidence.
Today, I love designing children’s creative moments at SENSING SPACAE. It is my wish that our programmes empower children to relish their childhood and flourish in the future.

Raffaella

There was a mill near my home...

It was a stone and brick building with a heavy wheel, creating a fantastic sound of waterfall. I used to go there after school, playing with my friends while their parents worked around us. It was a great place where doors were never closed, where the smell of food came out from the kitchen. With the other children I spent entire afternoons inventing stories and building anything with the little material found around. It was a place that promoted social life and collaboration. That mill taught me the value of good architecture and the level of influence the environment has in stimulating the senses and the imagination.

I have a Montessori's education...

I have a Montessori's education background from my mum, who has been a teacher for over 30 years. My parents always encouraged me to deepen my interests in art: during my entire childhood I attended weekly painting sessions in an Arno Stern's atelier and participated in creative laboratories inspired by Bruno Munari. I took up art as the main subject in A level and later chose to study architecture in Milan.

During my 20 years of career as an architect in the UK, I have led some of the biggest projects in the Capital and was nominated for various awards.

I love building...

Traditional buildings made of bricks or modern made of steel and glass. Tall buildings in a city, or floating on lakes, hidden inside of a forest or noisy like stadiums and vibrant like train stations. I take pleasure in the design challenge of responding to a brief and of refining all the details meticulously. I value different communication means as a way to be able to transform something beautiful I imagined, to reality. I strongly believe the world needs beauty (and with beauty I don't mean trivial or superficial things). Making beautiful things requires creativity and resilience. The future is in our children's hands and my goal with SENSING SPACE is to give them the instruments to generate positive changes and make a better world for everyone.

Raffaella

There was a mill near my home...

It was a stone and brick building with a heavy wheel, creating a fantastic sound of waterfall. I used to go there after school, playing with my friends while their parents worked around us. It was a great place where doors were never closed, where the smell of food came out from the kitchen. With the other children I spent entire afternoons inventing stories and building anything with the little material found around. It was a place that promoted social life and collaboration. That mill taught me the value of good architecture and the level of influence the environment has in stimulating the senses and the imagination.

I have a Montessori's education....

I have a Montessori's education background from my mum, who has been a teacher for over 30 years. My parents always encouraged me to deepen my interests in art: during my entire childhood I attended weekly painting sessions in an Arno Stern's atelier and participated in creative laboratories inspired by Bruno Munari. I took up art as the main subject in A level and later chose to study architecture in Milan.

During my 20 years of career as an architect in the UK, I have led some of the biggest projects in the Capital and was nominated for various awards.

I love building...

Traditional buildings made of bricks or modern made of steel and glass. Tall buildings in a city, or floating on lakes, hidden inside of a forest or noisy like stadiums and vibrant like train stations. I take pleasure in the design challenge of responding to a brief and of refining all the details meticulously. I value different communication means as a way to be able to transform something beautiful I imagined, to reality. I strongly believe the world needs beauty (and with beauty I don't mean trivial or superficial things). Making beautiful things requires creativity and resilience. The future is in our children's hands and my goal with SENSING SPACE is to give them the instruments to generate positive changes and make a better world for everyone.

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