Creative Design: Winners and Highly Commended

Winner: Morris (y6) Padbury School

The Parthenon was a building on the Acropolis in ancient Greece. Out of the three classical Greek architectural orders, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, the Parthenon was built in the Doric style. The Doric is known as the simplest of the three and is characterised by its sturdy columns with a plain top and its fluted shaft. It was built in the mid-5th century BC by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates who were working under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias

The building is approximately 31 metres wide and 70 metres long. It has a three stepped base and supports a roof structure made with a plain band of stone. The roof and ceiling were made from marble tiles. Behind the many columns there was an interior rectangular chamber. There were decorative carvings over the columns showing gods, giants, Greeks, centaurs and amazons.

I decided to make a version of the Parthenon out of food. I made the three-step base out of Madeira cake, I made the columns out of wafer rolls and chocolate buttons, and I made the roof tiles with waffles decorated with chocolate drops. The inner chamber was also made from a Madeira cake and I put marzipan on the roof to give it a smooth stone like finish. I had so much fun learning about architecture from ancient history through food. It also tasted amazing! The Parthenon’s original purpose was to act as a shrine to the goddess Athena. As time passed it use it changed drastically - it even turned into a treasury, Byzantine church, a Roman Catholic cathedral and a mosque. When it was finally used as a storehouse for ammunition during the Venetian siege in 1687 it exploded from the inside causing the destruction that we see today.

Winner: Noah (y10) Manchester Grammar

Bathhouse at Chester’s Roman Fort, on Hadrian's Wall- Noah (y10) Manchester Grammar School

While deliberating on what sort of building I should choose, I aimed to find something with prominent striking features, and that I found in the sparkling baths of a Roman bathhouse. Then, for the sake of practicality, I needed to find a bathhouse sizeable enough to include all the main details, but not ridiculously oversized. Thanks to advice from my teacher, I was able to settle on this bathhouse.

The bathhouse would have been occupied mostly by soldiers, who, after a hard day of work, would have gone to the baths to socialise and relax. Firstly, they would have entered through the apodyterium, in which there were 7 niches for them to place their belongings. There was also a latrine attached for ease before the soldiers would advance into the tepidarium, and then the caldarium. This was heated by two bronze boilers which I have included in my model. These boilers also heated the calveus, a small plunge bath. They would then advance to the tepidarium, where they would rub themselves with oil to clean themselves, before scraping it off with a strigil. In this bathhouse, it is assumed that the soldiers would do this to one another. Next, they would head to the caldarium or the sudatorium, for either a hot steam bath or a sauna-like dry room. Finally, they would finish in the frigidarium with a plunge into the cold pool.

Highly commended Matilda and Joseph (y9) Ryde School

The Hanging Gardens at Babylon - Matilda and Joseph (y9) Ryde School
The hanging gardens of Babylon were a terraced garden complex in ancient Babylon. While there is no definite proof of them even existing there are lots of recounts from Greek and Roman writers to suggest the existence of the gardens and what they possibly looked like.
We chose to do our project on the hanging gardens of Babylon as we thought it was so interesting with a riveting question: Was it real? Obviously we can only speculate for now and there are only pictures of what people have interpreted as the gardens. The gardens were supposedly used by the community as a space of leisure which brought the community together. The first writing found, written in about 190-280 BC, about them was from Berossus, a priest, and he describes the structure to have had high terraces, which imitated mountains which were planted with many types of large trees and flowers.
To make this model of the hanging gardens of Babylon we used insulation boards for the main structure, resin for the water and fake plants with clumps of dry moss, lichen and some flowers for the more organic tone of the gardens. We used a range of different reference images from Google and some descriptions made of the gardens to create our piece.

Highly commended: Emily (y10) Barr’s Hill School

The Parthenon - Emily (y10) Barr's Hill School

The Parthenon is an iconic symbol of ancient Greece, stands atop the Acropolis in Athens as a testament to the civilization's architectural and artistic achievements. Constructed in the 5th century BC, it was dedicated to Athena, the city's patron goddess, serving primarily as a temple. Inside, a 12ft statue of Athena, adorned with gold and ivory, was the centrepiece of Greek religion. The Parthenon also functioned as a treasury, safeguarding the city's wealth and resources under the watchful eye of its divine protector.

Beyond its religious and economic roles, the Parthenon was a powerful statement of Athenian power and cultural dominance. Its Doric columns, intricate sculptures, and harmonious proportions reflected the Athenian pursuit of perfection and order. The building's construction was a massive public works project, employing skilled artists and workers, and showcasing the city's prosperity. The Parthenon was not just a temple; it was a symbol of Athenian identity and civic pride.

Over the centuries, the Parthenon's purpose evolved. It was transformed into a Christian church in the 6th century AD, then an Ottoman mosque in the 15th century. In 1687, during a siege, it suffered a devastating explosion when gunpowder stored inside was ignited. Today, the Parthenon stands as a monument to the past, a reminder of the enduring legacy of ancient Greece, and a source of inspiration for architects, artists, and thinkers around the world.