29.06.2026 Haptic team wins the City Shapers Award at this year’s Open City Young City Makers awards

Pigeonville wins the City!

What happens when children redesign their journey to school? Apparently, pigeons get their own café, where they can “eat their lunch and leave people’s sandwiches alone.”

Along the way there’s the School of Ronaldo, a stadium boat, a jungle of fruit trees, canal boat rollercoaster bridges and the resident singing pigeon, Pigeonita: whose singing serenades the journey and keep the flowers in bloom.

But beneath these wonderful quirks, is the idea that cities make room for different journeys, different species and different ways of experiencing the world. A place where movement becomes learning, nature becomes part of everyday life, and nobody’s idea is left behind. It’s a reminder that the best places aren’t simply optimised, they create opportunities for happiness.

We’re incredibly proud that our Young City Makers group received the City Shapers Award at this year’s Open City Young City Makers awards.

Young City Makers introduces primary school children to architecture and the built environment through real design briefs. Led by Carla Divry, Hagi Sivathasan and Sherief Al Rifai, the challenge set by Haptic was simple: redesign your journey to school.

As the children put it: “It was difficult, but it was like magic when the flat pieces became a city.”

Well done to our ever amazing Part 1’s for leading the workshops, Hagi Sivathasan and Carla Divry, who are endlessly contributing invaluable work and initiatives to our London office.

Thank you to Open City, the brilliant teachers, and all the young city-makers who reminded us that good design starts with imagination!