Design Club (11-14), October Half Term

Design Club is back at Young V&A on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October, as part of the museum's October Half Term festival. It's a space reserved for 11-14 year olds to work alongside designers and makers, with access to the museum's material library and books on design and materials. The sessions run from 12:00 to 16:00 both days, with slots at 12:00, 12:50, 13:40 and 15:15, and the last entry at 15:15.

This particular workshop is run from The Shed, a residency studio built right into the museum's Design Gallery. It's a working space where designers set up and share their practice, and designer Christie Swallow has been in residence there since July 2026. During the sessions, young people make bird housing models, drawing on Young V&A's architectural collections and working with a range of sustainable materials. It's a hands-on way to get a feel for how a designer actually works, rather than just seeing the finished thing on a plinth.

The workshop is one part of a wider half term festival at the museum, which also brings in calligraphy, virtual reality, illustration and photography workshops run by experts and set within the collections, alongside live performances of BBC Musical Storyland. If you're bringing a younger sibling along, there's a family activity running alongside in Open Studio for them to get stuck into while the older ones are in the club.

It's free to take part, and every participant needs to be accompanied by an adult. The sessions run on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October from 12:00 to 16:00, with slots at 12:00, 12:50, 13:40 and 15:15, and last entry at 15:15, at The Shed in the Design Gallery, Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9PA.