Description
The school environment lacks distinctiveness, it has turned into an indifferent space rather than a theatre of positive emotions and academic achievement. The Architecture's Pre-School project is designed to inspirit the school and to empower its key stakeholders, i.e. the students. The latter will be supported by parents and professionals and teachers. A group of several dozen secondary school students in Toruń will be tasked to design and deliver an outdoor classroom also to be used as recreation space/community garden for all (the school is part of a group of education establishments located among post-communist-style blocks of flats). The project will offer 60 hours of arts workshops addressing physical planning and landscaping. The participating young people will fulfil their needs for creative activity and contribute to improved appearance and functionality of the immediate surroundings of their school while removing an “unclaimed" spot from the local landscape.
Summary of project results
"Schools in Poland do not offer teaching about spatial planning. Young people only rarely can control the public space which is dedicated to them, e.g.modifying schools. They are never invited to join the designing process nor are they educated so that they are willing and capable of modifying it. In the long term, the project aimed at increasing the role of young people in managing and upgrading the school space by helping them acquire knowledge of the basic rules of user-friendly spatial planning and landscape design. 58 young participants applied the newly acquired information while drawing up blueprints and mock-ups for an outdoor classroom and greenery around the school, the latter shared with the local residents in the Mokre area. The project delivered 78 hours of spatial planning workshops; education materials were produced containing an urban planning design and workshop scenarios. A wrap-up event ('Take Away Sandwiches') was organised for 200 users of the upgraded school campus. A 10-minute fly on-the-wall video was produced. Beneficiaries included high schoolyouth aged 16 - 19 and residents of the Mokre estate in Toruń. One project partner, Wandering Architects Society, assisted in developing the resources and delivering workshops; the other partner, Secondary School number 7 in Torun, provided the site."
Summary of bilateral results