Soundings for Architecture 5 by Alvar Aalto Foundation

soundings

for

architecture

Children and architectural education

2005

page 2–3

pages 4–6, 11–16

pages 7–10

Perspectives

Projects

of soundings 5

Where are we going? Esa Laaksonen Finland

There were two alternative routes to my childhood home. In terms of distance travelled there was not very much to choose between them, but differences of opinion emerged the closer we got to home. I can remember how hard I used to try and persuade my father to drive a different way from the one he was used to.

but more difficult to my father; when you’re driving a car, the important thing is that the road is clear, but when you’re a passenger the situation is made more lively by spatial sequences and interesting details in the surroundings. The work of the architect consists of analysing the surroundings, so that the site is perceived as a part of the overall environment. The building

turn increases the chances of influencing town planning. However, our school system has not reacted to the aims set out in APOLI at all, in fact creative subjects are constantly being pruned from the curriculum. This is a trend that is not just senseless, but dangerous as well; it is a well-known fact that using both lobes of the brain simultaneously boosts learning and especially understanding what has already been learned and how to put it into practice.

There is a crying need for this kind of education

or the last two summers, the Alvar Aalto Academy has organised an international workshop in which architects have worked with children from the City of Jyväskylä to identify pedagogical methods of teaching us how to manage our environment. The comments of both the professional teachers and the children and young people who took part in the workshops suggest that the work has not been wasted and that there is a crying need for this kind of education. When, in summer 2004, we were able to dovetail courses into the ‘normal’ curriculum, (English and physics teaching), it produced good results from

the point of view of the whole school curriculum. I want to thank all those who took part on the organisational side, especially the course leader, Professor Eileen Adams and her team which in-

cluded four architects, Anna Hänninen, Pihla Meskanen, Jaana Räsänen, the Alvar Aalto Museum’s Curator for Education Teija Isohauta, and Katja Kervinen who is studying art history.

Esa Laaksonen, Architect SAFA, Director The Alvar Aalto Academy, Finland

➲ es a .l a a k so ne n @ a l va ra a l to.f i ➲ w w w. a l va ra a l to.f i Craig Dunn

he road my father favoured was orthogonal and direct, but mine went under bridges, round the sports field and past the sea, winding its way through a residential area to give us a fascinating oblique view of our house. It was not until later, when I was studying to be an architect, that it became clear to me why the route I favoured seemed more pleasant to me

emerges through analysis – synthesis from analysis. When analysing our surroundings we pay attention at least to the characteristics of space and landscape space, to scale (Man’s relationship to the landscape or the built environment), to colour and materials, to individual elements in nature and many other details that may even seem insignificant. Simultaneously we measure the relationship of the design task against the data we have registered: where shall we site the building, where shall we locate the entrance, how high can the building we’re designing be, what materials should we use? The skills of the architect are also of benefit to those people who do not have to locate new buildings in the future infrastructure on a daily basis. Everyone has to use the built environment and evaluate it in relation to the routes they take, for example. There are environments that are pleasant to be in and environments that are not pleasant to be in. It is important to environment users or consumers to be able to identify those factors that lead to a high-quality environment. In addition to other laudable goals, APOLI, the Architectural Policy Programme approved by the Finnish Government aims at increasing the environmental awareness of ordinary people. Environmental awareness in

Workshop report

Soundings for Architecture 5 M a r i Kova n e n Finland

co-operation with Alvar Aalto Museum and the City of Jyväskylä, Alvar Aalto Academy has arranged the two latest international workshops on children’s architectural education. The workshops have focused on early architectural education, with 36 architects, product designers, museum educators and art historians from more than a dozen countries. Participating

professionals have either represented their respective well-known institutions or been private individuals committed to the development and implementation of architectural education. Close cooperation with local schools has been a permanent feature in the workshops. The courses have given rise to an international architectural education network, PLAYCE association, registered in Finland. In August 2004 the Alvar Aalto Academy organised an international architecture workshop titled Soundings for Architecture

5 on the theme of architectural education at a general level for young people. The theme of the workshop to be planned by the participants and involving school pupils, was to deal with urban space and street furniture. During the workshop, the participating architects, designers and educators worked together with the students in groups of 4 adults and 4-5 students. READ THE WORKSHOP REPORT FROM PAGE 7 TO PAGE 10.

Mari Kovanen, Project Secretary, Finland The Alvar Aalto Academy

➲ ma ri. kova ne n @ a l va ra a l to.f i ➲ w w w.p l ayce.o rg

soundings

for

architecture

PERSPECTIVES

Built Environment Education – A Personal Perspective E i l e e n Ad a m s UK

Animation – a virtual world, pupils from Vale School working with a computer scientist and an artist.

School grounds – design for school grounds (drawing and collage) by nine-year-olds.

rchitecture and built-environment education is essentially about relationships between people and place. Education programmes must acknowledge how young people experience their environment, how they make sense of it, how they respond to it, how they make informed value judgements about aesthetic and design qualities, and how they are able to affect it. Most importantly, programmes need to encourage young people to see themselves as agents of change, able to deal with the process of change confidently, creatively and responsibly. The environment is increasingly made, shaped and controlled by human activity. In our concern with ecology, economics and politics, we also need to recognise the importance of the visual and formal qualities of places, the messages they convey and the meanings they generate. Without this perception, the environment comes to represent only utilitarian values and neglect the aesthetic and the spiritual. At the heart of education for sustainability must be relationships between people and places. The need is not necessarily for more science and technology education, but for better design education to understand how we might use science and technology to shape and manage the environment rather more responsibly and appropriately. There is a need for cultural education which questions how we choose to live, envisages better alternatives and addresses issues of how we can work together to achieve better environmental quality and a better quality of life – for everyone. As educators, we need to help our students see themselves as more active players in the scene, where they are able to influence the appearance, feel and meaning of our towns and cities. We need to recognise the value of design, not as creating artefacts, but as a range of processes, as a means of perception, a way of seeing the world, of creating cultural identity, of making meanings, of understanding who we are and creating our environment anew. A good

working definition of design is: That area of human experience, skills and knowledge that reflects man’s concern with the appreciation and adaptation of his surroundings in the light of his material and spiritual needs. In particular it relates with configuration, composition, meaning, value and purpose in man-made phenomena (Archer, 1975). The school curriculum is usually based on the past and what we already know. Design is about what we do not know. It is about imagining the future and making it happen. Design nurtures attitudes, skills and capabilities that will enable young people to deal with the experience of change. Design education requires approaches to learning and teaching, which are based on the generation of new knowledge and the development of skills and capabilities, rather than relying on transmission, absorption and regurgitation of information. It provides experience of working collaboratively and draws on different modes of thought and action primarily concerned with adaptation, transformation, invention and innovation. Recent initiatives in the UK by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, builds on previous pioneering work. It produces publications and supports a network of Architecture Centres around the UK that provide built-environment education programmes for young people, adult citizens and professionals. All of them encourage inter-professional collaboration in education. Some encourage school-based action research to develop the field, such as that promoted by the Campaign for Drawing. The need is to create a critical mass of educators involved in built environment education and to create more effective means to value, support and disseminate their work. A higher public profile and stronger voice for built-environment education in schools requires concerted and collaborative effort by education and design professionals, local and national government agencies, national organisations and through international collaboration.

E i l e e n Ad a m s, Leader of Power D r awing, t he e d uc ation progr amme of t he C ampaign for D r awing, UK . Cons ult ant, V isiting Ac ademic at Mid dles ex Univer sit y, London

Kitchen – analysis of the interior space in a kitchen by a 15-year-old.

➲ www.drawingpower.org.uk ➲ eileen.adams2@ukonline.co.uk

Regional Artist

Coordinator, architectural education for children and young people Jaana Räsänen Finland

began my work as regional artist for the Arts Council for the Province of Uusimaa on September 1, 2004. My job description includes promoting a number of things associated with architectural education for children and young people, such as networking, organising seminars, contributing to the development of a database and teaching material, and promoting, developing and giving advice on architectural education. I hope that during my term of office I shall be able to lead more and more children and young people to think about the importance of their own living environment and its architecture. This calls for architecture to be dealt with not

only in art schools and schools of architecture, but also in nurseries and comprehensive schools, where for the time being, teaching is deficient because of the lack of teaching materials and resources. To achieve this goal, I have been working with other players in the field, planning and carrying out several different projects. Themes have included participation by children in planning residential areas, starting architectural education at art school, developing an operating model for museum pedagogics, developing an Internet website for nationwide architectural education. One of the most interesting projects currently under way is concerned with preparing a joint theme day for schools on architecture and design. Although I take the view that a profound

understanding of architecture takes place by way of artistic thinking, architecture as a practical art provides the ingredients for integrated teaching. It has points of contact with almost all subjects. I challenge all those who work with children and young people to study architecture and the living environment from their own perspective and invite professional guests from the field to give added colour to the teaching. I hope that you can find beauty, adventure and opportunity in your environment.

There are Lapp huts with grassbeds... water pools are combined with brooks... reflector bridges are going over the brooks. Thyme in the middle of the railroad... it has small leaves... it smells good. (Marcus 6, when innovating a playground.)

J a a n a R ä s ä n e n, A rc hitec t SAFA , Regional A r tis t, Finland A r t s Council of Uusimaa, Helsink i

➲ www.intermin.fi/uudenmaantaidetoimikunta ➲ jaana.rasanen@saunalahti.fi

PERSPECTIVES

soundings

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URBS. Every year, teaching is organised in the workshop for about one hundred different groups. Besides the basic concepts of architecture and design, workshop topics include themes dealing with ecology and the environment, plus subjects associated with producing inventions and innovations. In 1999, the workshop acquired a director of its own to run it, which has had a decisive impact on its use and reputation. The workshops are aimed primarily at schoolchildren and those at nursery school. In addition to the workshop programme, the museum organ-

as individuals and we respect their opinions. Consequently, the museum aims to use professionals in all its teaching, whether the project calls for scientists or artists. Over the years we have been able to create an effective cooperation network comprising local actors and Finnish and foreign experts in the architectural and design field.

ises supplementary training for teachers, public lectures, and broader partnership projects. The main principle is that when projects are implemented they should bring out local needs – they should have everyday relevance to the target group involved. Thus fieldwork and going out into the surrounding urban space has taken on an ever more important role.

Ideas about people The most important ethical guiding principle has been that we treat all our customers, be they children or experts,

A variety of viewpoints and the beauty of everyday life The Alvar Aalto Museum

he Alvar Aalto Museum, which was designed by Alvar Aalto himself and completed in 1973, operated primarily as a museum of modern art until the end of 1997. Nevertheless, Alvar Aalto’s own work was regularly on show in various forms as,

too, was modern architecture from Finland and abroad. The first, more permanent exhibition on Aalto was opened in 1989 and, since the beginning of 1998, the museum has focused on showing Alvar Aalto’s work and on cherishing the Aalto heritage, in which education in architecture and design forms an integral part. The methods used include converting research into exhibitions and scenarios of various types

that are implemented using different tools, plus teaching work involving lectures and workshops; the key content, however, is always what Aalto’s work can give to today’s architects and designers.

Methods of architectural and design education

Te i j a I s o h a u t a, Cur ator for Ed uc ation, Finland A lvar A alto Mus eum

➲ www.alvaraalto.fi

PL AYCE - an Inter national A s s ociation for A rc hitec t ur al Ed uc ation

Broken roots J a n n e I n ke r o i n e n Finland

here is one incontrovertible fact that no amount of substantiation will disprove: the world does not grow. Against this background, it is astonishing how rarely the issue comes up in the everyday life of the average westerner. Material growth ensures wellbeing, or at least so we profess to believe. But what else do we need on top of this? In a material sense we have been completely satisfied for decades and even if material wellbeing or prosperity were to grow, spiritual wellbeing would not grow in anything like the same amount. Moreover, the materials we use do not return to the cycle of nature, but remain behind as concentrated poisons to pollute our environment. Major movements of materials overload the environment even more and this leads to the destruction of various species of living organisms, weakening

the quality of the soil and leading to erosion. This is something that affects all sub-areas of culture, both art and building culture. It takes tons of raw materials to make just one small design object. Where do we get this material and where do we put all the rubbish it gives rise to? Soon there will not be enough space left on the globe. There rarely seems to be the time to put things in perspective and examine the fallout from one’s own generation let alone the ability to see or think about the consequences many generations hence. There are approximately 20,000 artists in Finland who work professionally. If you calculate that each one of them makes a photograph, a picture a sculpture or something else, the end result is an enormous amount of discarded material. It is generally believed that artists can interpret, describe and criticise their own times, and in this day and age they

ought to be able to take their job a little more seriously. Displaying their own internal angst to the public is no longer necessarily sufficient, neither are exhibitions organised for selected sections of the public. What we need instead is community art, where the border between art and life as it is lived is removed. With the passing of the years, I have begun to reconstruct Finnish annual traditions and study our ancient roots to try and construct a fractionally more human rhythm for life today.

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➲ w w w. p l ayce.o r g ➲ teija.isohauta@alvaraalto.fi

Since the beginning of 1998, the museum has had its own workshop premises, known as

Working with groups of people of different ages is most fruitful and productive, because in those circumstances nobody needs to perform as an individual star. The same operating principle should run through building culture, as well, although architects, for instance, find it difficult to share their own turf with other people. The winds of change are blowing from the direction of architectural and environmental education for children. I hope the changes they bring with them will be for the good.

J a n n e I n ke r o i n e n, Environment al A r tis t, Finland

➲ jinkeroi@uiah.fi

Children’s corner

Te i j a I s o h a u t a Finland

WORKSHOP REPORT

THE PROJECT was an eye-opener on the way I look at the world and on working with other people. Anni Laukkanen

THE NICEST thing was working with other people coming from different cultures and different countries from me. The project really opened my eyes and made me see the urban surroundings in a new light. Essi Rintala THE BEST thing about the project was that we learned a lot of new things about creative skills. The final result the group produced wasn’t really important so long as the students learned something about creativity and expanded their own powers of imagination. William Lahti IT WAS a really enjoyable and eyeopening project, which gave us a new idea about our city and a new perspective on it and on studying the environment in general. It was great to be able to speak a foreign language and we had a lot of fun. Even though something was missing and we were in too much of a hurry all the time, I learnt an enormous amount in the process. Pyry Mikkonen

PROJECTS

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architecture

• Finally the details are negotiated with the teachers and headteacher of the school (time, content, material, choosing a class, etc.). During the 2003–2004 school year, 28 personal projects were realized, studies were carried out at 20 schools; we reached 1300 children. ‘1000 Architects at 1000 Schools’ is based on difference and variety. It is fed by differences. The schools vary; the age groups vary. We worked mostly with 11-15 year olds. Conceptual variety is dominant: nearby environment, sensibility, the class in my dreams, park design, time and the city, the layers of the city, city life and communication, playgrounds, the profession of architecture, sports fields, the perception of space, etc.

A Learning Process with Children R a b i a Ç i ð de m Ç avd a r Tur key

“Dreams are heard too.” (O. Aruoba)

ho learns from whom, who learns from where? Learning is based on communication, isn’t it? How do I construct myself?

I have been working with children for only two years. Before that, the last time I remembered being together with children was my own childhood. I have learned lots of things during these two years and I started to question the things that I tend to forget in the rush of life. I saw again that: • it is necessary to be open to diversity, innovation and surprises • I discovered that lots of the subjects I thought I had learned or understood recently, I actually learned as a child • it is worth being and staying different • human nature can design without special education • one of the most valuable things in life is dreaming. I chose to stay as a learner with children. By making boats, kites and planes from paper...I try to enjoy working with children. Although I have a position as a coordinator, I prefer to work, to produce things with children in a children and architecture project run by the Turkey Chamber of Architecture, Ankara Branch. Let me introduce the ‘Child and Architecture’ Project, especially ‘1000 Architects @1000 Schools’ The Child and Architecture project has been carried out in two directions. In the first of these, the programme is within the education system, and is carried out under the name ‘1000 Architects at 1000 Schools’. In the second; the programme is carried out outside the education system and is called ‘Meetings’. ‘Meetings’ are thought of as supporting the ‘1000 Architects at 1000 Schools’ project.

Where are we going? The evolution of the project... We have permits for the 2004–2005 academic year to continue the project. New models are being developed to encourage the attendance of other architects. New methods and tools have been developed that will facilitate the project. Sample application projects are being written. We are continuing to work with the support of AU-CCRC to make the project more structured and open to evaluation. We want the project to be carried out by the educators. So we are continuing our preparations to acquire the educational tools and guide books. A study group has been formed to evaluate the new architecture programmes for the Council of Instruction and Training, with a view to the regeneration of the new education programme. With this project, I have a chance to think about childhood and architecture, and to meet many different situations. If we realise that the time interval we call childhood is the designator of all the situations we face and the director of all the selections we make, we should be able to think about how we can enrich childhood. Things done or left undone, every difference and innovation picked up in childhood can be factors that affect the direction of our lives. Because of this, we should think how the processes experienced in collaboration with children can affect their lives. We can see that our performances, learning styles and opinions about concepts like freedom and collaboration can affect them deeply on the road to becoming adults. It is necessary to think about the times spent with children. This should be considered at three different times: before meeting, while meeting and after meeting. I think all communication in life is similar to this: there are thoughts and plans at first, during communication; plans can change because of different factors, the thoughts remaining after communication are your interpretation of the situation. Interpretation is personal; consequently everybody can say different things about the same situation. Fortunately, we are all different...

‘1000 Architects at 1000 Schools’ – Searching for quality in quantity An NGO work constructed from the personal contributions of architects. The project started in Ankara as a local initiative. The project is based on the principle of being voluntary; voluntary architect, voluntary school. In the project, the Chamber of Architects does the coordination and organisation, the architect is the one who carries out his or her own project at the school as a designer, the school and the officials have a position and help the children and architects to meet. The finance for the project is provided by the Chamber of Architects. It is the responsibility of the Chamber of Architects to document and publish the projects. About the application method: • Each architect (each team) defines the subject or the concept he wants to tell the children. • He chooses his own method of description freely. • They participate in a ‘Child and Adolescent Seminar’ programme. • The architects determine their own timing, taking into account the time necessary for the concept they want to explain. • The architects can choose their own school by showing their permit paper, or they can choose a school from a list of those that have applied to the Chamber of Architects. • The project created by the architect is evaluated by a specialist from the Center of Child Culture.

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Children’s corner

soundings

WORKSHOP REPORT Group A

Tourujoki

WE WERE TOLD very little about the coming project and what we were going to have to do in it. The first day we spent with our foreign visitors was taken up by getting to know each other. We thought up some fun name games in our own group and we went up in the Harju observation tower to admire our beautiful city, which is why those young architectural students had come here from all over the world. We showed them on the map two places that we wanted to change in Jyväskylä and how.

Group work OUR GROUP WAS made up of students from Norway, Turkey, England and Finland. We used English as our common language, so it wasn’t a problem that people came from different countries. I think it was jolly good to get different viewpoints and opinions about the project. Everyone was keen to take part in the coming work, even our longhaired Turkish cameraman.

Project idea THE REST OF the day we spent at Tourujoki, one of the two places we had chosen. What we had to do was to plan how to make Tourujoki a more pleasant place. We wanted people to go there more. On the last day we drew lots within the group to decide on the pairs that were going to work together. One student and one architect made the scale model that was going to show our ideas about Tourujoki. There was no limit to our imagination when I was making a circular jetty from a small piece of wood with Janne who came from Kotka. For the last half hour we showed our finished work to the other groups.

After the project THAT EVENING the opening ceremony for the exhibition was held at the university and taking part in it was voluntary. We admired photographs of our finished work and the work our group had done together over the first two days. We ate Finnish liquorice and said our sad farewells. Sadly I realised the week was already over. The architectural project left me with nothing but pleasant memories. During the project I learned an enormous amount more English and I learned how to work with different people. The team spirit in our group was one of the best and things got done very well indeed. Time was probably the only thing we didn’t have enough of. Elina Tolvanen R a b i a Ç i ð de m Ç avd a r, A rc hitec t, Tur key Chamb er of A rc hitec t s A nkar a Br anc h

➲ rabiaccavdar@mimarlarodasiankara.org ➲ rccavdar@gmail.com ➲ www.mimarlarodasiankara.org

PROJECTS

soundings

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architecture

Promoting the joy of learning

through architecture through Arkki Pi h l a M e s ka n e n Finland

rkki, the School of Architecture for Children and Youth will be 12 years old in 2005. Its objective is to promote architectural education in Finland. It was founded in 1993 by three architects, Tuuli TiitolaMeskanen, Miina Vuorinen and Pihla Meskanen. Every year, Arkki arranges various courses in architecture for 800 students aged 3 to 19. At any one moment there are 10-25 architects working as facilitators. Arkki also provides instructor courses in teaching architecture to teachers and

day-care personnel. Connected with the school premises at the Cable Factory in Helsinki, Arkki maintains an Architecture Gallery which shows changing exhibitions of architectural projects made by children and young people. Arkki provides continuing long-term courses and various short courses in architecture. Some of the most popular of these are hut-building camps. Creating spaces at 1:1 scale is especially inspiring for young people. By building traditional nomad huts they also learn about history, building traditions, different construction methods and use of natural materials. Learning in Arkki takes place through play and experimentation. The youngest join the architectural activities in child-parent groups and schoolchildren explore the secrets of architecture in groups of 12 supervised by an architect. Imaginary projects encourage the children and young people to investigate different aspects of architecture through 3D building experiments. Creativity and open-mindedness are encouraged in many ways and mostly the projects result in fantastic discoveries and

innovations, or interpretations of space and place. The most important factors in discovering architecture are the learning processes, the pleasure of doing and the joy of learning. There are no right or wrong answers in architecture, but instead many visions and interpretations. Architecture surrounds us everywhere we go. It creates our daily environment. In addition to being a creative hobby, architectural education gives young people the means to analyse, understand and evaluate their surroundings. This profound understanding enables them to grasp and be part of the decision-making process.

Pi h l a M e s ka n e n, A rc hitec t SAFA , Ed uc ator, Finland AR K K I, Sc hool of A rc hitec t ure for Children and Yout h

➲ www.arkki.net ➲ pihla.meskanen@mp.inet.fi

A Question of Democracy M a de l é n e We s t e r l u n d Swe den

believe that you are influenced by what you have around you. Today, most of us live in an environment that is manmade in one way or another. To me, it is most important that we have the tools to understand our surroundings. If you become aware of what is man-made, you also realise that you have an opportunity to change it. How? That is the process of democracy. In order to be able to change it, you also need to

know why it is the way it is, i.e. in what context the built environment is created. Then it is simply a question of history.

Use your senses I work at the Swedish Museum of Architecture. It is financed by the Swedish Government and is charged with explaining the art of building, studying social planning and conducting research on the built environment. At the museum I work with children and young people aged four to twenty. With the youngest, it is mostly

about experiencing different spaces with as many senses as possible. We walk about with mirrors, explore how different spaces sound and smell. We take a tour round the exhibition to see how people build their houses and with what materials. At the end of the tour, the children become urban planners and create their own town.

Ask the children It is important for me to take the children’s questions as a starting point and to begin at their level of knowledge, to give them an opportunity to gain the tools to understand their surroundings. With older children, the education programme also contains the same three parts, an exercise to open their senses, a guided tour on a selected theme and practical work to let them share their own ideas. The older they get, the more important the discussion on how you can influence your own environment becomes. Last year 3,270 pupils were involved in our educational programmes.

Children with families In 2004, 11% of the museum visitors were under sixteen. That makes a total of approximately 32,000 children, so most of the children come to the museum with their families. As people learn in various ways, we try to present the content of the museum in many different ways. You can borrow an audio guide, read, see pictures and models, touch materials and try out how different constructions work. One part of the museum, the Studio, is especially dedicated to younger children and they can play with architecture on their own terms there. During the holidays, the Studio is also used for educational workshops for families.

M a de l é n e We s t e r l u n d, Mus eum Ed uc ator, Swe den T he Swe dis h Mus eum of A rc hitec t ure

➲ www.arkitekturmuseet.se ➲ madelene.westerlund@arkitekturmuseet.se

PROJECTS

soundings

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architecture

Job Nieman T he Net her land s

an industrial designer and a teacher in industrial design, I was a bit surprised to be invited to Soundings 5. On the other hand, the theme ‘Designing for the Environment’ and the opportunity to work with children was very interesting and, considering my experience, I thought that what I could contribute would be to help the children discover that the solutions to problems are not as unattainable as they might think. I teach a course at the Hague University in the faculty of Industrial Engineering Design called ‘Basic Design’ (under my colleague David Harry) which, as the name suggests, focuses on discovering the designer in each of the students and developing their basic skills. The goal of the course is to stimulate the students to solve seemingly unsolvable problems, and make working models of their designs. The projects are aimed at making objects that can accomplish

The Jyväskeskus shopping centre

a specific task. Most of these involve making mechanical objects that use basic energy functions. Making a model that can climb a diagonal steel cable and in the process pick up a glass of water and empty it into a bucket, or packaging an egg with an A4 sheet of paper to protect it from a bowling ball seem to many students to be impossible tasks. Yet probably 75% of them manage to accomplish them. The actual learning consists of the amazement they feel and the discovery that they really can make objects that work. At Soundings 5, my group was determined to have the children not only design something, but make a fullsize model if possible. For me, the most satisfying moment of the workshop was at the presentation, when one of the other pupils actually used the 1:1 model of a litterbin to get rid of a sweet wrapper. The pride on our pupils’ faces was unforgettable. At the end, we changed their ‘fear’ of the problem into pride in the solution, and it all was done having a lot of fun.

– The heart of the city ON 24–26 AUGUST 2004, we took part in our school’s architecture project. We divided our class up into groups in advance and when the foreign architects arrived at our school, they were split up evenly between each group. My group was made up of Pyry, Heta, Essi, Anni and me from my class, and four architects, Anne from Scotland, Mie from Sweden, Hubert from Poland and Kalle from Finland.

First day

FIRST OF ALL we got to know each other; we made up badges with our names on and we drew something connected with Jyväskylä. What we had to do was to choose a place in Jyväskylä that we wanted to improve. We chose the area behind the Jyväskeskus shopping centre where the youngsters hang out to get away from their parents. Then we visited the place we had chosen, which we called ‘behind the JK’. We did various different exercises to get a clear idea about the place and then as homework we had to bring a few illustrations from home that showed the kind of urban environment we liked ourselves.

Second day J o b N i e m a n, Ind us t r ial Designer and Design Teac her, T he Net her land s

➲ j.nieman@qenep.nl

Working hands off

Svava R i e s t o Denmar k

nspiring children (and adults for that matter) to sharpen their senses is very important. But is it possible to stimulate other kinds of encounters between children and cultural expression? This story is about arts education, which has a longer history and in many countries is generally better supported than is unfortunately still the case with architectural education. Statens Museum for Kunst (the Danish National Gallery) launched the Children’s Art Museum in 1998. The museum collection includes paintings dating back to the 14th century. To make these artworks relevant to the youngest visitors, a supplement to the hands-on activities in the ubiquitous museum workshop was important.

A new and traditional museum for children A section in the museum has been furnished especially for children aged 6-12. Here, original artworks from the collections as well as loaned pieces are exhibited. This is unusual, since the main exhibition strategy in western arts education since the 1970s has been to show objects especially made for children. But this other strategy meant ‘hands-off ’ - no touching. Can children experience art with their eyes only? Of course they can. You don’t understand a still life any better if you touch it. Children can look, discuss and relate the content to their own lives. Guided tours were an important arena for such discussions. The Children’s Art Museum

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Children’s corner

Basic Design

WORKSHOP REPORT Group B

is based on the principle of limitation as aid to concentration. Sometimes there is only one artwork in a room. The exhibitions are often structured like those for grown ups: thematic, in terms of technique/materials or content/subjects. But there are no periodic or geographic parameters, since they mean very little to children at that age. Instead, themes that concern children are brought up, such as the Life and Death exhibition in 1999-2000. I was an educator at the Children’s Art Museum from 1998 to 2002. Today, I work with communications at SLA Landskabsarkitekter, Architects, teach architectural history at Copenhagen University and hold workshops on architecture for pupils at different schools.

FIRST OF ALL we took it in turns to look through all the illustrations and everyone explained why they had chosen the ones they had. Then we went ‘behind the JK’ again and the group split up into pairs and one threesome. We were each given a section of the area that we had to measure. After we had done the measuring we went back to school and, using the measurements, we began to make a scale model of the place. Making the model was quite difficult to start with and it took quite a long time. That pretty well wrapped up the day but we interviewed some people about the place and we used a package of different materials we took home with us to make ten proposals in miniature for improvements to the place.

Third day TO BEGIN WITH we went through the interviews and analysed them. Then we had a look at the kind of miniature furniture that everybody had built. Then Anni, Essi and I coloured different paper surfaces with different coloured pens and pencils and hung them up on the walls of our classroom. The papers give you some idea of the different kinds of surfaces there are even in such a small classroom as ours. While we were doing this, Pyry and Heta did some drawings with Anni. After that, Heta and I finished he model by replacing the old furniture with the new. We invented all kinds of new things for the place and the model was pretty good, even if I say so myself. Pyry, Anni and Essi drew a strip cartoon based on the interviews we had done. When everything was ready, we cleaned everything up and tidied up the room so it was ready for the presentation. Then we went and had lunch and began the presentation. We showed what we had done ourselves to the others. It all went very well. Everybody else showed their own work and then the school day was over again.

The opening ceremony ON THE EVENING of the third day we held an opening ceremony. All the architects were allowed to come, and the students and their parents. There was liquorice to eat, and we were able to talk about the project with different people and write down feedback and greetings. Some photographs were taken of the architects and the students together. The ceremony was an enjoyable climax to the end of the project. I think the whole project was good fun and all the architects were very nice. The only bad thing was that there wasn’t enough time and we spent too much time on the project all on the same day. Svava R i e s t o, MA , Ed uc ator, Denmar k

➲ svava@hum.ku.dk

Ep p u Rait tila

soundings

WORKSHOP REPORT

for

architecture

SOUNDINGS for ARCHITECTURE 5 Designing for the Environment, 21–27 August 2004 Jaana Räsänen Pi h l a M e s ka n e n Finland

his workshop was a continuation of the Soundings 4 workshop held in Jyväskylä in July 2003. The initiator for the project was Esa Laaksonen, head of Alvar Aalto Academy. The workshop gathered together architects interested in working in the field of architectural education and children. The aim was to involve architects and designers in an open discussion about architectural education, and develop ways of advancing architectural education in different countries. In 2003, 16 architects worked in Jyväskylä on the topic Elephant & butterfly The experiences gained were so promising that we decided to arrange a Soundings 5 workshop to continue the process started in the previous workshop. Soundings 5 offered a new type of interactive competence development and learning event, involving architects, designers and educators from various countries, a guest pedagogue and 9th grade students, as participants in the interactive workshop. The theme of the workshop to be planned by the participants and involving school pupils, was to deal with urban space and street furniture. The idea was to challenge the students to rethink the concept of street furniture from their own point of view and to create new street or city furniture that was of ‘their kind’ and would improve urban space, especially the spaces and places the young use themselves. The theme was chosen to relate to the Choices Alvar Aalto Design Seminar held in Jyväskylä at the same time. Soundings 5 involved 18 students from the 9th grade culture class at the Jyväskylä teacher-training school, 4 school teachers and a handwork supervisor, 16 architects, designers and educators from various countries, the guest pedagogue, and 7 members of the workshop planning team. Hopefully, the sphere of influence has grown even wider than that.

many ways; the best solution is a balance of all these factors. That is what designing is always about... Choices. Job Nieman, participating designer.

The Designing for the Environment workshop consisted of four phases:

environment, how they are able to make sense of it, how they respond to it, what it means to them and to others and how they are able to influence it. I am particularly interested in how they see themselves as agents of change and how they are able to deal with the process of change confidently, creatively and responsibly. Environmental design offers educators a vehicle to address these issues. It involves design awareness, critical study and design activity. These three elements have provided the framework for our work with young people this week. Eileen Adams

1 3

‘

In my view, Designing for the Environment is about how to create something (product, furniture, achitecture) that changes the environment it is in, and how quality of life depends on the environment we live in. Using friendly materials, recycling, etc. is designing for the environment, and making life better for people (in terms of comfort, health, happiness) is also designing for the environment. It is a combination of different design factors such as materials, production, energy, climate, people, costs. They all influence the environment in

The first phase, pre-studies for the school students, was carried out at the school before the actual workshop with foreign participants began. This phase involved art, handwork, mathematics and English teachers and a handwork supervisor. Through them, the students became familiar with the theme urban space and street furniture. First, the key concepts were introduced through a themerelated documentary Livet mellem husene (by the architect Jan Gehl) and a discussion. Then words related to architecture and design were studied in the English class, human dimensions and proportions in maths, materials and modelmaking in handwork. Finally, in the art class, a walking tour was made around Jyväskylä to look at the existing street furniture and the places where the young might want to make improvements. The students also photographed the street furniture and the places, and made posters of the resulting pictures. The aim of the preliminary studies was to create qualifications for communication, arouse interest, raise questions and gain knowledge on archi-tecture and on the theme urban space and street furniture, since the actual workshop with the architects was only to last for three days. The prestudies (6 hours) were guided by instructions made by the workshop planning team. The contents and working methods of the workshop were not predetermined, but a pedagogical framework formed by guiding questions was planned in advance. The second phase, mapping objectives and creating contents, challenged the participating architects, designers and educators to plan an interactive workshop for 9th grade students with each other and Eileen Adams, the guest pedagogue, who brought her own expertise to the workshop.

‘

As an educator, I am interested in what young people learn in order to understand, to think and to take action. I am interested in how they learn. I am interested in why they learn, and what they use their learning for. The starting points are how they experience their

The third phase was a workshop with the students, 4 adults working with 4-5 students. One adult in each group who could speak Finnish, but most of the work was conducted in English. After getting to know each other, the students presented the photographs they had taken during the walking tour prior to the workshop. Three afternoon sessions included the following elements in a framework for study suggested by Eileen Adams. She explains:

‘

Brief The original brief was to design street furniture. We extended this to consider both the need for creating any change in the streetscape, taking account of the environmental context and thinking about the possible impact of our design proposal. So we focused not only on objects, but also on interrelationships between structures, spaces and people.

Design awareness Direct experience of the environment of Jyvaskylä provided a wonderful stimulus for study. The aim was to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of what already existed and also to help them to consider what might be. Design awareness is about young people making sense of their experience, and finding meanings about the world they inhabit. In the streetwork sessions, participants were asked to pay attention to how to extend their awareness of design, aesthetic and design vocabulary, techniques for observation and analysis, and techniques for recording information. Afterwards, students were asked to find information and examples from other sources to extend what they had learnt from first-hand experience.

Critical study Students were involved in critical study throughout the project. The word ‘critical’ is derived from the Greek word ‘kritos’, meaning ‘a judge’. It implies weighing evidence. This is based on a questioning stance. Students were asked to make judgements about aesthetic or

design qualities, to form opinions and to discuss and explain them. In discussing their experience of the townscape, students were asked to consider aesthetic and design qualities, what worked and what did not, and what was the need or opportunity for change - what was the problem to be solved.

Design activity In the design activity in the studios and workshop, students were asked to develop proposals for change and improvement, maybe to transform or to adapt something that existed, or to come up with something new. Problem identification and problem solving required young people to make connections, develop insights, make informed guesses and follow up hunches. This required empathy and intuition. Design develops young people’s abilities to hypothesise and to visualise possibilities as yet unknown. Imagination and fantasy are important here, as are technical skills, to generate, develop and test out ideas before putting them into effect. Social and interpersonal skills were required in team-working and shared decision-making. It was evident that every design decision involved conflict and compromise. Through designing, students need to learn to deal with disappointment, frustration and failure. Design is about seeing new relationships or alternatives, learning to shape and control the environment, planning ahead and problem-solving (design activity), making choices, making decisions and making things happen (implementation).

Presentation Sketches, plans, designs, prototypes, models, mock-ups and maquettes allowed students to share their work with peers and teachers, to get feedback on their thinking and to test out their ideas in a sympathetic setting. It was evident that the most valuable outcome is not what has been designed. It is what has been learnt in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills. Eileen Adams

The fourth phase for the adult participants involved a reflection on the experience of learning and teaching, culminating in the workshop exhibition, displayed the working processes of each group and the ideas that came up. The exhibition was arranged in conjunction with the international Choices seminar, in the main lobby of the University of Jyväskylä. A grand opening was held the evening after the workshop had finished, which received wide coverage in local and national newspapers. WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS WILL BE FOUND ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES.

Soundings-participants Laurent Tardieu (top), Katja Kervinen, Craig Dunn, Madeléne Westerlund, Jaana Räsänen, Job Nieman and Manny Juarez.

The workshop seen from the school viewpoint Ke r t t u N u o r a n n e Finland

the target group for the Soundings for Architecture Work-shop, we chose a ninth class with a cultural education bias. The class curriculum involves more integration between the different subjects than is normally carried out throughout the entire secondary school. Consequently, this architectural education project seemed to fit in well with the curriculum; from the school’s point of view, there might be various subjects involved, not only art, maths and technical work but English, too; after all, we were promised an international group of architectural students as visiting teachers. We waited enthusiastically for the project to begin. The most difficult thing as far as the school was concerned was certainly the rigidity of the school system; it took a good deal of work to adapt the students’ daily routine and find a functional space that was available for four groups to do project work, while the everyday routine of the rest of the school continued as normal at the same time. For the students, the suspense factor was communicating in English. The project indeed offered a valuable and authentic opportunity to study English – the students were able to hear nativespeaker English of various kinds and English spoken as a foreign language, as well. This gave new impetus to their language studies. From the point of view of mathematics, the students took a look at architecture the previous spring, considering how maths was linked with

architecture in general terms. Although the contribution of the workshop itself was more a matter of teaching through experience rather than through hard facts, the students were certainly allowed to think about the issue of how much the architect has to take practical limitations into account in his designs. As far as the implementation of the project was concerned, it was left slightly unfinished – we did not manage to do everything we had hoped. This was mainly the result of lack of time and the fact that we focused more on the thought processes and the design side than on putting design into practice. Unfortunately, we could not continue to complete the project once the work was over – again because of school routines; the students no longer had voluntary classes in technical work where they could have finished off the street furniture. Nevertheless, the important thing was what went on in the students’ minds. Everyday observations were enriched and became more sensitive. Many of the students said that they looked at the city and its street furniture in a completely new light. They realised that behind every part of the urban fabric, be it a building or an item of street furniture, there is a design process. The idea was also aroused in their minds that every citizen has the opportunity to influence what the environment is like or to have an opinion about it. The students became aware of their own relationship with design and the built environment, what it looks like and how we experience it from a personal point of view.

Ke r t t u N u o r a n n e, A r t Teac her, Finland Jy väs k ylä Teac her Tr aining Sc hool

➲ kerttu.nuoranne@norssi.jyu.fi

group

WORKSHOP REPORT

Our objectives are: finding the differences and the relationship between the urban and the natural environment and making the young people more aware of their environment.

group

architecture

Getting to know each other and the city After name game the students showed the sites on a walk tour and told their opinions of the city. A nearby hill gave views of the whole town and the surrounding lakes. At school the pupils presented the photographs they had taken in advance. Everyone picked a photo they found most interesting or intriguing and talked about it. Widening perspective of street furniture Image game - could a rock be a seat? In order to further the concept of what street furniture might be, a short observation and sketch design exercise was held exploring the ways in which nature or found objects might fulfil the function of street furniture in chosen photographs. Deciding on the site based on the young peoples perspective of the city The students were asked to map their experience and perception of their town

by inventing symbols on the map to build a picture of the city through their eyes for the visitors. The photographs taken in advance were related to the emerging picture of the town. Reflections and discussion led to the young people to take the adults to a city tour to some of the key areas. City Tour – finding the meaning of spaces The students lead the adults to places where they hang out and places, which they considered polluted or intimidated, and thus needing improvement. This exploration was very much a team effort: in trying to help the adults understand more about the town, the young people voiced their own thoughts, exercising their critical skills and crystallising their opinions. Places with negative auras were examined and discussed. Things were collected from the site for a sculpture.

Day 1 / Tuesday

(est)

Anne Cunningham, Kalle Hamm, Anni Laukkanen, Pyry Mikkonen, Eppu Raittila, Essi Rintala, Mie Svennberg, Hubert Trammer

Our objective is to find a place that the pupils dislike and make a plan to improve it.

group

for

Day 1 / Tuesday

(mazing)

Rabia Cigdem Cavdar, Ida Halonen, Janne Inkeroinen, Jyri Lisowsky, Juuso Paavola, Rosie Parnell, Svava Riesto, Lauri Takatalo, Elina Tolvanen

soundings

Getting to know each other A game was played - this is me, who are you? Selecting the site Photos taken by the students were discussed. Why did they like or dislike the photographed places? After a walking tour the students chose one of the places which they called “Behind the JK” which was a backyard of a supermarket where young people hung out smoking and drinking. The place was considered forbidden but tempting.

Day 1 / Tuesday Introduction Ourselves: By making animal name tags the favourite animals were used as a playful way of getting to know each other. Preliminary work: The students introduced the photos (existing street furniture and places) they had taken before the workshop. The places were marked on the map, discussed and evaluated (smile face analysis) together. Do they araise positive or negative feelings? Program: The adults described the becoming process, the schedule and the meaning of the workshop.

Guja Dogg, Manny Juarez, Kaisa Järvelä, Heta Hämäläinen, Säde Kalaja, Kalle Kuokkanen, Juho Loukiala, Job Nieman, Madeléne Westerlund

City tour and quick drawings While the students led a tour around their town, the guests guided them to observe their surroundings by framedrawing and to talk about the qualities of places. This way the students were let to know that they were the ones who were going to do things, and the adults would just help them.

Our objective is taking an analysis through a process to a finished object.

group

Homework – interview The first day was summarized by discussion. As homework the students were asked to interview people from different age groups. How do they use the chosen place? How do they experience it? In addition everyone was asked to bring two pictures of places he or she liked.

Investigating space at the site The space was investigated by moving in space, then suddenly stopping, looking close up and far away and drawing quick sketches of the sights. Other senses were used blindfolded. The blind one was lead around the space listening and smelling. Different surfaces were studied by making quick frottages until the rain forced to run for

(reative)

Donuts and decision The rain gave an opportunity to have a relaxing break with donuts. The students started to tell their ideas: trash cans have

Day 1 / Tuesday Introduction Individual introductions were made by drawing a story of one self on the “table” (drawing on a big paper covering the table fixed by facilitators before the arrival of the students). Each person had 30-second time to draw and tell a story of one’s hobbies, interests, pets, family etc. Next a continuous drawing was made on folded paper, each person continuing the picture by seeing only few lines at the folding point (“gypsy diary”). Finally the design project was introduced to the students.

(ynamic)

Craig Dunn, Henna Jaatinen, Mitra Hedman, Hanna Kakko, William Lahti, Panu Lönnblad, Siiri Raasakka, Laurent Tardieu Our objectives are: to have fun, to learn from each other and the students and develop design ideas and knowledge.

shelter. Finally it was observed how people use the place. How do they go through it? How do they hang out there? The routes were first drawn on the ground with coloured chalk and then marked on the map.

Exploring the city The students introduced their preliminary work photos of Jyväskylä City. The photographed places were located on a big map of Jyväskylä by means of marking them. + and – marks were added on these sites on the map according to the opinions of students.

to exist since nobody wants to see the trash, the smell should be prevented by wunderbaum, people should know where the cans are but not see them, there could be hidden walking cans that come when called. There was a quick agreement on the site, which was considered a nice place in general but because of garbage and poor design it was also found dirty and ugly. Better trash cans are needed! Perception exercises and sensorial mapping The group was sensing the site, by lying on the ground, looking up and drawing. Different materials and surfaces were sensed by being led blindfolded. This way the students started experiencing the surroundings differently. It was a little foolish but still a good way of discovering new things. The students chose the theme of their sensorial maps: colour, smell, height, materials, routing, light, entrances, functions etc. Since each map gave a different result, the students started to analyse the park with an increasing interest. Now they understood why people walked by

certain paths and not others, or how the trees sheltered the playground. Summary and homework Summary: Think about the discovered problem, look around at trashcans and choose an animal related to the problem TRASH CAN (making the day a complete circle by returning to the first exercise). Pelican, fox, dog, elephant, malpie and flie!

soundings

for

architecture

Day 2 / Wednesday

WORKSHOP REPORT

Analysis through artwork Building a collective sculpture: Found objects gathered on the town centre tour were used to collaboratively build sculptures of genius loci. Sketching on the final site: The final site - the river site - was selected for design development and everyone carried out sketching on site, giving the place different qualities through various sketching techniques. Finding the way: Making maps showing the route to the river from school and the significant things on the way. Drawing analysis of the place: Choosing a character (clown, baby, drunken man...) cartoons were drawn about what they might do at the river. All these exploratory and analytical techniques were intended to increase understanding of the qualities of the place that made it successful and the particular aspects that could be improved.

�� Day 2 / Wednesday Do you like what I like? The day began by looking at and discussing the pictures each person had brought. The factors that made the place nice were listed: greenery, rich details, the alternation of light and shadow, certain colours and materials, tidiness, comfortable benches or other possibility to sit. According to the interviews younger children found the place scary and dark, adults just used it as trespass to shorten their route somewhere else and young people used it for meeting friends and smoking secretly since nobody could see them there.

Homework - ten ideas for change Think of ten ideas (street furniture, water, plants etc.) to improve the place and make sketches of the ideas.

Being architect, measuring space Measurements with hands and feet were done of the proportions of the space and the locations of street furniture back at the site. Making a model While the students were left on their own to build a scale model of the place the adults prepared homework and gathered a material package for next days model building.

�� Day 2 / Wednesday Annotated sketches, judgements, connections After reviewing the day before and discussing the references it was time to draw, describe and discuss the selected animals. Why would they be good trash cans? Which characteristics of the animals were good or bad for a trash can? Rotating the drawings made everyone involved in each other’s animal. Things good or bad were listed and put as post-its on the wall. The discussion of the results led to think about how to design the trash can.

combinations were made by using the found materials. Design and product proposal The day was summarized by each one drawing a proposal for a complete trash can.

Material, form, function and ergonomics Research in groups of one adult and one student: Materials were gathered, shapes discovered, function evaluated and ergonomics researched by measuring different people and the way they threw something in the trash. This way the dimensions of the trash can and the form of its opening were decided. After the study the results were discussed together.Combining form and material: What kind of materials and forms could be used to build a trash can? Is there a connection between materials and forms? Various

��

Day 2 / Wednesday A tour around favourite places The students were asked the best way to describe the city. They decided to take the adults for a tour around their favourite spaces and exciting places as well as to show the secret and the ugly places. Examining the places - serial vision sketching The examination was done by drawing one picture at each step about smells, feelings, atmosphere, image, sounds and taste from students` choice of viewpoint and place. Facilitators wanted to give freedom of choice and reinforce the feeling of “ownership” of the project to the students. Comments, feelings, and ideas on how to identify the city were written down. Special place that changed the project On the way back to school the students suddenly decided to take the adults to a special place, the water tower! The tower was so impressive, it changed the course of the whole project. Everybody felt extremely interested in the potentials of that place. From the top floor of the tower one could see the whole city; the school,

the students` homes... The students’ homes were marked on the map while looking at them from the tower. Evaluation and conceptual modelling exercise Evaluation of the drawings and comments was made back at the school A model making game was held with quick 3D models on themes such as “blue”, “dance”, “elephant”. The students were first intimidated and afraid of doing 3D models since they hadn’t done them before very much. In a short while they were very happy when they saw they could achieve nice models.

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Day 3 / Thursday

WORKSHOP REPORT

soundings

for

architecture

Design development Quick generation: Drawing 5 ideas for the site in 5 minutes, then taking each other’s drawings and drawing 5 variations on the most promising idea. In context: Drawing the ideas on the site photos. Voting: The swing, swinging light and pier are chosen. Design in action: Working in pairs we focused on form, materials, site and letting people know about the new installation. The design is developed in sketches and models.

(mazing)

Representation The photo of the site is used to scale the model. A model is built using a bagel! Photos of the model with a photo in the background were taken and an imaginary invitation was made for inhabitants to the opening party of the improved site. Highlights: They showed us the sights – we saw Jyväskylä from their point of view. They took us to their favourite places. We got to see where they live, do sports, meet each other... It was nice seeing the beautiful city on such a lovely day.

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Day 3 / Thursday

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Decision time - five changes! The students presented their sketches. Everyone had ideas of improvement that concerned increasing greenery (plants), comfortable benches, light and tidiness (by adding for example garbage cans and ashtrays). Some kind of aesthetic improvement by art work or change of colour was also considered necessary.

(est)

Modelling physical change One idea from each student’s ideas was chosen as basis for further development. The ideas were then brought into the scale model of the place. Cartoon - a behaviour change As a last activity the physical changes were evaluated. How would they affect people’s behaviour, the way they use the place? Short cartoons were drawn showing how people from different age groups would use the place now and after the changes.

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Day 3 / Thursday Modelling and presentation The day started by discussing the designs of the previous day and making clay models of them. Each model was analysed and discussed throughly, thinking of all the information gathered earlier. The best places to situate the trashcans were chosen by using the sensorial maps of the park. The best design ideas from the clay models were democraticly picked and combined for the final 1:1 model. At the end some worked busily on the final model (different parts, materials, colours etc.) while others prepared the presentation.

(reative)

Highlights: Lying on the ground, giving the students many new ways to perceive. Personal comments in the end of the day. Kaisa said that she saw things in a new way and saw MORE !

��

�

Day 3 / Thursday

Finalising design ideas Collaborative teamwork was done to pull together ideas and 3-dimesional designs and information. All ideas of improving the place were discussed and different opinions considered. The means to alter the place were decided together.

(ynamic)

Design Small models were made of different furniture designed for the water tower view place. The key ideas were written in small signs and added into the model. Preparing the final presentation A collage model of the space and furniture was made including real photographs of the views as the windows.

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Children’s corner

PROJECTS WORKSHOP REPORT Group C

soundings

for

architecture

Kiasmatic tours

Architectural education in the temple of contemporary art

A litterbin for Keskustie

In autumn 2004, our class, 9B, took part in an architectural project. Besides our class, several young architects and architectural students also took part in the project. The idea of the project was to design and build an item of street furniture.

THE architects and the students were divided up into groups of about eight people who were going to work together. My group was made up of me and three of my classmates, Säde, Kalle and Juho, plus four architects. The architects in our group came from the USA, Holland, Sweden and Iceland. The people were friendly and open. BEFORE our foreign teachers arrived we had made preparations for the project by taking photographs of nice and nasty street furniture and outdoor spaces. Our project got underway by making use of the photographs we had taken. We went to look at the street furniture that appeared in our photos in reality. For the thing that we were going to change, we chose a litterbin on a little road in a park near the city. HAVING chosen what we were going to work on, we did several exercises on it. One pair shut their eyes and another pair took them close to some interesting material or place. When the other pair gave the word, the pair that was being taken round were allowed to open their eyes, just for a second, and then close them again. Then they had to tell what they had seen. We also lay down on the ground and drew what we could see when we looked straight upwards. The exercises helped us to get a better idea about space. THEN we drew sketches at school and thought about the good features of a litterbin. We worked in pairs, one student and one teacher. We allocated different topics to the pairs and started investigating them. The topics were functionality, form and material. On the basis of our investigations we made a full-size model of our litterbin. Then we showed the final result to the other groups. IN MY opinion, the project was a successful one, which brought a bit of extra spice over and above normal school work. True enough, there wasn’t nearly enough time and the final model was made in a terrible hurry. Because of the project I’ve learnt to pay attention to little things in the environment and I now understand how small details can make the city much more pleasant. K ais a Jär velä

R i i k ka H a a p a l a i n e n Kalle Hamm Finland

rchitectural education at Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, is based on the architecturally important building the museum occupies and its position in the townscape right in the heart of Helsinki. The Kiasma building, which was opened in 1998, was designed by the respected American architect Steven Holl. Although the Kiasma exhibition programme focuses on Finnish and foreign contemporary art, the museum also offers children and young people ‘hands-on’ activity tours of Kiasma’s architecture and history. On these ‘Kiasmatic tours’ and under the guide’s leadership, visitors can investigate the museum building using the senses on many levels;

besides speech and discussion, the guided tours incorporate various activities which encourage the visitors to look at the space and experience it from different perspectives. Each activity tour lasts about one and a half hours and focuses in turn on the main elements of the museum’s architecture, such as the sequences of exhibition galleries, stairways and materials or lighting, and on the smallest details, such as door handles or light fittings. Moreover, during the ninetyminute tour, the visitors are encouraged to think how the design of each of the exhibitions that is on show affects the way they experience the space and the art themselves. Steven Holl’s Kiasma is designed at the human scale: the dimensioning of the spaces is based on the human body and the most important building material is light. The building

museum windows and think about the relationship of the building with the ideals of the surrounding town planning and architecture.

has plenty of translucent glass surfaces and windows giving different views over the capital, framed in surprising ways; so the visitors on a Kiasmatic tour also take a look out of the

R i i k ka H a a p a l a i n e n, Head of Ed uc ation, Finland K ias ma, t he Mus eum of Contemp or ar y A r t

➲ www.kiasma.fi

K a l l e H a m m, Ed uc ation O f f icer at K ias ma, Par ticipant of t he Soundings wor k s ho p

➲ ka lle.ha mm @ kiasma.f i

2nd International Alvar Aalto Research Conference on Modern Architecture 12 –14 August 2005, Jyväskylä, Finland

architecture + art new visions, new strategies

This international conference brings together researchers and practitioners in art and architecture to reﬂect on and discuss the intersection between art and architecture. The focus will be on shared material practices and intellectual projects during a period that spans from the immediate aftermath of the Second World War to the present. Invited speakers and those presenting papers will map out developments in various parts of the globe which led to the reassessment of disciplinary conventions and boundaries in both ﬁelds. We invite you to come and learn from our speakers and share thoughts on this ongoing project. Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen

INVITED LECTURERS Joan Ockman Romy Golan

The Postwar Synthesis of the Arts Discourse: Polemics and Counterpolemics from Groupe Espace to Unitary Urbanism

“In Corpore Vili”: Italy and the Concept of “Synthesis of the Arts”

Branden W. Joseph

Plastic Empathy, The Time of Mourning, and Robert Whitman’s Expanded Cinema

Felicity Scott

Media Ecology

Juhani Pallasmaa Caroline Bos

Aesthetic and Existential Space – the Dialectics of Art and Architecture “Whatever Happened to the Artist-Architect?”

GENERAL INFORMATION Registrations costs

by June 30th

After June 30th

Full registration*

150 €

200 €

30 €

50 €

80 €

Students / postgraduate students One day One day for students

Conference board

Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Yale University Romy Golan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, City University of New York Juhani Pallasmaa, Architect, Professor

20 €

SAFA members are entitled to a 15% discount.

The ofﬁcial language of the conference is English.

Esa Laaksonen, Architect, Director, Alvar Aalto Academy

Organisers

Alvar Aalto Academy | www.alvaraalto.fi Alvar Aalto Museum | www.alvaraalto.fi City of Jyväskylä | www.jyvaskyla.fi

Conference post-tour by Arch-Tours Ltd. | www.archtours.ﬁ

REGISTRATION AND FURTHER INFORMATION:

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architecture + art new visions new strategies

12.4.2005, 10:29:39

12 PROJECTS

soundings

for

architecture

Basics and poetry Guja Dögg Iceland

Background

took my architectural degree at the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, and shortly after graduation I started teaching at the same school, mainly dealing with new approaches to the teaching structure and methods. Back in Iceland again, some years later, I have been involved in teaching and communicating architecture to people of all ages, from introductory workshops for 6-10 year old kids to teaching the task of ‘reading houses’ in courses for 20-60 year old adults, as well as doing productions for National Television and Radio, and currently writing educational material on architecture (book and CD) for an experimental project for school children aged 12-14. I have always been interested in experimenting, analysing and communicating this exiting field which stretches from technique to poesia, from human nature to culture, with an emphasis on the creative approach.

for the ‘mass’ building they use plastic clay. They are given a function to live up to: (a) a tower for bird-watching or life-saving and (b) a room for meditative withdrawal, and they have to deal with or express the inherent character and ‘will’ of each material and structure.

Genius Loci This was part of a bigger project at the Reykjavík Art Festival, where I focused on the oldest shopping street in Reykjavík, which is interesting because of the patchwork of buildings of all ages and styles from 1880 to the present day. The theme for the kids aged 17-19 was ‘Genius Loci’

or the spirit of the place, and it was dealt with in 2-dimensional analysis on a personal basis. The kids looked at mapping various phenomena, and finished the work using a digital approach.

Institutes I have worked on a freelance basis in many places, for instance setting up courses at the upper secondary level at Fjölbrautaskólinn í Breiðholti (w w w.fb.is) and in collaboration with the Reykjavík School of Visual Art (w w w. myndlistaskolinn.is), which is establishing excellent courses for kids in architecture and design in Iceland.

Skeleton and mass This project deals with the basic structures of building and is set up as a ‘learning by doing’ project, as the kids, aged 14-16 and all at secondary school have to work with models; for the ‘skeleton’ building they use wooden sticks,

G u j a D ö g g, A rc hitec t f ai, Iceland

➲ gujadogg@strik.is

Architectural consultant for children and youth M i e Sve n n b e r g Swe den

y name is Mie Svennberg. I’m an architect, and for the last couple of years I have been working as an architectural consultant for children and young people for the City of Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland Region. My task is to encourage teachers to work with architecture and urban design in schools. To help me, I have a vast network of cultural coordinators from Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland Region. They meet teachers and others in the municipalities to spread information. I work with five or six architects who visit schools and carry out projects with children, young people and teachers. The more work we do, the more schools are interested in joining us. Examples of projects can be to make proposals for restoring schoolyards and playgrounds, together with the children. I am a member of the Swedish Association of Architects and we have a group that works on questions concerning children and architecture. This group investigated how to get architecture onto the curriculum in schools in conjunction

with the Swedish School Department. We are slowly developing better contacts with institutes of education and, last autumn, we had a small road show, which visited some institutes in Sweden and held seminars and workshops. At the moment I work with Chalmers Architecture and the Gothenburg Institute of Education, planning a course for architectural students and teacher trainees. One of the projects that I’m involved in right now is a waterfront area in Gothenburg. A three-kilometre tunnel is being built in the heart of the city to reduce thorough traffic and create contact with the water. The leading politicians in Gothenburg have decided to try to get an in-depth dialogue going with the citizens. My task is to encourage children and youngsters to give me their visions for the area. Three architects are working in 12 schools in Gothenburg this spring. In the autumn, groups consisting of experts and laymen will be formed to work with these visions. In spring 2006, the visions will be realised and from them, plans for the new Gothenburg waterfront will be made. I believe that it is important

for children and youngsters to have the opportunity to become involved in discussions about their own surroundings. It is a question of democracy to be aware of the potential for influencing society in different ways. But politicians, planners and architects have much to gain from listening to kids who are experts on their own environment and how they use it. But democracy demands knowledge, which is something I hope I and the architects I work with can inspire the kids and their teachers to go out and seek.

M i e Sve n n b e r g, A rc hitec t, Swe den A rc hitec t ur al Cons ult ant, Cit y of Göte b org

➲ www.kultur.goteborg.se ➲ mie.svennberg@kultur.goteborg.se

for

architecture

Gateway to Architecture teaching of architecture, but the learning itself takes place using play and experiment.

The Fantasy Gate

Henna Jaatinen Finland

ince graduating as a B.Sc. in architecture I have continued my studies to become an art teacher. In my diploma work I became interested in finding out about architectural education and how it is taught. In the 1990s, children were given long-term education at only a few schools, based on leisure activities. One of these schools for children is ‘Arkki’. The Arkki written curriculum and extended documentation (portfolios, photos, clippings, etc.) made my study possible.

Keywords The crux of my study was the fact that we need information about informative content in this subject. I found the basic concepts in the Arkki curriculum and also in the national architecture curriculum; these are space, time, place, form, scale, structure, light and acoustics. From the different themes I traced how the different concepts are processed in lessons. For each concept I found the lessons that describe the concept best. My study shows the conceptual and informative point of view for the

At the end of May 2004, I was organising some workshops for classes at Rauma Art Museum financed by the local cultural centre for children. The children were shown some samples of historically interesting gates, which inspired them to build their own fantasy gates. Old Rauma (the largest unified historic wooden town in the Nordic countries) also offers many examples of gates. Every

child made one small gate to take home, from recycled materials. At the end of the workshop, one group of children aged 5 to 12 made a gate at a scale of one to one. After exchanging ideas about construction, the children built the gate from wood, wire and cardboard. In this finished project and in my work at a children’s art school, awareness of the basic concepts helps me to understand what to teach and how to approach architecture with children. Consciousness of different aspects of familiar things make teaching, understanding and learning become reality.

H e n n a J a a t i n e n ( neé Salo -Tuis ku ) , MA , B.Sc. ( A rc h.) , A r t Teac her, Finland Por i A r t Sc hool for Children and Yout h

➲ www.pori.fi/taidekoulu/lapset ➲ henna.jaatinen@pori.fi

Creative Learning and Thinking Craig Dunn UK

y participation in architectural educational workshops began shortly after leaving university when I became involved in model-making workshops for students interested in pursuing a career in architecture and/or design, held at the Lighthouse (Scotland’s Centre for Architecture and Design) during Glasgow’s ‘Architecture Week’ Students were encouraged to examine a building they had seen on the bus tour and interpret it into model format. This led to my involvement in the Architecture in Schools Workshops for secondaryschool art and design teachers, showing how model-making can be used as a way to

introduce the basis concepts of architectural scale. In July 2001, I began working with mckeown alexander architects (now jmarchitects) where I have become in-volved in a vast range of pro-jects (commercial, leisure, residential & educational). At jmarchitects we are currently working on the first phase of the Clydebank Rebuilt Public Realm works, which is currently on site. Recently I was involved initially in the Clydebank Rebuilt model-making workshop with schoolchildren from Clydebank, where each participant produced a card model of a building in Clydebank. Over 25 schools participated, resulting in a huge model of the town, which was then displayed at the offices of the regeneration company. (www.clydebankrebuilt.co.uk).

I subsequently facilitated a series of Community workshops in Clydebank, introducing the concept of ‘Public Realm’ to local residents, businesses, schoolchildren, architects, planners, and heritage groups. All of the work is based on the local built environment of West Dunbartonshire and the current regeneration of the Clyde Riverside. In addition to this, I have participated as a facilitator in the Architectural Mega Challenge at the Strathclyde Summer Academy. This is an annual event which is part of the two-week ‘summer

school’ programme organised by Strathclyde University, designed to motivate and support 14-15 year olds. The aim of the project was to get those involved interested in the regeneration of the waterfront and resulted in the production of large-scale models of Glasgow’s riverfront. I am currently involved in a workshop series called FLaT (Future Learning and Teaching). The project aims to bring together primary and secondary schoolchildren plus other key stakeholders in Scotland’s school estates with architects, designers and other creative professionals to work on a number of live pilot projects linked to school design. Working with the Lighthouse and pupils from Dunblane High School, this live project enables the pupils to contribute to the design development of target areas within their new school.

C r a i g D u n n, A rc hitec t, Scotland

➲ craig.dunn@jmarchitects.net

Children’s corner

PROJECTS

soundings

‘

WORKSHOP REPORT Group D

The water tower

THE IDEA of the project was that we, the students of class 9B at the Jyväskylä teacher training school were going to learn what architecture is and how we could improve the townscape in Jyväskylä. Foreign architects came to visit us from all round the world. We worked with them and they helped us to figure out our ideas and bring them to life. We didn’t make any actual street furniture, but we made models, either scale models or full-size.

WE BEGAN the project a little doubtfully on the Tuesday. Everybody was in suspense because we were going to have to speak English and we weren’t told anything about the project in advance. After some initial hassles, some speeches and some information, we split up into groups and the situation calmed down a bit. The tension decreased within the groups because we realised we were all as tense as each other. First of all we got to know each other by playing different games. Soon the tension gave way to enthusiasm and everyone started talking English in a more or less understandable way. We started planning. My group was made up of four school students and five architects, two Finnish ones, one from France, a Scot and one from England. WE DECIDED to go and take a look round Jyväskylä and only then decide what we were going to change. We wandered round the town with sketchbooks and made notes of details, good ones and bad ones. We school kids showed Jyväskylä to the grown-ups. We went to our favourite spots. In the end, we went up the Harju observation tower, from where you can see the whole of Jyväskylä. To our surprise the visitors were quite bewitched by the tower and we came to the conclusion that we ought to take it as our target for change. ON THE THIRD and last day we were supposed to get all our ideas down on paper. We made models and gathered up all the plans and designs made during the project in a tearing hurry. There wasn’t enough time, there weren’t enough of us to do the work and doing it was mainly a big hassle, but we got everything finished in time and showed off what we’d done to the others. The end result was super. Siir i Raas ak ka

14 PROJECTS

soundings

for

architecture

Barnsley Schools’ Summer Challenge Ro s i e Pa r n e l l UK

Remaking Learning

n 2004, 500 young people from Barnsley in England, gathered at the Elsecar Heritage Centre for a Summer Challenge. Two five-day events were organised and funded by Barnsley Council’s Education Service, with support from the University of the First Age (UFA). As part of the UFA national initiative, the aim of the sessions was to develop activities to help young people ‘learn how to learn’ The students were to explore how their brains work sand gain an understanding of the different learning styles preferred by different people. With the theme ‘Remaking Learning’, the event this year was intended to form part of the Council’s programme of work to help young people achieve and succeed – a programme which includes rebuilding the area’s secondary schools.

for their five-day workshop. Groups of 10-15 students engaged in activities such as dance or drama, art or interior design; each providing the means to explore different learning styles. I coordinated the architecture sub-group – an appropriate focus, given the overall theme of the challenge. The architecture workshop included a variety of tasks and games, each intended to increase the students’ awareness of their built environment and encourage critical discussion, as well as exploiting different learning styles. The students’

final task was to design their own school, building on what they had learnt. This process began with storytelling; the students working in small groups to conjure up the atmosphere of one particular place in the new school. These images, conveyed through words, were then translated into collages and further developed through working models. The result was a huge scale model of their creation, which the groups were able to share with guests, fellow students and parents at the celebration event at the end of each week.

Creative Activities Ro s i e Pa r n e l l, PhD, Lec t urer, England Sc hool of A rc hitec t ure, Univer sit y of S hef f ield

The young people – ranging from 10-14 years old – were able to choose from a range of different creative sub-groups

Architecture Design Studio: A new option for high school education M a n ny J u a r e z USA

a volunteer instructor at Rio Rancho High School (RRHS), I observed the need for a different learning environment to better accommodate courses based around design principles and exercises. As a teaching assistant for an Introduction to Drawing course at the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, I realised there is a deficiency in design education, or a complete lack of exposure to design and aesthetics, in high-school students entering design programmes. I became in-trigued as to how new students made the transition from a traditional high-

school environment into a university or advanced design programme. I realized work habits in the studio are different from a typical, lecture-based programme. Studio formats take into consideration how students work and learn, not simply what the student learns. The studio model can also be modified to fulfil a school district’s standard requirements. The work done over two years with the UNM School of Architecture, the Institute for Environmental Education, and Rio Rancho High School Dimensional Design Studio has resulted in a change in the drafting programme into a comprehensive design curriculum that encourages individual responsibility and self-analysis, and group interaction and

➲ www.shef.ac.uk/architecture ➲ r.parnell@sheffield.ac.uk

Learnscape

– The Interconnections between the Child and the City Mitra M. Hedman UK

cooperation. The programme utilises state-of-the-art technology for research and design development. Students are encouraged to present their work and engage in discussions with peers and instructors. Students, from 14 to 18 years old, work together to develop solutions to complex design problems and programming issues. They also work as peers, helping each other with design problems or with CAD

program questions. I have found that students as a group develop faster when they are given the opportunity to learn from their peers. The programme is still in existence, and students from this programme have gone on to design programmes across the US. There has been interest in reinstating the partnership with UNM SAAP and seeing the programme mature and expand.

am an architect at the Oslo School of Architecture, engaged on my PhD thesis. The theme of my research is the impact on learning outcomes of the design of the physical environment in which children live and grow up. My thesis involves the discussion of school architecture as a tool in the learning process and ideas about how to design environments that assist learning. I question the child-city relationship and the alienation of children from their environment that has resulted in global concern and has brought professionals from the fields of architecture, psychology, and education as

well as politicians, to organise projects and conferences on these issues. The aim of my project is to focus attention on school architecture as a connecting link between the child and the context in which the child lives, and to inquire into the nature of the relationship between the child and the physical dimensions of the learning environment. My research builds on the questions of how this relationship influences learning and how school architecture can mediate in this process. In my thesis, I introduce the term Learnscape, my original contribution to knowledge, which is the ‘learning landscape’ where architecture is the manifestation of the context (e.g. city, nature).

M i t r a M . H e d m a n, M. A rc h, PhD c and., UK O slo Sc hool of A rc hitec t ure, Nor way M a n ny J u a r e z, A rc hitec t, USA

➲ manny@designplusabq.com

➲ www.aho.no ➲ hedman_m@yahoo.co.uk

PROJECTS

soundings

Space in Question

arc en rêve centre d’architecture Bordeaux • Project name: ‘the agora’ • Group age: 16-19 year olds, 15 pupils • Duration: 4 months • Results of the project: booklet for the regional council, proposal for an installation. • Finances: 50% Ministry for National Education, 50% Ministry for Culture (DRAC)

�

L a u r e n t Ta r d i e u Fr ance

he idea of the educational workshop is to create and diffuse a series of activities to make young people more aware of architecture. In the framework of their cultural project on architecture, the pupils visited

for

an exhibition on architecture and engineering, Informal –Cecil Balmond, and the Law Court at Bordeaux, designed by the architect Richard Rogers. Talking about these projects contributed to making the students more aware of contemporary design. Two workshops (on traces and inflatable structures), which

architecture

animated ‘the agora’, made it possible for the pupils to better understand the value of this space and the functional contradictions that emerged from it. They realized that the immense space could be exploited to make an ‘inhabited’ place. They felt considerable interest in investing in ‘the agora, in order to facilitate its appropriation by the users. Learning how to see and understand contemporary architecture - this was the work completed by this class at the educational workshop in order to empower them as citizens to be critical and sensitive to the quality of the architecture of their high-school. The idea was not to get teenagers to play at being architects, but rather to give them access to the different delights and opportunities that architecture has to offer.

Taste exercise Teenagers are confronted with the designer’s work: form, material, technique, colour, matter, light, space ... what creates the space, what causes emotion. That is the experience of the pleasure of discovery; pleasure in seeing, pleasure in understanding, pleasure in learning.

Critical exercise

and to question them from different angles: economy, aesthetics, function...

Judgement exercise This is the training of a certain critical faculty regarding the

quality of a building. It is appropriate here to discuss quality, to explain the strong points and the weak points. This is an essential moment in teaching dynamics, setting things in a situation of responsibility.

L a u r e n t Ta r d i e u, A rc hitec t, Fr ance arc en rêve cent re d’arc hitec t ure – Bordeau x

Architects’ projects are selected to show works in different ways

➲ www.arcenreve.com ➲ action@arcenreve.com

Websites associated with architectural education

• International Association for Architectural Education www.playce.org • Extensive list of international links Frode Svanes Barnas Landskap - Aktivt Arkiv http://home.c2i.net/swan/ • Growing Up in Cities Project (UNESCO) www.unesco.org/most/guic/guicmain.htm • Child Friendly Cities Programme (UNICEF) www.childfriendlycities.org • List of links to European Architecture Centres www.architecturelink.org.uk/ArchCentresInt. html • European Design Forum (2002-2005) The EDF network aims at presenting a dynamic forum for European cooperation devoted to the exchange of knowledge and experience in the area of design. www.eu-design.net/edf/index.htm • ecmade, European Community Museum for Architecture and Design Exhibitions www.ecmade.net Canada • Geodesic Club house www.yesmag.bc.ca/projects/geodesic.html Denmark • Dansk Arkitekturcenter www.dac.dk • Louisiana Museum of Modern Art www.louisiana.dk • Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst www.arken.dk Finland • Finnish architectural policy www.minedu.fi/minedu/culture/arts_ architecture.html • The Finnish Association of Architects www.safa.fi • The Finnish OAK: The Oak of Finland Plus is a joint project run by the National Board of Antiquities, the National Board of Education and the Ministry of the Environment for developing cultural heritage education. www.edu.fi/projektit/tammi/Tammet/ english.html • Arkki, School of Architecture for Children and Youth www.arkki.net • Arkkitehtuurikasvatusprojekteja www.arkkitehtuurikasvatus.fi • Alvar Aalto -museon arkkitehtuuri- ja

muotoilukasvatuksen sivut www.alvaraalto.fi/museum/pedagogi.htm • Jyväskylän arkkitehtuurikasvatuksen kehittämisohjelma www.alvaraalto.fi/museum/pedakehityspitka. htm • Arkkitehtuuri- ja ympäristökulttuurikoulu Lastu www.saunalahti.fi/lastu2 • Designmuseon muotoilustudio www.designmuseum.fi/muotoilustudio • Porin kaupunki www.pori.fi/taidekoulu/lapset/ www.pori.fi/lastenkulttuurikeskus France www.archireseau.culture.gouv.fr • arc en rêve centre d’architecture www.arcenreve.com Island • Fjölbrautaskólinn í Breiðholti www.myndlistaskolinn.is • Reykjavík School of Visual Art www.fb.is Italy • Reggio Emilia http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/ reggiochildren.htm The Netherlands • Bouwen in de Beurs (Building inf the Beurs, childrens architecture day) www.bouwenindebeurs.nl • NAi (Dutch Architecture institution) www.nai.nl • Dutch site for architecture and young people showing competitions, education programmes for schools, architectural history, games and other interesting items. www.arki.nu/index.html • BNA, Dutch Architects Association www.bna.nl • Netherlands Architecture Fund A possible funding source for the organisation www.archfonds.nl Norway • Ministry of the Environment http://odin.dep.no/md/norsk/regelverk/ rundskriv/022001-250011/index-dok000-bn-a.html • A comprehensive school architecture project Lek i det offentilige rom http://folk.uio.no/palmyre/lek_i_det_ offentlige_rom/

Poland • Projekt Animus www.animusproject.net • Stowarzyszenie Akademia Łucznica www.lucznica.org.pl • British- Czech-Polish organisation Schools for sustainable development www.schoolsforsustainabledevelopment.org Sweden www.arkitekt.se/skolgruppen www.movium.slu.se www.arkitekturmuseet.se www.stadsmuseum.goteborg.se www.stadsmuseum.stockholm.se www.formdesigncenter.se www.thn.edu.stockholm.se www.kultur.goteborg.se Turkey www.mimarlarodasiankara.org UK • CABE Education www.cabe-education.org.uk • Design Council (Learning and Education) www.design-council.org.uk • Campaign for Drawing www.drawingpower.org.uk • Learning Through Landscapes www.ltl.org.uk/ • Website with resources for schools (5-14 yrs) to introduce architecture into the curriculum www.buildingconnections.co.uk • The Architecture Centre Network www.architecturecentre.net • The Architecture Foundation www.architecturefoundation.org.uk • Creative Partnerships www.creative-partnerships.com • Website to involve people with contemporary architecture in Scotland www.scottisharchitecture.com • Scotland’s Centre for Architecture and Design www.thelighthouse.co.uk • GLAS Glasgow Letters on Architecture and Space www.glas-collective.com • Groundwork www.groundwork.org.uk • Solar (Social and Organisational Learning as Action Research) www.uwe.ac.uk/solar/index.htm

• National Grid for Learning A collection of information and digital resources developed specifically to support Scottish education. www.ngflscotland.gov.uk/ • National Policy for Architecture in Scotland www.scotland.gov.uk/architecture/policy/ default.asp • Save the Children www.savethechildren.org.uk USA • Children, Youth and Environments (CYE), a refereed journal and multidisciplinary, international network dedicated to improving the lives of young people. www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/ • Institute for Environmental Education, University of New Mexico, School of Architecture and Planning http://saap.unm.edu/ • National Building Museum (Washington DC., US) www.nbm.org • City building Education www.csupomona.edu/~dnelson/cbe.html • Building Connections www.ebuildingconnections.com • ArKIDecture www.archKIDecture.org • CUBE – Center for the Built Environment (Kansas City, US) www.cubekc.org • Chicago Architecture Foundation (Chicago, US) www.architecture.org www.architecture.org/fieldtrips.html • Coming Up Taller: Arts and Humanities Program for Children and Youth at Risk www.cominguptaller.org/index.html • Edutopia – The George Lucas Educational Foundation www.glef.org • Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation www.phlf.org/education/index.html • Salvadori Center www.salvadoricenter.org

If you know of any websites not listed here, please let us know at: soundings@alvaraalto.fi These international architectural education links will be updated at: www.playce.org

16 PROJECTS

soundings

for

Designing Schools

architecture

ACADEMY

alvar aalto

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The Complete Architectural Works of Alvar Aalto

A n n e Cu n n i n g h a m UK

Available now!

Overview

any of Scotland’s schools are being rebuilt, but are these schools going to be fit for purpose for the 21st century or are they going to be outdated before they have even been finished? This project asks Scotland’s leading architects to work in partnership with a project team from a local authority and a school to identify a project brief. The architect or designer is then asked to work with young people to develop this brief into a detailed design brief and to design a solution. The project is funded by the Scottish Executive, under their Future Learning and Teaching programme. This ambitious programme identifies and funds innovative projects that could change the way learning is done in Scotland. ‘From Consultation to Design’, Year 1 publication: documents last year’s projects and design exemplars. In year 2, we are building on that process

Vol. 6: The Aalto House 1935–36

and there is a greater emphasis on supporting young people to understand some of the complex, real-life issues that are involved in designing a school and take responsibility for their part in that process. The partner architect or designer is asked to develop and deliver an education programme. This is prepared with a consultation facilitator with some knowledge of schools. The architects are not expected to be consultation experts, this would be unrealistic; instead there is an emphasis on their experiential learning and the evaluation of that learning.

The Future The projects are proving the value of the dual involvement of young people and Scotland’s leading architects in designing learning environments for the future. It is also good to know there will be a third year to develop the project further and push the boundaries that prevent Scotland’s schools from being world-class buildings. As a result of this programme, we now provide a consultation service for local authorities and architects.

Vol. 7: Sunila 1936–54

The Alvar Aalto Foundation together with the Alvar Aalto Academy publishes a 28-volume set of monographs on Alvar Aalto’s (1898–1976) architectural and planning works. The books, which presents some five hundred built or unbuilt designs, will be the most comprehensive work on Aalto’s architectural output. Written by experts, and including hitherto unpublished original material and new photographs, the monographs offer a penetrating view of Aalto’s life’s work. Language: english Price: EUR 60 (hardback), EUR 49 (softback) Right to change the prices retained. For further information, please contact:

academy@alvaraalto.fi

Ptah MAGAZINE

UNIVERSAL VERSUS INDIVIDUAL The Architecture of the 1960s

30 € /year

A n n e Cu n n i n g h a m, MA , Ed uc ation Projec t O f f icer, Scotland Future Learning and Teaching, D esig n for Learning: 21st Ce ntur y Schools - p rojec t T he L ight hous e, Scotland’s Cent re for A rc hitec t ure, Design and t he Cit y.

29€

➲ www.thelighthouse.co.uk ➲ anne@thelighthouse.co.uk

35€

FINNISH ARCHITECTURE 0203

Architectural lessons in secondary school H u b e r t Tr a m m e r Poland

the First Communal High School in Warsaw (Poland), every student has to attend the elective courses he or she has chosen. The school organises courses if there are more than eight students interested in them. One of these was the architectural course I had been leading for some years. There were three kinds of lesson. Every third lesson was a walk around part of Warsaw to show the students the architecture. That meant telling them how buildings are built, how they stay together and giving them information about the architects and the period of construction. Showing architecture to the students did not meant just pointing out interesting things and explaining them, but also

asking them questions which led the students to think about what they saw. The walks were in parts of the city that are rich in interesting architecture. We have seen architectural monuments and parts of the city that have an interesting social life influenced by architecture. We also visited the area where the film ‘The Pianist’ by Roman PolaÒski was shot. It was an interesting example of how part of the city can become an actor. The district, which was only partly destroyed during the Second World War, played the role of the completely destroyed area of the Warsaw Ghetto. This walk also gave us a chance to see the set-designs for the film. Every third lesson there was a slide show linked with drawing on the blackboard. These lessons were about the architecture of different

ELEPHANT & BUTTERFLY

Permanence and Chance in Architecture

29€

15€

TRANSPARENT WALL Markku Pääkkönen

YOU CAN ORDER THESE BOOKS, PTAH MAGAZINE AS WELL AS THE ALVAR AALTO ARCHITECT MONOGRAPH BOOKS, FROM ALVAR AALTO ACADEMY.

➲ In the background, the rear of the stage set from the film ‘ThePianist’, in the foreground, the students.

places in Poland and Europe. Every lesson focused on the architecture of one particular city or region. Every third lesson was architectural drawing. These lessons were led by two other people, Eryk Nowak and Jan Topczewski.

Lesson in the Praga district of Warsaw; the district does not house the best addresses in the city but, because of its architecture, it has its own special character. On the streets of the Praga district you have the feeling that they really belong to the people who live there.

H u b e r t Tr a m m e r, A rc hitec t, Poland

➲ huberttrammer@wp.pl

Alvar Aalto Academy

?5 Tiilimäki 20, 00330 Helsinki, Finland tel +358 (0)207 480 123, fax +358 (0)9 485 119 ➲ academy@alvaraalto.fi

Interested?

soundings

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architecture

In October 2005, Alvar Aalto Academy will be organising an international professional seminar on the children’s architectural education, in collaboration with Alvar Aalto Museum, PLAYCE association, City of Jyväskylä and the University of Jyväskylä.

Publisher Alvar Aalto Academy

Further information at

Printed by Artprint, Helsinki

➲ sou ndi ngs @ a l va ra a l to.f i

Editorial board Mari Kovanen Esa Laaksonen

Graphic design Teppo Järvinen

English language consultant Nicholas Mayow

w w w.alvaraalto.fi

2005