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V Encuentro Playgrounds report

A quick review of the valutation surveys of the V Encuentro Playgrounds, we have checked that education in architecture is still a welcome discovery for both teachers or architects. We find more educators who use space as a teaching tool and architecture as a resource to understand our environment, with high quality standards and integration on the educational system, cultural spaces, entrepreneurship initiatives, teachers upgrading, architecture cultural diffusion, research groups or public participation processes. 

Since Asociación Ludantia and Proxecto Terra teams in partnership with Fundación Cidade da Cultura de Galicia started to organize the Argallar exhibition and the V Encuentro Playgrounds, it was an objective not only consolidate the meeting ambience, but also to keep amying interchanges, learning and motivation to opening new paths consolidating ourselves as a professionists and as a collective. Take into account our achievements and mistakes, we believe that transversality and the passion believing what we are doing is still our main attraction. So, we are committed to an optimistic future, where spaces, childhood and education keep improving our cities and environments.

Since the I Encuentro Playgrounds in 2014 took place, wheather teachers, families, professionals or institutions the concern for education in architecture has been increasing and expanding. In this call we have reached more than 14000 visitors on Argallar exhibition, doubling the attendance of previous set ups, and for the V Encuentro, the 150 seats offered within 24 hours were fully booked.

About the participants’ profile, approximately 80% are practising teachers, fulfilling one of the goals set by Asociación Ludantia: catch the attention of teachers, crossing the boundaries of the current architectural environment  where we came from. Also point to the high number of professionists of both architecture and education. And finally through the streaming video arranged by CIFP Imaxe e Son (School of Image and Sound) of A Coruña we have reached more than 400 unique users.

Four thematic axis have been set fullfiling the most relevant fields at this very moment:

  • Arts, public space and participation
  • Space transformation
  • Toys and ludic artifacts
  • Architecture in education

Four debates and twenty workshops that make up the program respond to these four points, plus the variety of points of view provided by the Agentes Ludantia and the speakers. A wide range of situations, thoughts and possibilities, specially for teachers and professionals of architecture and the built environment were provided.

Mentioned below, you can read a brief summaries of the debates and workshops. In other pages of Asociacion Ludantia website you can consult the program, speakers and workshops, and the impression of the Argallar exhibition.

Also available on our YouTube channel the recordings of the debates and interviews with the workshops facilitators (in Spanish). The hashtag used was #playgrounds5. Please follow Asociación Ludantia on social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Finally, if you are working on education in architecture, you are welcome to become a member of Asociación Ludantia and taking part in our activities. More info on this link.

Moitas grazas. Muchas gracias. Thanks a lot.

Playgrounds 5 Coordination team

DEBATES

Education in architecture by Maushaus.

Presentation and conversation with Susana Gaudêncio and Rafaèle Genet.

On this first conversation we had the pleasure to start, was full of beautiful accents. The international presence of Susana Gaudencio and Rafaele Genet to tell us about the implementation of education in architecture from the non-regulated, at the Casa de la Arquitectura in Lisbon to the highest university level at the Granada School of Education, opened the conversation in a aesthetic way.Through those enlightening presentations, was put on the table the artist vision to deal with the city and the arts and also the urbanistic focus of a teacher of teachers, diluting frontiers of their views, while approaching the urban phenomena. We pleasantly attended the sequence of experiences as an educative element on which keep digging, with techniques and tools always art related, but overall, conceiving as a beautiful place where not only flow, but grow up well learning to live.

Natural Spaces to Learn to Live and Coexist by Little Gurimo.

Heike Freire lecture.

Heike Freire, a psychologist and philosopher has developed her career as a teacher and activist for children rights, starts her lecture placing us in memories, closing our eyes and travel to childhood looking for happies remembrances. All the answers shared the presence of trees and water, that’s it healthy places. Through her works, Heike makes us reflect about the healthy environments, how it affects our health and attention, and the ancestral instinct that spontaneously reminds us of the need for shelter. Nature is what we are. To finish, he proposes the combination of interior-exterior classroom spaces where the naturalistic and love awareness arrive outside, and after love knowledge flows. 

Toys and ludic devices by Mimaia.

Presentation and conversation with Leticia Flores and Clara Megías.

Clara Megias and Leticia Flores placed us through a funny performative action, thinking about key aspects of education nowadays. In the first part of their tandem presentation, we experimented between emotion, laughter and concentration with contemporary art as a tool to activate divergent thinking and achieve cross-learning. Accordingly presented two art projects for the teaching-learning of curricular contents in a unlike way.

Two key work fields that Clara and Leiticia’s career in critical and creative teacher training: the Edukits, which trespasses the class book concept and the “Fuera del Aula ” project, which addresses the transformation of the educational spaces and the learning through the practice.

Transformation of spaces by Chiquitectos.

Presentation and conversation with Antonio Capelao and Aitor Etxarte.

Architect Antonio Capelao and pedagogue Aitor Etxarte explained the latest projects have carried out related to educational spaces. Etxarte, who has been president of the Navarra community board of education, defines himself as a convinced teacher and he demonstrated this with several philosophical references on social spaces and places construction, with examples of different schools, showed the current status and the potential transformation of educational spaces. Capelao showed his work carried out in Nepal, in a community where more than 50.000 bricks are made per day, and also where for working children the boundaries between school, home and work have been dismissed. The architect’s collaboration with the children group through different dynamics has finally translated into a new school project.

Art, public space and participation by AJO taller de arquitectura

Presentation and conversation with José María Mesías and Fiona MacDonald.

In this last block we could enjoy two different approximations about intervention and interpretation on urban space. José María Mesías guides his pupils through critical performances about the city and built environment, involving citizens, educational communities or refugees. Fiona McDonald on her behalf, brought us how Matt+Fiona method of intervention, including groups of young people in all the process steps, from the previous analysis to the design and construction itself.

Playgrounds 300. The work of Agents Ludantia in 5 minutes

12 Ludantia agents presenting their latest work

Agents are the raison d’etre of Ludantia Asociación. For this reason, and following the trajectory of former meetings, we showed to the participants what have been working last year in a simple format of 300 seconds maximum presentations: investigation projects, public participation, educational spaces transformation, ludic devices design, architecture cultural diffusion, networking o teacher training, all of them based in a wide variety of didactics, formats and organization schemes. The Agents taking part in this event were:  Chiquitectos, Arquitectives, AJO Taller de Arquitectura, Createctura, details, Improvistos, Equipo Mico, Mimaia, TEO Arkitektura, Arquicreo, Urban Etegami and Sistema Lupo. Down below a video is available

WORKSHOPS

On the website of V Encuentro workshops you can check out with details the proposals and their development, including images or video, down below a brief summary:

Firstly, introduce the space where the workshops have taken place. Large in all its dimensions, which has allowed to explore the open-school concept, a place where many things happen at the same place, enabling a shared and enriched learning process.

In the first group of workshops, Ajo Taller de Arquitectura built a large inflatable device becoming the benchmark during the V Encuentro. Behind them Sistema Lupo plays with different materials testing how to build architectures that change educational spaces. Mico put teachers at the center of the transformation of educational spaces. Detalleres approached us to the fascinating world of books as a didactic tool and Proxecto Terra made a review of its trajectory on architectural and landscape education among schools in Galicia.

To finish first journey, we continued with the elaborated sensory layout by Createcutura with plenty of sounds, lights and shades. Rafael Galán conducted through the senses and architecture on educational curriculum. Miguel Saez with the architecture as a straight, transversal and interdisciplinary teaching method. Nuria and Mariajo, reviewed about past, present and future of habitats and Ludolocum goes up to the third floor to play with geometrics and the pieces of Argallar.

Second journey started with the machinery oiled, with the space embracing the results of the previous journey. Victor Gonzalez explores geometries with Palitroques on different scales. Tipi faces one of the essentials challenges, the transformation of school yards on gender perspective and Arquitectives proposes strategies to discover our cities under children’s eyes. Fiona Macdonald, our guest workshop facilitator showed how building could be an empowering resource for young people. Miguel Díaz in collaboration with Down Compostela and the participants explored inclusive resources on education in architecture.

On the last round of workshops, Chiquitectos presented the increasing awareness about the main role of school spaces on education, Improvistos getting deeper on the relation between the surrounding spaces in childhood and Urbanins playing with the complex urbanistic process of the city. Mimaia displayed a large playing board with multiple ludic resources and references for play-learning processes. Finally Arquicreo developed resources to deal with Sustainable Development Goals in school through architecture. 

WHAT HAS PLAYGROUNDS V BEEN FOR YOU?

Compilation of comments collected in the evaluation

  • I liked so much share the space with different professionals and explore about issues totally unknown for primary school, teacher
  • The mixing of booth theory and practice on workshops, the skills acquisition. Space allows easy interaction tru facilitators and teachers, helping to enrich the group synergies and dynamics and. Very good experience.
  • The whole meeting is a nice time to share, meet people and learn in a very very pleasant ambience, especially for the people participating and organizing.
  • All people participating in the meeting offered valuable knowledge for new teaching-learning sceneries. The way of spreading illusion and energy to keep working on it, makes us so appassionato.
  • The environment generated around architecture and education
  • The exchange of knowledge and learning.
  • As always it was amazing to meet us. The formula seems to work perfectly !! thank you
  • I liked everything. I felt very comfortable in Congress. Very pleasant, very familiar.
  • The possibility of finding so many people excited to reflect on another education, taking advantage of the synergies of different professions related to this world.
  • More time to participate in more workshops.
  • May it last more days !! 🙂 This makes it possible for meetings and talks between attendees and speakers, both during breaks and, for example, to spend an afternoon doing so.
  • Reducing the number of workshops trying to make it easier for all participants to know what is being done in the others. I make this appreciation from the positive assessment of all those who have had the opportunity to live and whom I value very positively.

ON MEDIA

Experts will analyze how to promote healthy architectures for childhood – El Correo Gallego (Spanish)

Radio interview at “Hoy por Hoy Santiago” – Radio Galicia Cadena SER (Spanish)

Architecture at the service of citizens from the earliest childhood – El Correo Gallego (Spanish)

International architects rethink at Cidade da Cultura schools, public spaces and cities adapted to children – El Correo Gallego (Gallician)

ON SOCIAL #playgrounds5

Imágenes del encuentro sobre Arquitectura y Educación, organizado por @AsociacionLudantia en Santiago de Compostela,…

Publicada por Heike Freire en Jueves, 14 de noviembre de 2019

… y lo que no se ve 😉 people doing things together #inlove #PlaygroundsV

Publicada por Miguel Díaz Rodríguez en Viernes, 1 de noviembre de 2019

CRÉDITS

Organize | Asociación Ludantia Arquitectura y Educación in partnership with | Proxecto Terra and Fundación Cidade da Cultura de Galicia.

Coordination Team | Fermín Blanco (dir.) (Asociación Ludantia), Alberto Fortes (Proxecto Terra), Miguel Díaz and Marcela Ramón (Asociación Ludantia).

Collaborators | Arquitectura sen Fronteiras Galicia. Marta, Paula y Soledad | Sistema Lupo. Alba, Ignacio and Leticia. | Working group Pequeños Eventos Asociación Ludantia | Working group Comunicación Asociación Ludantia.

Photographers | Manuel G. Vicente, CIFP Imaxe e Son, Ignacio Bescansa, Anartz Ormaza, Amparo Gómez, Elena Rodríguez, Miguel Díaz and Fermín G. Blanco.

Video recording, editing and streaming | CIFP Imaxe e Son of A Coruña | Paris Simón (dir.), Esperanza, Jesús, Lourdes and Sara.

Graphic design | Roi Fernández | Fundación Cidade da Cultura de Galicia

Printing and signage | Rótulos Xeve

English interpreters | Victoria Kennedy

Accommodation | Viajes Viloria

Transport | Asociación Compostelana de Auto Taxi

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Production, Events, Marketing and Cultural Action Departments of the Fundación Cidade da Cultura de Galicia | María Pereira, Rosa Salgado, Xulio Cordeiro, Roi Fernández and Berta Galo.

To all the workers of the Cidade da Cultura de Galicia.

To all the people who have made both Argallar and V Encuentro possible.

To the Ludantia Agents at the V Encuentro for their involvement and efforts.

To all the participants.