The Garden Association participated in Sofia Architecture Week 2012 - an international event, which was organized from the 26th of November to the 2nd of December. Our representatives +Turkan Fırıncı and +Georgi Stankov were hosts of two workshops and one lecture, provided in collaboration of Mrs +Elif Kayran - the head of Izmir Children Atelier.
THE FIRST WORKSHOP
Our first workshop was held on Wednesday, the 28th of November. Its name is "My Dream Playground" and we made this workshop for a first time during Izmir Architecture Week 2012.
Our first workshop was held on Wednesday, the 28th of November. Its name is "My Dream Playground" and we made this workshop for a first time during Izmir Architecture Week 2012.
Workshop's primal idea is to support the process of children's participation in today's society, and to involve children in the decision-making process regarding their own environments, spaces, and valuable places.
Methodology:
We achieved this goal by getting together children and professionals, who design children's environment: architects, designers, urban planners, and so on. Before the workshop we trained the professionals how to work with children, by enhancing their social competence and communication skills. Then we invited children from elementary schools to work collaboratively with the adults and to create common projects. The results were very encouraging!
Methodology:
We achieved this goal by getting together children and professionals, who design children's environment: architects, designers, urban planners, and so on. Before the workshop we trained the professionals how to work with children, by enhancing their social competence and communication skills. Then we invited children from elementary schools to work collaboratively with the adults and to create common projects. The results were very encouraging!
The second workshop was a brave experiment, entitled "Playgrounds, Ideas and Ideologies", and we held it on 29th of November. We invited the participants of the workshop with the following tempting proclamation:
Is it possible that playgrounds reflect ideological concepts? This workshop will give you an open space to:Methodology:
- explore how specific ideologies, social trends, public attitudes, and concrete historical events might reflect the surrounding environments, including children’s ones
- create your own society with history and... playgrounds
- discuss and share creative ideas with others.
We started with presentation on the influence which various political events, social issues, economic, cultural and even ideological trends might have on the public design, and especially on the children's public spaces. At the second part of the workshop, we formed several small groups, and each of them made a simulation of a society and created design for children's spaces of this society. The participants had very different professional backgrounds: architects, economists, construction engineer, designers, web developers, students, house wives, entrepreneurs, and this rich diversity helped them to produce incredibly creative projects!
THE LECTURE
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We are satisfied with our participation in Sofia Architecture Week 2012, and we believe that our humble contribution will give valuable insights to the architectural community in Bulgaria and abroad.
We would like to thank to the curators of SAW 2012 - Delcho Delchev and Valeri Gyurov, and to the program coordinator of SAW 2012 +Boyka Ognyanova for their great support!
