Building Blocks Mostar – Children from both sides of Mostar are working togheter in new architecture exhibition.

Building Blocks is a result of a collaboration between an architect and a client, but in this case the clients are children between 5 and 16 years old. Building Blocks investigates the accepted roles in the building process, specifically the relationship between architect and client. It also aims to show how a child’s vision of an ideal home may differ from the adult norm. A child’s limited architectural reference and ultimate freedom of choice may reveal new solutions for living. It may also challenge adults to think about their chosen environments in a new way by looking beyond the accepted notions of taste, fashion and tradition. So far Building Blocks has previously been exhibited in Stockholm, Oslo and Berlin. In Building Blocks Mostar children from both sides of the divided city are working together with local architects to make new architecture.

The city of Mostar is a city strongly defined by physical and mental fragmentation, under many years the Bosnien War divided the city between Bosniaks and Croats. The legacy of the war is still very present and undoubtedly most distinctly in the very central no man’s land, the District, a hollow urban buffer zone between the city’s ethnic communities. In Building Blocks Mostar, we are bridging the divided city, children from both sides are working together with each other and local architects to make new architecture. An inital workshop with children and architects was held by Färgfabriken and Ada Mostar at The Music shool 25-26th of April.

During October 2015 an additional workshop was held to develop one of the five projects called Tornado of Fun

Opening of the Building Blocks exhibition in Mostar 2015-2016.

Building Blocks is a concept developed by Färgfabriken and Medium, based on children’s participations in architecture. The project investigates the accepted roles in the building process, specifically the relationship between architect and client. The idea is based on children, between 5 and 16 years old, as clients and commissioners of architecture. Each child or group of children collaborates with different architects. Each architect’s proposal is built in scale 1:1 and exhibited.