Building Blocks Bucharest, 2016
A group of children imagine an ideal house, a space for playing, learning and everything else they want, and a group of architects take them seriously and actually build this house.
Building Blocks has reappeared! This time in Bucharest, coordinated by Färgfabriken’s partner Zeppelin, an NGO that acts as cultural operator within architecture, art and more, as well as publisher of Zeppelin Magazine.
The clients, children from the 134th School in Bucharest, participated in workshops and produced sketches and project models in collaboration with the architect Mihai Duțescu. Based on their ideas, the house-pavilion is equipped with a library and a suspended garden.
The result – the finished house – was displayed at Creative East festival* October 15-16 2016. At the Creative East festival the house was open to the public and welcomed people to donate books for children aged 6-10 years and small plants in pots. After the festival, the house and it’s new content became a welcome addition the children’s/client’s school and stays there as as space for play, imagination and reading.
In addition to the ”Building Blocks process” with children as clients commissioning a building, a publication, ”the Meștereala brochure” was produced, containing architect Mihai Duțescu travels back into his childhood with 4 cool stories about fun handicrafts, illustrated by Andreea Dobrin Dinu’s and designed by Radu Manelici
*The 2nd edition of Creative Est festival took place on October 15 – 16 in Bucharest, fostering a diverse learning and discovery space for Romanian and Eastern-European creative industries. In 2016 it was dedicated to exploring how design, fashion, art and technology can shape our cities and boost the quality of urban life.
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.
Partners
Organizers: Eematico, Färgfabriken, Nod Makerspace, Asociatia Oricum / Creative Est Festival, Școala 134, Teach for Romania, Zeppelin
Building Blocks was part of Creative Sweden #3 program, organized by by the Swedish Embassy in Romania and Zeppelin Association
