La Villette-studio of architecture and urbanism for children of Pančevo
This is the studio of architecture and urbanism for children which operates locally, in the small town of Pančevo in Serbia. The main goal is to make unbreakable bonds between town and children, so the children who grow up in it, find out more about it through architecture, fall in love with it and one day make better urbanistic decisions about it. The results are far-reaching and a process is long term, but the children started to think differently and participate actively in the community.
Local
Serbia
Vojvodina/Pančevo
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
"Ponovo (ne) radi Vajfertova pivara"
part of the work in the studio funded by "EU for you" in Serbia 2021.
No
Yes
As an individual
First name: Dušana Last name: Nikolić Gender: Female Nationality: Serbia Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Maksima Gorkog 26 Town: Pančevo Postal code: 26000 Country: Serbia Direct Tel:+381 69 2674484 E-mail:dusananikolic@hotmail.com
The reason why the initiative started was the impossibility to change the urbanistic chaos that is happening in the cities of Serbia. Our hometown Pančevo started to change rapidly, small houses are replaced by tall buildings with questionable architecture and the streets are now crowded. Nevertheless, the town started to lose cultural contents and public spaces, so everything that we have now are shopping retails on the position of former very important light bulb factory "Tesla" and devastated cultural monument of great importance, Weifert's brewery, which decays every day with other important buildings and nobody seems to care about it.
When I watched our town through the eyes of children who lives in it, it wasn't the town that I remember as a child. So, I wanted for them to feel more connected with their hometown and to learn new skills, especially to separate good and bad architecture and create critical thinking. That will be important for them as individuals, who are developing themselves, for the community that will one day starts to question what do children want in their town and for the town which is going to be better place if some of children's ideas become a reality. The concept was based on 80 workshops with the children from the age of five to fifteen for one year. Workshops were led by an architect and the people connected to architecture. At first, children learned a lot about architecture, architects, good examples in the world that will inspire their work. Then, we started with building models and drawings of their "little" projects. They were thinking about public spaces and how we can transform them, reconstructions of buildings in art studios, solutions for the new buildings that are very tall, redesigning a riverbank etc. The final stage was the big project of the reconstruction of an old brewery. The exhibitions that followed our work gave a chance to the children to express themselves, speak with the community and to engage it.
engaging COMMUNITY
children bearers of CHANGE
chaotic URBANISM
education through ARCHITECTURE
promotion of CULTURAL HERITAGE
When we speak about education and urbanism in Serbia in one sentence, it will always be sustainable. When the urbanism is in chaos, decisions are questionable, regulations are avoided and the town and a state is allowing it, THEN there is a plenty of room for education of children. Since this area is not part of the primary education and it should be, this initiative is more than necessary. There will always be a new generation who we can educate about how one city functions. Also, we can't change grown-ups who is now deciding about the future of our cities but we can always prevent children who are becoming decision makers to make the same mistakes.
However, in our workshops we were talking a lot about sustainability and ecology with the children and how to implement these topics in their projects. Every idea that we questioned with them, passed the concept of sustainable thinking, how it can be independent, so that is the topic that should be introduced to them in the early years. They gave the idea of reconstruction of our city park and saving the trees which municipality wanted to cut by surrounding them with benches. As well, one girl gave the idea of transforming one part of the brewery into a space where you can bring old furniture and clothes and learn to fix them or you can swap them with someone. At the beginning, the children thought that the whole city should be destroyed and we should start all over if we don't like something. Now they are thinking how to repair a city ang give it another chance. They gave us a big hope that modern generations will be more careful when it comes to our resources and dealing with what we have.
This is the first initiative of this kind in our town so it was a unique experience for the children and parents, as well as for the habitants of Pančevo. Children were the first to speak out about the topics which concern most of the citizens. So, our task was to teach those kids to say their opinion out loud because nobody is going to ask them what they think and they must fight battles that they care about.
We talked a lot about aesthetics too in our workshops because it is one layer of the city that we must not forget. Also, they were building models and drawing sketches of their ideas, so that was the way for them to practice the design. In the end of each semester we had an exhibition where children had their chance to present the ideas in front of the citizens, to talk about their doubts, fears and wishes. That was the first time that somebody (even experts and municipality) speaks about the sore spots in the town. They were talking about current reconstructions of the city park, riverbank and destroyed important buildings as areas that need intervention. It echoed loudly through the town and awakened the sleeping population.
Massive cultural benefit from the workshops was brought through the celebration of 300 years of Weifert's brewery in Pančevo. The kids found out they have a monument older than the Eiffel tower which stands in the city center and decaying. Then they learned every corner of it and presented the new version how they imagine it. We filmed their progress and organized big event on a birthday of a brewery, considering nobody in the city hall wanted to organize a decent celebration. The whole town was there, movie had its premiere, we printed t shirts with children's drawings of the brewery and proudly celebrated the birthday in front of it.
Since children represent one quarter of the population in this town, and nobody asks them about the quality of the spaces they live in, this initiative starts to change that by including them in the society. We want their voice to be heard. We included more than 30 children during this 80 workshops in the process. As we included them, we also introduced their parents to this kind of thinking. Morever, their teachers, friends and relatives were coming to the exhibitions and became participants. One of the ways that our project was funded were donations of the citizens, therefore they were included too in the process from the beginning to the end. Also, we included people that are decision makers by inviting them to our events. Above that, during our project in Weifert's brewery, we had a panel discussion with experts from the Institute for the protection of monuments, collective "The ministry of space" and various architects. The panel was open for the public so the work with children was presented to various organizations in Pančevo. A lot of them joined us in the celebration of the 300th birthday of the brewery. As well, we included students of the architecture in the process too, helping them to practice in a field of teaching and also helping kids in finding a best solution.
Anyway, we learn children through our little projects to work together, to include everyone and that they must also look through that prism when they are giving idea about certain place or space in the city. It should be for all people, no matter of age, color, sex or religion. That is the important lesson which we want them to learn. This kind of merging with a community had a great impact on children, because they learned that their opinion is worthy and gained a lot of confidence.
Our goal was to involve the citizens in the process from the beginning. Through the "Local foundation" and "Trag foundation" we got a donation from the citizens which are helping little projects to develop in our town. We wanted to give back that favor in return to the citizens. So the first benefit from starting a work in this studio was to open topics that are affecting us every day and we are not talking about it. Since the reconstruction of the city park and river bank was in the progress, citizens were against cutting trees and greenery in those areas and putting a lot of concrete, also they didn't think about some new facilities which can improve the using of the public space. Preschoolers gave the idea that we should put there a performance stage, ice skating rank, an open air cinema or sauna. Also, along the riverbank they imagined a space full of sports and leisure activities, beaches, they even transformed grain tank into a cinema, so you can rent a boat and watch the movie from the river. They made a huge model of it and presented it on the exhibition. These ideas are not difficult to achieve, we just need a little imagination.
The greatest impact on the society left a project with Weifert's brewery since that building was forgotten by the citizens. The children showed how they imagine it one day and we should make an effort to save it as a society. During that project kids painted the frames with the inscription "Let's save Weifert" and placed them along the riverbank so that one can see ruined brewery through it. The citizens were making selfies with the brewery and posting it with a hashtag, so the whole city was again talking about the monument in the city center. The theme of our last project that is still ongoing is the playground. So the children gave the idea through models and drawings about the playground out of ropes they would like in their hometown. In the spring, we expect the first realization of their ideas.That will be the great impact!
Beside the "Local foundation" and "Trag foundation" and citizens who donated money which helped in implementing our first project, there were different foundations and organizations who pushed this project and gave it strength. Our second project of Weifert's brewery was realized with the "Neozoik foundation" which promotes archeology and cultural heritage. This project was supported by foundation "Jelena Šantić". During our architectural workshops about brewery, "Neozoik foundation" held archeological workshops for high school students about Weifert's life and brewery itself. We went all together on a tour through the brewery and after our workshops organized a panel for citizens of Pančevo. The foundation made a film about our process, you can see it on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP2j9dQKhLg
At the end of this process and during the preparation of 300th birthday of Weifert's brewery, we made a contact with initiative "Odbranimo Teslu" which fights every day for their settlement and the greenery in it and organizes many events and brings the community together. We organized together the celebration of birthday in front of the brewery with the local bar for craft beer and that was the unique moment when we felt that sense of belonging is coming back to the citizens.
We felt supported by a lot of famous citizens, NGO's and institutions, because of the help they provided, people and entrepreneurs gave us a lot of material so we could make models, Sinhro hub and the National Museum in Pančevo gave us opportunity to hold exhibitions in their space, Tourist organization helped us with the frames on riverbank etc.
We hope that our initiative will grow and gather stakeholders from region and Europe also.
When we speak about education of children in this studio, we must underline that the base of their knowledge was learning about architecture and urbanism itself, but also to apply that knowledge in real life and in their surrounding. The result of it was amazing, because through knowledge we created a connection with their hometown. The fields which were covered by our workshops:
1. the history of architecture and urbanism
2. theory of drawing and perspective
3. making sketches and drawings out of ideas
4. making models out of sketches
5. debating and presenting the ideas
Through this field of knowledge, children practiced skills such as: grapho-motoric skills, critical thinking, presentation, activism, teamwork etc. We created very relaxed atmosphere on our workshops so the children can always freely speak their mind, atmosphere where you can choose if you like to work individual or in pair. Also, we encouraged group work so the kids can practice how one city functions and how decisions are made.
Except of the children knowledge, we can mention the knowledge that we, as pioneers of this method in this region, gained. The knowledge of creating a task interesting for the children, but valuable for the community. Also, knowledge of teaching children important lessons and including them into participative process. Except that, we showed to other citizens what do kids know and how can we all together fight for our town!
The innovative character of the initiative is reflecting in dealing with children through exposing them to important topics such as: the growth of the city, interdisciplinary research and participative design. Normally, the learning process should always perform through PLAY. Play is the tool that we use to find out how do spaces which children want look like. There is no better way to create spaces for play than to ask kids about it. The children creates for the children.
We asked them how would they want our complex of the brewery to look like. They told us they want a common kitchen where we can make pizza all together, a hostel, music studios, stages, museum where you can make your own beer, cinema, workshops, galleries, space for weddings, recycling spots and zip line from the chimney of the brewery, of course. They made a model out of those ideas and showed to the citizens the new version of an old building. They gave us a different perspective of how they imagine the complex and gave a new hope for all of us. The main difference of this studio compared to others is that we are not dealing with only creative development, but also with the one that will prepare themselves to the real life. As well, you can find the same problems in other cities in Serbia and or innovative approach is not focusing on the decisions of grown-ups, but on educating a new generations.
The concept of this studio is very carefully designed and implemented in the town of Pančevo, but it is also very universal. Every city has its own context, but the methodology and process of learning children can be applied in each of them. It can be replicated to the precisely defined path, from finding children who are interested in this topic to restoring the feeling of belonging to the place where they live. Pančevo has a lot of forgotten cultural and industrial heritage and representing them to the children was the main goal of those workshops. Unlike countries and cities of western Europe which are mainly regulated, there is a lot of unregulated urbanism in the Balkans. That is the reason why the children are not always exposed to good examples of architecture and why we should start to change that fact in order to live in better cities. The situation in other cities of Serbia is similar to this pilot project in Pančevo, so our process should be transferred to the places where sense of belonging lacks and monuments are existing, but nobody seems to care about it.
The core of the methodology used in this initiative is overlapping of architecture and education. As I deeply believe that those two things are inseparable if you want your environment to evolve, I dedicated my work to educating the children in my town. The guiding idea was to use the methodology which is not characteristic for process of education in my country and that is through play and free spirit. Although this approach to students does not exclude learning facts about our surrounding, it also includes problem solving and making decisions. Our class is divided into sections, from finding out new information, over research of the materials, making sketches or models and presentation of the ideas. Also, methodology of our workshops reminds of the work of architects, children are going out on the field, analyzing the location, talking and making surveys with inhabitants, brainstorming, making drawings, models, destroying it if they don't like it, starting all over again, finishing and making a presentation. Of course, every step of the way is adjusted to the age of participants.
One of the challenges that is important and global is examining the role of the architect. We think it's time to get away from the elitist attitudes of architects who build significant buildings and move towards an architect who cares about his environment, for whom he builds and in what context. This is what we want our children to learn, that the role of an architect is very complex and important for a society. If we explain this role to children and if they start thinking in this way from a young age, we are halfway to the goal. Also, we don't educate children to be architects, we educate them to learn to think about their environment, to explore and to love their city. At the global level, it is difficult to attract the attention of children, but it seems to us that through architecture it becomes easier. Through architecture, they can express their creativity, but also get to know art, film, the written word, painting, sculpture...In this way, we give them the opportunity to find themselves, which is becoming a real challenge nowadays. This initiative is like a world in miniature, examining all important aspects of growing up, finding oneself, building neighborly relations, caring for the city and creating community. When we reveal this small world to children, we provide a greater potential for them to grow up into self-aware, caring people.
This initiative has been developing for the past four years. The official start of the studio was last year, when we held over 80 workshops in our city. The studio continues to work and is currently working on a playground project that we are working on together with the children. There are still many plans that have not been realized, concerning the implementation of children's ideas, the organization of summer architecture camps, as well as the spread of the idea to other cities in Serbia and beyond. The biggest task we set before ourselves concerns the entry into the school system. That would be an endeavor that we would consider the greatest success. We believe that this is necessary in our school system, considering that it does not deal with this type of learning or these topics and it could significantly affect the quality of life in Serbia. What we have achieved so far is not small and has left a deep mark on all the inhabitants of Pančevo and beyond. We believe that we have the capacity and ideas to expand the entire project beyond the local borders.
