Edinburgh College of Art © Katie Forrester
The idea !!
After coming back from
my field survey in Bangladesh, while working in the office in front of the
laptop, looking at the spreadsheets for hours, days and weeks often I rode on a
mental time machine. I recurrently went back to that time while I was working
with children to build their dream school ground. At that moment, I received
that email calling for proposals for Innovative Learning Week, 2016. While
cherishing the memories, it came to my mind- Can I do something for the
children in Scotland while I am here with support from ILW?
© Steven Johnson
When two light bulbs
mingle...
One day I shared my
idea with Nik Farhanah (from Architecture) during lunch and shared my idea. Nik
is also working with children, exploring children’s participation in designing
their learning spaces in post war schools in Scotland. Nik right away agreed to
work on the idea and we had our first formal meeting to fill the application
sitting at the corner of the staircase which Nik named ‘Matluba’s corner’. Our
initial idea was to work with a primary school within walking distance of ECA,
to intervene in the school ground involving the children and the teachers. We
started brainstorming over lunch at different restaurants. I need to thank all
these cafes and restaurants in the acknowledgement section of my dissertation
too. Nik eagerly took the responsibility of the lead organizer. We hoped that both
of us will be benefitted from the program and have the opportunity to learn-
Nik might have some ideas to implement later on in her pilot studies and I
might be able to apply some of my learnings in a different context.
© Steven Johnson
The Collaboration…
Working on something
interdisciplinary we know that very few things in the world are independent.
The ideas of play and learning is something very multidisciplinary. We asked
for inputs from colleagues who work in the related fields. While Norhanis (the
techie girl from Landscape Architecture) ensured the multimedia projection,
photography and videography of the same event all on her own, Katie (from
Illustration working on children’s book illustration) designed beautiful
certificates for our youngsters. Sharifah (from Education) became the foster
mother of the children ensuring they were wel-fed on the day of the event and
Reyhaneh (from Landscape Architecture) became the moderator of the youngest
group along with three other moderators- Nik Farhanah, Katie and me. The inputs
from everybody throughout the whole time made the event possible while Nik was
leading the arrangement in bold hands. Our friends worked a great deal to
advertise the event among their colleagues and friends. For some moments during
this journey, I became ill, so secluded myself away from Edinburgh and could
not be involved in the way I wanted to. But I am glad I could make it at last,
be there beside Nik at the last moment arrangements- finalizing the moderators’
roles, program and shopping materials for the design charette.
© Steven Johnson
On that day… 19 February 2016
We could not manage to
work with a primary school but how about we get our ECA open space designed by
the young landscape architects? Yes, the final program was to design the open
space in the ECA campus for the older students or adults who studies in ECA and
held at the extended ECAfe overlooking the greens outside. The whole day event
included four different inter-related sessions-
Warming up/ Ice-breaker- on arrival children were given a canvas bag and a badge (children were divided into 4 groups based on age - warm, squirrel, sea-gull and leaf). After a short welcoming session showing a video of a Syrian boy building Aleppo city the children were asked to design their own canvas bag, customizing their individual bags.
The bag designed by Jack
Through my
eyes- The children were led to the ECA open space by the moderators for walking
along and finding children’s views and opinions related the space. The children
were given an illustrated inventory of different landscape elements that they
might found there and how they would rate them based on their preferences. This
was followed by a group discussion to find out the things liked and disliked by
the children, why there were no adults out there or why older students did not
use the space.
Children filling up the inventory on their walk © Matluba Khan
Children drawing what they see © Matluba Khan
Inventory to be filled during walk
Me myself
was quite surprised by the feedbacks from the squirrel group which I moderated.
According to them, there are some positive things about the space- nice lawned
grass, not muddy or less messy but they also thought the place was unwelcoming
and there was nothing exciting there. One child was saying that there was
nothing there which stated that it was an art college while another child was
saying, “There are so many artists here but the benches are so old. These
should be modern.”
My left
brain- The main activity after lunch was to design that space. Some designed
the space individually while others designed in groups. After a discussion my
team first worked on an individual brain storming session- drawing their ideas
on a piece of paper. Afterwards, they collaborated and worked as a team to come
up with a model for the ECA open space.
Individual brainstorming © Matluba Khan
The
children opined that there should be some modern art forms or sculpture that
would right away communicate the college’s status with any visitor. They
designed water features and modern seating. They proposed a bird feeder and
bird bath to attract birds and a shelter where students can paint or sketch
while it starts raining all on a sudden.
Team spirit © Matluba Khan
Children's design of ECA open space
At the end
of the day the children from each group presented their design to others. It
felt so good to see young children speak about their awesome designs in front
of other kids. The children were given a certificate of participation which they
can take home in their self-designed bags.
A child presenting her design © Matluba Khan
What we learnt:
The response and outcome
of the event surpassed our expectations. The enjoyment of working with out of
the box designers with wild imagination as well as reasonable thinking (which
we often don’t want to accredit children with) cannot be compared to anything
else. We not only enjoyed but also learnt how we can work with children more effectively
to generate creative and effective design ideas. Different age group of children express their ideas in different ways which is needed to be considered and acted accordingly. We observed which materials
children are friendlier with and love to work with. We collaborated and learnt
how people’s expertise in different aspects can be brought together. The
children also learnt through seeing, analysing, acting on, collaborating and
then learning from each other’s presentation but above all they learnt through
playing- playing with different materials, colours, objects and making things. And
here how ‘Ideas of play’ leads to learning in an innovative way…
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