Architecture and the built environment cannot be understood if you do not see them, do not go through them, do not listen to them, do not touch them, do not smell them, do not feel the dynamics of the place
Where do we start when we want to build a better city? The members of the Architecture Association answer us: from the education of the built environment done in school.
It's hard to get people to understand what architectural heritage means without giving them the chance to touch it, see it and smell it. It's even more complicated to get them to help save a valuable building that's about to fall because a businessman wants to erect a block in his place.
De-a Arhitectura — an association founded in 2013 by six architects who were at the time mothers of school children — wants to start as early as possible in forming people who are more attentive to the built environment, more willing to react when they see things wrong and harder to fool when it comes to buying a house or apartment.
We talked to the architect Mina Sava, the president of the association, about the importance of the built environment and how children change when they relate to architecture.
Chronicles: When and how did your organization/initiative come about? What was more complicated at first? What went easier, from your experience?
Mina Sava: In 2011 we started the cultural program "De-a arhitectura – education of architecture and built environment", with the support and financing of the Romanian Order of Architects, which is still with us today. The program started from two needs that I felt acutely at the time.
The first was related to our job, few people knew what an architect does and does not do, what a quality urban life and housing means. We wanted, in fact, to grow some more informed customers, because the culture of architecture and built environment was almost non-existent then. We wanted the future users of the built environment, the children, to know its ABCs – and when they grow up, being familiar with its values, to know what to ask an architect, what home to choose or where to invest.
The second need arose in everyone's life when they had to send their children to state school and realized that nothing had changed in 30 years. We realized that by the nature of our job we would have so much to teach them, in a practical, experiential and interdisciplinary way.
In 2012 we started implementing the first educational program, and in 2013 we established ourselves as an NGO, in order to develop and manage a national network.
Everything was complicated at first, for the simple reason that we threw ourselves into two areas unknown to us, that of education and that of building a national non-governmental organization that would last over time. In fact, I would not use the word complicated, but rather provocative, because I learned a lot from various fields and I met the specialists and dedicated people of another profession essential for the quality of life, that of a teacher, so little valued in our times.
In hindsight, they all seem much easier to achieve now.
What is the built environment, what is architecture and how do we separate them?
The built environment is all the environment made by the hand of man, from the humblest shelter to buildings, localities and territorial infrastructure (bridges, dams, highways, etc.). It is worth noting that it includes all the constructions made by people, not only those designed by architects: for example, Brazilian favelas are also a built environment. And the study of the built environment is complex and combines knowledge from all fields: exact sciences, social sciences and art.
Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and the spaces between them. Its raw material is the built environment, existing or still unborn, its user is Man. The architect is a "solution seeker", the one who finds an answer through a built-up form to the complex problems of the built environment and its users.
We spend almost 95% of our lives in the man-built environment, using spaces and objects created by people, be they architects, designers, engineers, or simple craftsmen.
We must understand its principles that give quality to our lives, be aware of its perpetual dynamics and the large amount of human and material resources involved in its creation and development. Although the built environment is one of the largest producers of waste and the largest consumer of resources, it is also the key to a future green development of the planet.
Whether you will be just a user, a public authority that will give an opinion, the one who builds or the one who invests, it is important to know what the impact of your building actions will be on the natural environment and on the community.
What were the first reactions?
We were surprised when, after developing the first Architecture course in 2012, the teachers we worked with thanked us for opening the way to transdisciplinary subjects and learning through the project, things they wanted, but did not know how to do them. This attracted dedicated teachers and teachers who wanted a change in education.
Architecture and the built environment cannot be understood if you do not see them, do not go through them, do not listen to them, do not touch them, do not smell them, do not feel the dynamics of the place. That is why, in our programs, visits to physical spaces – buildings, or public spaces are very important. Seeing, especially by learning to see, you can understand why and how they were designed, built and used. In children and young people you can speculate that "aha moment", making them marvel at a building or a place and thus all the information to settle in their heads much easier.
What attracts the children and young people we work with the most is the connection with real life, the fact that they can learn a lot from what surrounds them and use them, but also that they can also create something that can bring about a change, be it a drawing, a mock-up or an intervention built in their school or neighborhood. What interests us and the teachers is that they make connections between the subjects learned in school: mathematics, physics, geography, history, biology, chemistry, arts, language Romanian and learn from the correlation of direct and practical experience with these subjects.
What's the result you're most proud of so far?
We are most pleased when children present us with the results of their work and how they continue, with their minds, what we wanted to convey to them. For example, in the course for the optional third and fourth grades (Architecture in my city) that ends with the construction of the layout of an ideal neighborhood on the scale of a Lego little man, the children from a fourth grade with whom I worked this year came up with the boxes they made in the first grade, but upgraded. They recycled the old ones, rehabilitated them, gave them a new life, practically understood and applied the concept of "reduce, succeed, recycle" (reduce, reuse, recycle).
Extrapolating, an old building is not "thrown away", but is to be reused and improved. We often want to destroy them for unfounded reasons.
What does heritage mean to you and the children you work with?
Young children are empathetic when they see houses that people no longer care for, but if they are sad when they see abandoned buildings, teenagers want to act when they interact with a deserted building, that's why we have graffiti on the walls.
We teach them that no building exists in the aether, but is connected to a place, which is defined by geographical, historical, social, but also affective parameters. To understand a building, you need to know what background it has, the context – why it was made, for whom, how. Children do not learn the word "heritage" per se, but the idea that every place has a history, a story that must be continued.
Heritage is dynamic. The important thing is to continue its story, with the language of your era. As an architect you can build buildings that over time will become "heritage" if you do something that brings quality to the built environment and people's lives.
The issue of conservation of the built heritage was put on the public agenda only from the second half of the XXth century. The idea of freezing it in time, restoring everything as it was before and using it only as a museum, leads in time to a distancing of people from what is built heritage. A building or object must be used naturally: only at that moment they really live. The buildings that have survived the best of time are buildings that are continuously used by communities. For example, let's think of an old church, it survived time only because it was constantly used by people. If you have an old building, keep using it, fill it with life. It's dangerous to just make it a museum. Take care of them, use them, be proud that you live in something beautiful, so your life becomes beautiful.
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