Talking to UIA – Architecture and Children members: Carolina Pizarro

More than half of the world’s population lives at this moment in urban areas. The United Nations states that 68% of the world population will be living in cities by 2050. It’s not bold to say that as much as we, as professionals, are shaping the built environment, it shapes us in equal measure. Our well-being, as city dwellers, is deeply connected to how well our environment is planned, designed, shaped. This puts on our shoulders, as architects and urban planners, a huge responsibility. But we are not alone in sharing this responsibility. Together with the authorities and law-makers, we have the duty of providing a sustainable built environment, suited to the needs of the people living in it today, as well as for the future generations that will inherit it. Keeping in mind all of the above, it is quite obvious why the citizens, the communities, have an important stake in how our built environment is designed, as much as the professionals do.

In order to improve how our built environment is planned, globally there’s been a wave, a movement, in which professionals are raising awareness about the importance of built environment education. If more and more people become aware of their surroundings and get involved in reshaping and improving it, the result will be a better co-existence within the smallest or largest of communities, an improved quality of life, in direct link to the quality of the built environment.

As a member of the UIA (International Union of Architects) – Architecture and Children Work Program, we undertake this mission to raise awareness about built environment education (BEE). In 2020 we launched a new series of interviews with the members of the Work Program, to better understand how our international colleagues implement BEE activities, what is their vision and approach in their specific set of circumstances and what we can learn from it. The series can be found here and we are happy to continue our journey all the way to South America, to Costa Rica.

De-a Arhitectura (DAA): Why do you think it is important to introduce into the school curriculum an architecture and built environment education course for children and adolescents?

Carolina Pizarro (CP): Because we have a responsibility to society as individuals and professionals in the fields of architecture and urbanism to propose a change through educational processes using new ways of learning in a playful, dynamic, interactive way, available to exploration, freedom, play, creativity and spontaneity, actions typical of children and adolescents.

Discovering the meaning of ARCHITECTURE and THE CITY as a human experience for community life through the different manifestations of art and play is fundamental for education for sustainable development and for understanding its importance.

To definitely include this topic within the school curriculum means to contribute to a comprehensive education in which the various subjects covered contribute to an education of sustainability and respect for the environment. It is a subject that still, in our reality, needs to be known and its importance needs to be emphasized in the field of education and culture, in order to understand that the achievement of a quality human life depends to a large extent on the quality of the built environment and we need to build this through the effort of all, starting with the new generations, so that they have the knowledge and tools to make good decisions in the future for the cultural, social, economic and political well-being of their community and the environment in which they live.

DAA: Why should the young be interested in how a city works?

CP: Because the knowledge of ARCHITECTURE and URBANISM by citizens in general and even more so from an early age is essential to understand the meaning that gives shape, place and time to the spaces we inhabit, what we call CITIZEN CULTURE, URBAN CULTURE, BUILDING CITIZENSHIP. A space to express an opinion, to propose, to do, to educate for life and sustainability.

Young people need meeting spaces, spaces of coexistence, to be together, to share and the city, the neighborhood, the school must provide these spaces that generate a healthy interaction, and more when they understand this from their concept that favors appropriation of their neighborhood, of their city, feeling it as their own and in this way respecting and caring for it.

Building a city

DAA: Why do you think it’s beneficial for architects, artists, cultural facilitators to work with children?

CP: Working with children is really rewarding, they are transparent, simple, very honest, “if they don’t like something they stop and leave”, and they tell you everything they think in a frank way. Children are pedestrian citizens “on foot”, they see everything from this perspective, they know no differences, and they are just friends with each other. They are eager to know, to understand how things are and how things work, they observe, they ask, they give ideas, you always learn together with them. It is really gratifying to hear such simple but necessary ideas from their opinions. They are very grateful to be included in urban issues, in city issues, they tell me so, and they thank me for including them.

I share an anecdote with you when we carried out a citizen consultation with more than 5,300 children in the Canton of Montes de Oca about the Land Management Plan (Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial – POT), the representatives of the Municipality where we worked on the issue told me that the children would not understand what we were talking about. We got many beautiful answers, but I share with you only one to the question: “What is POT?” An eight year old child answered:

• “Plan (Plan): Like when you plan a treasure hunt.
• Tidying up (Ordenamiento): Like when mom asks you to tidy up the room.
• Territorial (Territorial): Territory, a place.

So it is the Plan to organize the place where we all live together: THE NEIGHBORHOOD.”

Although this child does not respond with technical words, he is very clear on the subject.

In addition, making this work through various artistic manifestations such as fine arts, play and games is certainly rewarding and we learn by doing.

Arquiticos in the public space

DAA: Can you tell us a bit about how Grupo ANDA: Arquitectura y Niñez de América or ARQUITICOS: Arquitectura, Ciudad y Niños inspire and emotionally engage children in architecture derived activities in Costa Rica?

CP:

ANDA: Arquitectura y Niñez de América (Architecture and Childhood of America)
Coordinator: arch. Carolina Pizarro
Facebook: Arquitectura y Niñez de América-ANDA
You can contact us at: anda@cfia.or.cr

ANDA is a group that was born in Costa Rica and is part of the strategic plan of the College of Architects of Costa Rica, a non-profit group with the sole interest of generating networks in the Americas. In 18 countries we work with children and teenagers on architecture and cities in Latin America, because we are sure that a change of vision with creativity and innovation will generate more human cities, closer to us.

Mission: To be the group in America made up of architects working on architecture and urbanism with children and young people from our continent, generating experience on this topic as a cultural and representative manifestation of our society, which at the same time stimulates creativity, sensitizes the user from an early age, developing the capacity for observation, opinion and a critical vision on our topics of interest.

Vision: To bring about a change among children, teachers (schools), citizens (communities) and institutions responsible for the development of our cities (town halls, ministries, etc.) through a training process aimed at children and young people, in a playful, dynamic, interactive way, using games, arts, workshops, trainings, etc., in order to raise awareness and exchange ideas about public and/or private built space, how, why and for what it is important to propose it, live it and take care of it.

General objective: To achieve a permanent change in children and young people through a formative process and exchange of ideas on issues of architecture and urbanism through creative and interactive play using  different arts to generate sensitive, critical users and citizens who recognize the importance of these issues in the quality of life they share in the community.

Building a habitat

Some specific objectives:

• To bring together professionals and/or groups of architects in the Americas who work in architecture and urban planning with children in order to exchange ideas and experiences to share and disseminate the work done in similar urban and social circumstances to inspire, motivate and help us to carry out our work in the corresponding countries.
• To create networks at the level of the American continent and of the other world organizations that work on this topic, to talk through the Latin American web portal, to generate talks, classrooms, workshops, meetings, congresses, conferences, etc. to provide feedback and disseminate our work.
• Plan joint projects in a virtual way among the countries of America in order to unite ties and achieve an exchange of experiences and opinions among the children of America.
• Organize international events to exchange knowledge and experiences as well as to disseminate our work to different audiences.
• Work to articulate architecture as a pedagogical project in basic education in order to insert the theme of Architecture and the City in the formal curriculum of primary education in our countries, doing so in parallel with collaborators from different areas (educators, psychologists, artists, etc.) in order to implement proposals and/or comprehensive projects.

Making the children visible in the city

ARQUITICOS: Arquitectura, Ciudad y Niños en el año 2010 (Architecture, City and Children in 2010)
Executive Director: arch. Carolina Pizarro

Independent group of designers, theatre teachers, art teachers, psychologists and architects (multidisciplinary collaboration) with the theme Architecture and the City in Schools (as a discipline), in municipalities doing citizen consultations in schools and communities and also conducting workshops at our headquarters and presenting projects in various public and private entities and universities.

The word ARQUITICOS is born from Arquitectura (Architecture) + Ticos (demonym, names of Costa Rican inhabitants). With ARQUITICOS we carry out an annual permanent course that develops several themes at different levels, from kindergarten to sixth grade, among the themes that are developed are the following:

Part of the programmed agenda for recreational-creative activities:

Module 1

• Observing, analyzing, perceiving, thinking, feeling, representing, knowing (awakening the senses).
• Space – Body (Proportion, measures)
• Country, city, neighborhood, school, house (Function – Network of systems)
• Structures (natural and designed), biodiversity
• Garbage, recycling, reuse, sustainability
• Shapes, structures, materials, textures, colors in the city

Module 2

• History-Heritage, What do the buildings tell us? Identity
• How to learn: Mathematics, Spanish, History, Social Studies, Geometry, space-lines, all in a model of my neighborhood, of my city. I propose ideas and I learn (uniting knowledge).

Module 3

• The house: components, areas, who lives in the house, relation of space-function, light, day, night, outside, inside, environment, how do others live?
• Systems (electrical-mechanical), alternative energies.
• Colors, lighting, textures, materials, wind, rain, sun, topography in the house, in the school.
• Space and human relationships, animals, things.

Module 4

• Maps, the space that is closer, the space that is farther away, scales.
• Experiential and virtual experiences (getting to know my city, getting to know other cities).
• How to organize and face a natural disaster: human relationships, priority spaces, important and necessary elements (water, garbage), recycling, and reuse. How can I help?

Some of the activities carried out:

• ARQUITICOS Workshop: Architecture, the city and children, virtual and face-to-face, in schools and communities.
• Production of short videos with theatre, puppets, stories and workshops entitled: “Puppets also stay at home”.
• The project “I’m also participating”, a nationwide citizens’ consultation with the Ministry of Housing and Settlements with children to develop the Habitat Policy.
• Massive campaign projects on various topics: ozone layer, human rights, dengue fever campaign, water saving and care, healthy nutrition, among others, for school children across the country.
• Citizen Consultations from local governments with children and adolescents, integrating them and making them participate in urban decisions with their proposals and ideas.
• Artistic interventions in public spaces for public health.

Flower City. Waking up the senses.

DAA: Please tell us briefly, from your own experience, how did you manage to better implement your projects in connection to this subject, what are the elements that ensure the desired impact that you’ve set from the beginning?

CP: Well, my work is always based on active participation, through creative and participatory play workshops, discussions, participatory activities, opinions, meetings and exchange of ideas through games and different artistic manifestations, all activities attractive to our target audience and to the staff directly involved, such as teachers, families, community and different entities related to development, culture and education for children and youth.

A theme that began at the College of Architects of Costa Rica through the Architecture and Children’s Commission that I have been coordinating for more than fifteen years, this commission works constantly in favor of education and exchange with children and adolescents, current and future users responsible for the sustainability of our cities, so it was born as an urgent need to transmit and share knowledge about the built environment and the environment surrounding us with this population. This activity is carried out by the seven architects who make up this commission. Its general objective is to share the necessary knowledge with the children and youth of Costa Rica on issues of built environment, cities, community life and sustainability, thus predicting long-term results in terms of the quality of life of the inhabitants, using various attractive means such as new ways of learning, their feedback on the subject, documentation, dissemination and application. Another objective is to exchange and discuss this topic with different public and private sectors in a multidisciplinary manner to provide feedback on knowledge and proposals through talks, conferences, symposia, meetings, etc. We are also concerned with the design, construction and installation of spaces that provide the basic concepts of architecture through playful experiences that promote creativity in children and young people, where they can also share their opinions and proposals, for example in the Children’s Museum where we have been present with an interactive room for 7 years, collaborating with other committees and/or projects of the CACR (Board of Directors of the Costa Rican Architects Association), such as the Commission of Young Architects, Urban Planning, Local Government, Sustainability, among others, as well as the Architecture in the Park Project. Another objective is to generate networks for exchanges of experience and various events with national and/or international groups.

Then in 2010 ARQUITICOS: Arquitectura, Ciudad y Niños was born, as I mentioned earlier, with which we work permanently on these themes.

Expected results of our proposals:

• That children and adolescents have an opinion, knowledge, sensibility and a critical and creative sense on architecture, infrastructure and city issues in order to understand the importance of sustainable development. That they can put into practice concepts learned at school, in the community and at home.
• That they have a free space to give their opinion and propose ideas for the urban development of the community and that they understand the importance of taking care of cities, being good neighbors and users of the city. And, above all, to have fun learning.

Immediate and priority actions to be taken:

• To act in multidisciplinary partnership with local governments, ministries and various decision making entities, elaborating projects on architecture, infrastructure and city issues through activities of interest to children and young people, including environmental, socio-cultural and educational topics in a participatory manner.
• Incorporate architecture and city issues in the formal school curriculum and in this way contribute to education and preparation for community life in schools and/or colleges.
• Continue holding workshops in schools, colleges (public and private) and communities in general in order to build citizenship and generate sensitivity, knowledge and critical sense in this population on issues of architecture, city and sustainability.
• Collect information and ideas given by children and young people to create a document that can be implemented in future urban design proposals from local governments and the various competent entities, thus facilitating the inclusion and participation from an early age in these issues.
• Generate active participation of this population in urban issues and assert their proposals as new citizens with the right of opinion.

DAA: What would your advice be for those people or organizations that walk the same path? 

CP: Don’t stop, because the experience truly enriches you and is a constant learning experience. Have fun doing it. We truly believe that young people and children should be respected and that their opinions should be heard on urban planning issues. By talking and sharing with children and young people about architecture and the city to learn to be better citizens, with sensitivity and critical sense towards these issues, they develop a sense of belonging and ownership of the city. They learn to love it, to respect it, to care for it, to propose ideas with discernment and to be able to participate and be heard in urban development decisions, to work as a team, as a community, to understand the benefits for everyone is certainly important, making them participants and making decision makers understand what will benefit our coexistence in the not too distant future.

DAA: Why did you choose to become an architect?

CP: A very good question to which, after years, I can answer with certainty that our profession owes a debt to society, to design, to build spaces, to know how to interpret the needs that are required and to translate them into a project so that people feel good, enjoy and get involved in the process, this is certainly part of our job and to do it respecting the environment, nature and identity and culture. Our career is social, that’s why I decided to be an architect, to learn from diversity and respect for nature, which is proved to me by another opinion of a little girl, Camila, when she tells me at one of my workshops that “The city should forbid less and welcome more”, certainly an opinion that asks us to humanize cities and their spaces, to bring them closer to people, who are also diverse and with different needs, and to always integrate nature.

DAA: How do you think citizens perceive the profession of architect and the role of the architect in society? How do you think young people and children see you as an architect?

CP: In our society and in our reality in Latin America, I can say that the architect is perceived as the professional who is in charge of planning, designing and coordinating the construction and planning of cities to create welcoming, functional and sustainable spaces that improve the quality of life of the people who use or live in them. Few make the connection between this profession and children and teenagers, and when this modality is presented in general, they are surprised and find it important and innovative to do so.

Children and young people see the architect as a designer and builder of houses, they point out that it is a profession through which cities can be planned and it is linked to play, architecture seems to them a game: building, creating, planning, questioning, asking questions to plan and working in teams, certainly, as mentioned, forms citizens with critical thinking and knowledge.

The interview can be read in Romanian here and in Spanish here.