GOLDEN CUBES AWARD-ARCHIPLAY

ARCHIPLAY aims to help children establish an early relationship with architecture and the city in order to become the actor of their future environment whether they are users or decision-makers. We have observed children and their ability to fully occupy space through their emotions, sensations and desires. They explore the space around with their whole body without fear nor prejudice (of function, of aesthetics). Children are naturally endowed with an overflowing imagination and a creative spirit, Archiplay simply sets up a framework to exacerbate these qualities. To do so we vary the themes, rhythms, settings, media and tools.

Step 1 : PLAY (feel the spacethroughyour body): According to a particular theme, the session starts with 30 minutes of drama activitythat aims to encourage the reading of spacethrough the body. On stage, the children and educators let off steam in a frantic rhythm, they expend themselves, play and express themselves. Drama breaks down language and age barriers, allowing the group to benefit from the diversity of ages in the group. Role-playing breaks down social barriers, dispels prejudices and fosters creativity and friendship among the children. In complete freedom, they explore their body's ability to interact with others and with the immediate space through notions of strength, balance, tension, stimuli, movement, proportion, and shape. This is a first step that allows the five senses to hook up with the understanding of space.
Step 2 : TELL & DISCOVER (enter a new world): After the active halfhourcomes the quiet time of the journey through the world. A slide shows images or videos of architectural works related to the theme of the session. This is an opportunity to enrich a vocabulary related to architecture, to develop a general culture and to learn about architectural and urban language. Then, still in a calm environment, a story inspired by a tale introduces the child to a fantastic world. A world without constraints or clichés in which the child will place his work.
Stage 3: Build (create): the last 30 minutes is a workshop of models and drawingswhere the childrenproduce a workindividually or in groups according to the theme and in a fantastic world. It is an opportunity to manipulate the material, to think about space, to encounter problems and solve them. Different techniques allow us to vary the scale to abstract and simplify the message to the children.