Perween Rahman Fellowship
Participatory design with community school to improve school and community to be long life learning environments
Ms. Nicola Antaki worked with poor children in Muktangan (Lovegrove) school, will use the school as a laboratory to experiment with participatory design and planning prototypes, to improve the quality- of-life in their school, later their own community.
1. Background
In 2011 I began an independent research project in Mumbai studying the architecture of learning environments, and how art, craft and performativity can interplay; I learnt Hindi and identified and built a relationship with Lovegrove School, Muktangan, a fascinating NGO that combines innovative pedagogy with original learning spaces and municipal-‐free schooling for under-‐privileged children from informal settlements.
Can we change the way we design learning spaces for the better, if we approach their creation from a different perspective – one which adopts a wider view of education, engages with communities and governing powers and takes into consideration the effect of architecture on learning processes and outcomes?
I began to study how Muktangan classrooms are crafted to facilitate cooperation, exploration and concentration using floor markings, spatial organization, furniture, colours and decoration. After visiting the seven Mumbai Muktangan sites (that are housed within existing government run schools or buildings) I noticed many of the schools faced environmental difficulties such as noise and air pollution, that were making concentration in the classroom for both teachers and children difficult: Our goal was to improve these situations together through design, through a reciprocal learning architecture.
2. Objective
This project aims to empower under privileged school communities to improve their surroundings, with a view to result in reciprocal lifelong learning and develop active citizenship through design.
The project also actively explores and develops the role of the architect in the participatory design strategy, a critical pedagogical tool.
The children participate in the project during ‘work experience’ sessions at school, learning how to be urban activists and designers, and developing a civic sense of empowerment.
Together with 7th Standard, using active methods such as on site photography, interviews, observation we aim to add to the map of Mariamma Nagar, locating local resources, know how, buildings, communities, opinions, an area which has previously never been documented or mapped and which we will use to define design briefs.
We aim to build prototypes of designs that respond to briefs developed by the school and home community during design development sessions.
Through live research we aim to demonstrate the value of participatory affordable design using local craft and resources, for the making of learning interventions to influence school/home communities, architects, policy makers and funding bodies.
The broader aim is to produce a simple strategic tool for architects/facilitators/development practitioners/teachers to use to engage other school communities in improving their learning environments, and to demonstrate through built prototypes that communities can improve their own surroundings affordably and sustainably together.
The class involved in the project, teachers and inhabitants of Mariamma Nagar will immediately benefit from the project. However in the longer term the methodology and pedagogical idea aims to be one that can be transferred to other classes, schools, cities and countries.
The project aims to develop a sustainable method of active citizenship building that can be self-organizing, where children and schools connect with residential communities to improve living environments.
3. Process
Inspired by Paolo Freire’s work ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ we developed an active critical pedagogy throughout the project, building on the school’s aim to improve children’s critical thinking. I chose to work with Muktangan’s Lovegrove School, due to its particularly acute environmental and social difficulties. Together with Muktangan Lovegrove 6th Standard children (10 years old) and teachers, following a series of exploratory sessions, we brain-‐stormed, drew, made models and designed a number of small scale interventions situated in and around the classroom: The children were drawn towards natural and recycled materials, which complemented my interest in local material culture as a design language, and we focused on those that were affordable, sustainable and made by local craftspeople nearby. Choosing from readily available materials such as coconut coir (for mattress filling), jute ribbon, cotton cellulose (for cushions), woven cotton, bamboo and cane, we created a portable homework desk, and an acoustic window frame for the classroom. We also designed a fresh air desk made from recycled Tetrapak board and metal framework, with a slot for air cleaning plants, which would help improve concentration in the classroom through providing cleaner fresher air.
But learning doesn’t only happen at school: We began to explore learning in the children’s home environment, informal settlement Mariamma Nagar. How do children perceive the space they live in for learning and playing at home? And what could we design and build together that could improve these situations? Mariamma Nagar is a settlement of approximately 5000 people right in the centre of Mumbai, Worli, sandwiched between the racecourse, high-‐end office district and adjacent to the unsanitary Lovegrove canal. It is part of a larger settlement Jeejamata Nagar. In March 2014, the children started to build a map of their settlement, identifying key landmarks, and why, what with, where and with whom they learn at home. This map is the basis for the continuation of the project, to design and build prototypes relating to the home environment and community. The children are invited to become active citizens in the settlement, identifying issues they feel are important, and working with local craftspeople to design and build responses.
4. Next Action Plan
Do the project.
1. Background
In 2011 I began an independent research project in Mumbai studying the architecture of learning environments, and how art, craft and performativity can interplay; I learnt Hindi and identified and built a relationship with Lovegrove School, Muktangan, a fascinating NGO that combines innovative pedagogy with original learning spaces and municipal-‐free schooling for under-‐privileged children from informal settlements.
Can we change the way we design learning spaces for the better, if we approach their creation from a different perspective – one which adopts a wider view of education, engages with communities and governing powers and takes into consideration the effect of architecture on learning processes and outcomes?
I began to study how Muktangan classrooms are crafted to facilitate cooperation, exploration and concentration using floor markings, spatial organization, furniture, colours and decoration. After visiting the seven Mumbai Muktangan sites (that are housed within existing government run schools or buildings) I noticed many of the schools faced environmental difficulties such as noise and air pollution, that were making concentration in the classroom for both teachers and children difficult: Our goal was to improve these situations together through design, through a reciprocal learning architecture.
2. Objective
This project aims to empower under privileged school communities to improve their surroundings, with a view to result in reciprocal lifelong learning and develop active citizenship through design.
The project also actively explores and develops the role of the architect in the participatory design strategy, a critical pedagogical tool.
The children participate in the project during ‘work experience’ sessions at school, learning how to be urban activists and designers, and developing a civic sense of empowerment.
Together with 7th Standard, using active methods such as on site photography, interviews, observation we aim to add to the map of Mariamma Nagar, locating local resources, know how, buildings, communities, opinions, an area which has previously never been documented or mapped and which we will use to define design briefs.
We aim to build prototypes of designs that respond to briefs developed by the school and home community during design development sessions.
Through live research we aim to demonstrate the value of participatory affordable design using local craft and resources, for the making of learning interventions to influence school/home communities, architects, policy makers and funding bodies.
The broader aim is to produce a simple strategic tool for architects/facilitators/development practitioners/teachers to use to engage other school communities in improving their learning environments, and to demonstrate through built prototypes that communities can improve their own surroundings affordably and sustainably together.
The class involved in the project, teachers and inhabitants of Mariamma Nagar will immediately benefit from the project. However in the longer term the methodology and pedagogical idea aims to be one that can be transferred to other classes, schools, cities and countries.
The project aims to develop a sustainable method of active citizenship building that can be self-organizing, where children and schools connect with residential communities to improve living environments.
3. Process
Inspired by Paolo Freire’s work ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ we developed an active critical pedagogy throughout the project, building on the school’s aim to improve children’s critical thinking. I chose to work with Muktangan’s Lovegrove School, due to its particularly acute environmental and social difficulties. Together with Muktangan Lovegrove 6th Standard children (10 years old) and teachers, following a series of exploratory sessions, we brain-‐stormed, drew, made models and designed a number of small scale interventions situated in and around the classroom: The children were drawn towards natural and recycled materials, which complemented my interest in local material culture as a design language, and we focused on those that were affordable, sustainable and made by local craftspeople nearby. Choosing from readily available materials such as coconut coir (for mattress filling), jute ribbon, cotton cellulose (for cushions), woven cotton, bamboo and cane, we created a portable homework desk, and an acoustic window frame for the classroom. We also designed a fresh air desk made from recycled Tetrapak board and metal framework, with a slot for air cleaning plants, which would help improve concentration in the classroom through providing cleaner fresher air.
But learning doesn’t only happen at school: We began to explore learning in the children’s home environment, informal settlement Mariamma Nagar. How do children perceive the space they live in for learning and playing at home? And what could we design and build together that could improve these situations? Mariamma Nagar is a settlement of approximately 5000 people right in the centre of Mumbai, Worli, sandwiched between the racecourse, high-‐end office district and adjacent to the unsanitary Lovegrove canal. It is part of a larger settlement Jeejamata Nagar. In March 2014, the children started to build a map of their settlement, identifying key landmarks, and why, what with, where and with whom they learn at home. This map is the basis for the continuation of the project, to design and build prototypes relating to the home environment and community. The children are invited to become active citizens in the settlement, identifying issues they feel are important, and working with local craftspeople to design and build responses.
4. Next Action Plan
Do the project.
Name of Fellow:
Ms. Nicola Antaki
Organization:
UCL DPU and School of Architecture (PhD), Muktangan Lovegrove School and Mariamma Nagar residents
Country:
India
File:
Participatory_Nicola