ARCHITECTURE FOR CHILDREN

With the summer vacations just around the corner, mothers, fathers and caregivers are looking for ideas and activities to entertain the little ones at home.

In order to have fun and, at the same time, learn issues of great use for their future, something we can do is to bring knowledge from the adult world closer to children. This is the case of architecture for children. Teaching the most basic architectural concepts to the little ones can be a great idea. 

That is why we want to show the most childish part of architecture and share some ideas with this post to be carried out with children.

What does architecture teach children?

Architecture offers children a new way of seeing the world and other perspectives on the architectural elements that surround them. Architectural culture can be approached by children in many different ways.

What can architecture do for kids? Boys and girls learn to be critical with their surroundings, enhancing their creativity and fostering their ability to observe buildings, monuments and other elements of cities.

Some of the architects' skills that children can acquire through games are, for example, teamwork, manual skills for creating sketches or prototypes, organizational skills, etc. But also, perseverance, respect for the surroundings and the environment or responsibility and autonomy.

A very simple but useful game, would be the following: By presenting a study case to the children, they must detect a problem through their own experimentation and then, with a group consensus, provide a solution to that problem.

At the end, the idea is to encourage creativity and artistic education in order to contribute to the development of the children's self-esteem and self-confidence.

Architecture for children, learning by playing

One of the most effective ways to learn is to do it by playing. One may think that this way of learning is perhaps slower than teaching theory and then applying it in practice. However, games and visual learning through real examples are a very effective method that, particularly in Japan, is often used for learning important subjects such as mathematics.

In addition, in an integral and holistic learning process, it is necessary for children to know some things about professions they may pursue in the future. We may think that this is not relevant at an early age. However, how do we know that a child is good at painting if we do not introduce him or her to art?  Something similar happens with architecture.

Games are an effective resource to attract the attention of children, because when something is related to fun, it challenges their skills and generates interest in unknown subjects.

Which are the best games to bring architecture closer to children? In general, those games or dynamics that favor learning, such as, geometry games, building blocks to favor structural criteria, modeling with plastiline or drawing to express the environment around them.

5 architecture books for children

Another way of bringing architecture closer to children is reading. What to take into account when choosing a book on architecture for children? First of all, the age for which it is recommended and secondly, the child's main interests.

These are some of the books about architecture that we could recommend for children:

• Houses. Atlas of the homes of the world.
  A beautiful book by Mia Cassany and illustrator Paula Blumen Blumen, showing the personalities of buildings and dwellings and the feelings they arouse when we come into them.
• Draw me a house.
  Another piece of art made book by Thibaud Herem, in which he makes a journey through time and around the world, focusing on architecture to become familiar with architectural elements. It can be used for coloring and drawing.
• Atlas of the world.
  By Aleksandra Mizielinska. With this trip the little ones will travel around the world to discover the most surprising corners of the planet.
• One thousand homes.
  From Carson Ellis, A Thousand Homes is a picture book that shows the diversity of people through their homes.

Master in Collective Housing UPM/ETH

The Master of Advanced Studies in Collective Housing is a professional and international postgraduate programme that is developed on a full-time basis, dealing with advanced architectural design in the city and housing. It is designed and taught jointly by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH).

The application period for MCH2022 is already opened, and it will remain so till 31.01.2022 or until vacancies are filled. 

For more information, click here!