Not only the summer architecture camps of Hello Wood are worth our attention, but their children programs taking place during the year, too. We can warmly recommend the Demo Wood design workshops targeting the playful development of the little ones for everyone, especially as they have also won the Golden Cubes award recently.
“The future is built by our children, but it is our duty to prepare them for it.” – says the motto of the International Union of Architects, on the competition of which awarding built environment education Hungary could participate for the first time. The creative design children’ program of Hello Wood, Demo Wood won in the institutions category of the Golden Cube Awards, and so the architect studio will represent Hungary against the rest of the world in the international finals of the competition.
The world’s largest independent organization representing architects, the International Union of Architects (UIA) awards those contributing significantly to educating children so that they become adults who protect and shape the built environment every three years. What is built environment education? The dry expression encompasses a very relevant topic: the sensitization of generations raised in urban environment to their narrower and broader environment. Only a generation that is open to its environment and that thinks responsibly can find the answers to the cutting questions of our age (such as the climate crisis or the various social problems).
The award-winning Hello Wood organizes programs for every age group, where they put gaining experience in manual labor in the focus. They were the first ones in Hungary to launch programs for children encompassing every field of design more than 13 years ago. It has been important for them from the very beginning that the values of contemporary design be conveyed by authentic and recognized experts, and so their tutor team has already featured designer Nóra Sármán famous for her bridal wear, actor and cinematographer Marcell Nagy performing the lead role in Fatelessness, Péter Vácz, award-winning director of the animation move titled Rabbit and Deer and Gábor Miklós Szőke renowned for his giant sculptures.
The students between 7 and 18 years of age discover the different sides of their talent through creative games and product design sessions at the workshops held during the year in the topics of architecture, photography, graphics, textile design and jewelry design as well as at day and overnight camps during the summer. Hello Wood realizes skill development with methods based on experience pedagogy and role models, through experience, and so the children become more sensitive to their environment in the long term, they become interested in the possibilities offered by design thinking and creation, they learn how to work in a team and how to cooperate. “The set of tools consists of architecture and design, but in reality we develop children’s skills in an active and playful manner. It is exciting to observe how virtual presence reduces during the sessions and children not only learn to use the gadgets for practical purposes, but by having to deal with each other, they become true members of a community.“ – describes Barna Berta, one of the founders the program.
Social responsibility is an important aim of the studio: they continuously work on making it possible to make this type of visual education method accessible to any children regardless of their financial status and family background. They hold workshops several times a year to children living in child protection care, to disadvantaged children and to children living in Hungarian communities in the neighboring countries.
Entrants could apply to the Golden Cubes Awards in four categories (audiovisual media, written media, institutions, school), and thedesignped.com knowledge sharing platform for teachers, kultúrAktív association’sUrbanity board game and the Let’s discover Biatorbágy! city discovery program were awarded in addition to Hello Wood. The main prizes will be awarded to the winners selected from the winners of the national rounds in July 2020, in Rio de Janeiro. The team will not rest until the finals in July, they offer workshops for children every month: they will welcome the 7-14 age group on March 21 next at the headquarters of the studio. At the end of March, they will also announce the dates of the summer day and countryside overnight camps, too.
The organizers of the kids’ program of Hello Wood:
Founders, professional leaders: Barna Berta, András Huszár / Educational expert: Péter Pozsár / Communication director: Dávid Ráday / Leading organizer: Nikoletta Lakatos / Project coordinators: Zsuzsa Darab, Tina Horváth-Ocsovay
More info: https://hellowood.eu/education
Source: Press release
Photos: Zsuzsa Darab
HYPE | Weekly program guide
Insta láv | CsaK
