SAIIER 2020:3H Summer School on Urban Furniture and Placemaking
3H Summer School on Urban Furniture and Placemaking
a project of Entity::Auroville Green Practices
The purpose of the 3H Summer School is to give students of architecture, urban planning, interior designing and other related fields an opportunity to design and build an urban furniture, which is most often a rare experience given that most conventional educational systems cover theoretical concepts and little practical experience.
The project this year was to provide a public playground outside Town Hall for the children of Auroville, where they can play in a safe environment while they wait for their parent to complete their work.
Description of project:
The 3H Summer School had eleven participants from different parts of India, out of which eight were studying architecture, two were working as architects and one was a practising interior designer. It is also interesting to note that eight of the eleven participants were female.
This was the fifth such 3H Summer School organised by Auroville Green Practices (AGP), which is an initiative of Auroville Consulting. It took place from 14th July to 3rd August 2019.
Each program like this one takes up a project based on the need of the community. It is designed and based on the 3H (hands, head and heart) approach, which attempts to actualize participants’ inner strength, to activate critical system thinking and to work on students’ technical capacities of designing and implementing projects.
Besides working on the design, implementation and documentation, each participating student designs and writes a project of his/her choice, which aims at bringing environmental and social justice and wellbeing. The aim is to train a new generation of environmentally and socially responsible leaders that are capable of connecting hands (capacity), head (system thinking) and heart (personal strength) while working on system change for a more socially and environmentally just future.
For this project AGP worked in collaboration with:
- the ACUR (Auroville Centre of Urban Research) team who provided the area for intervention at Town Hall,
- Sindhuja Jagadeesh who guided the students during the design and implementation process,
- SAIIER which allocated the funds for the materials used during the project,
- Eco-Service which helped us source materials that could be recycled,
- Auromode Guesthouse which provided the accommodation, and
- many other resource people within the community who shared their expertise.
Outcomes:
The theme of the workshop was ‘Field of Play’. It was envisioned to have simple structures that children could use to climb or crawl into, to move, dig, build, destroy and clean. It aimed at being a multi-use zone that promoted creative and interactive play, with minimal supervision. It also aimed at being able to support children between ages of 3 to 12 and have enough versatility to be able to capture the attention of this wide range of ages.
As per this brief, the participants designed and built a ‘Field of Play’. The structures included recycled cement rings to create tunnel that children could crawl into; the tunnel was further covered by earth to build a mound that children could climb. The tunnel leads to a tree house or a raised platform supported by three trees, which provides ample shade and a good vantage point and a sand pit where children can build sand castles. (The platform was designed by the students but it was implemented at a later date.)
The play area is used regularly by children and we understand that the parents are glad to have a space where their children can play safely while they finish their work.
Reflections:
The most meaningful takeaway from this project was the impact that Auroville had on the participants. Most of them said that they gained a lot of confidence in themselves and their abilities, they learned how to truly try and live sustainably and the very idea of Auroville touched them quite deeply.
The most challenging aspect of the project was getting participants to work as a team, helping each one voice their ideas and jointly select the ones that worked best for the project, and helping them to create a work schedule and getting them to stick to it.
We would say that these challenges help us become better coordinators for such projects and we are glad to be a part of the participants’ journey in Auroville.
A documentation of the summer school was created at the end of the program with contributions from the participants. It is available to view in the following link:
www.slideshare.net/AurovilleGreenPractices/3h-summer-school-publication-2019
Conclusion:
In the summer of 2020, we are organising another 3H Summer School where participants will engage in the design and implementation of a playground in Nandanam Kindergarten; the hope is to design a space that enhances the learning of children through play.