Half a year of the project Little Architects

In February of this year, the first of ten workshops of the project Little Architects/ Mali architekci took place in Jelenia Góra, Poland. The aim of the Czech-Polish project is to introduce architecture to children from elementary schools as a very interesting field that combines the exactness of natural sciences with the emotions of visual art. The project involves ten Czech and the same number of Polish children, guided by a team of six instructors from both nationalities. The organizers and creators of the project are the Faculty of Art and Architecture (FUA) of the Technical University in Liberec and the Association of Polish Architects in Jelenia Góra (SARP).
The project is designed as a year-round program, with the entire group meeting every month alternately in Liberec or in Jelenia Góra. Each course is formatted as a full-day event, with the morning dedicated to visiting an interesting building, followed by a joint lunch, after which the children engage in artistic modeling activities. The content of each course is original, with a pre-defined architectural theme that determines the selection of the visited building and the afternoon program in the studio or workshop.
In the first half of the year, the "Little Architects" explored almost literally from the basement to the attic of the Liberec Regional Gallery. The gallery is located in a reconstructed building of the municipal baths, and the original purpose of the building inspired two dozen models of swimming pools and water parks created during the afternoon workshop. A visit to the romantic Valley of Castles and Gardens situated on the Polish side of the Krkonoš Mountains prompted their own designs for parks and gardens. Participants will surely remember their visit to Ještěd due to the whimsical weather at the mountain's summit, which simultaneously demonstrated how ingenious the hotel and transmitter construction is. Thanks to a visit to the Miniature Park near Jelenia Góra, the Little Architects had the opportunity to see most significant world buildings in a single morning, and their miniature forms served as inspiration for creating models based on selected templates.
There is a program prepared for the Little Architects even during the holidays. At the end of summer, a two-day architectural camp will take place, mainly focused on designing and building shelters for the participants to use for overnight stays.
The Little Architects project will conclude with separate exhibitions on both the Czech and Polish sides, where the children will present their year-round work.
The entire project is financially supported by the Microprojects Fund of the Euroregion Nisa.

More information >