Architecture for kids podcast with Inês Lourenço Coordinator of the Educational Service at Casa da Arquitetura

I have decided to take part in the podcast because I am extremely passionate about education kids for architecture.

Transcript

UNKNOWN: 0:00

you

SPEAKER_01: 0:09

Hello and welcome to another episode of Architecture for Kids podcast. I'm your host, António Cablão. I'm a trained architect, an architectural educator and founding director of award-winning Architecture for Kids CIC. In this podcast, I'm going to talk to practitioners and creatives that share the same passion as I do, to inspire and to engage children and young people to shape their built environment and the creative industries. The podcast is brought to you in collaboration with the Built Environment Trust, the Thornton Education Trust, and the Wells School of Architecture, Cardiff University. My guest today is Inês Lourenço, an art historian currently completing a master's degree in history and heritage, specializing in heritage mediation. Her work experience ranges from art consultancy, cultural production, and management in cultural associations and private companies to arts and architecture mediation. Inês is the coordinator of the educational service of Casa da Arquitetura, Portuguese Centre for Architecture. The Portuguese Centre for Architecture focuses on safeguarding, preserving and making architecture collections accessible and thus promoting reflection on architecture and taking it to the acknowledgement and understanding of the general public. The educational service connects with all the different publics they work with, from young children to seniors, through a wide range of activities, from guided visits to short and long-term workshops, that aim to promote the understanding of architecture and its process. The educational service connects with all the different publics they work with, from young children to seniors, through a wide range of activities, from guided visits to short and long-term workshops, They attempt to promote the understanding of architecture and its process. Ines, thank you for coming to talk to me today and I'm looking forward to our conversation.

SPEAKER_00: 2:22

Hello, Antonio. Thank you so much for inviting me.

SPEAKER_01: 2:26

What subjects were you good at school and what subjects did you enjoy most?

SPEAKER_00: 2:30

The subjects I enjoyed the most were definitely arts. I was both good at it and that's the one I enjoyed the most. I had the best grades at it.

SPEAKER_01: 2:44

Did that influence your career and if so how?

SPEAKER_00: 2:49

When I thought about my professional career for the future I obviously had an interest that it would be related to arts because it was a passion of mine and it was the area I always felt most comfortable in and when it came to the decision of choosing a pathway to study. I decided to choose history of arts because it connected the arts, the art world. It also involved architecture and it also involved documents as well and the built environment.

SPEAKER_01: 3:31

I know you worked in London. You're now here in Portugal, in Porto, at Casa da Arquitetura. So tell us a little bit about your trajectory. How did you get here?

SPEAKER_00: 3:42

When I was studying in university, I was very interested in architecture and learning more about it. But as you may know, there's a bit of a gap between the university studies and the professional environment. So when I was studying, I did not have a very good notion of what was needed and what constituted the arts sector. I knew I wanted to be surrounded by art and surrounded by beauty and the sublime, but I wasn't sure about what profession exactly I would like to have. And then when I started exploring more about it, I came to know the education part of the arts world, and that's what really interested me I started working on arts education in probably 2016, I guess. And before that, I also had a period where I was volunteering with a lot of youth associations and was already connecting with that type of field work, but not exactly related with arts at that moment I was studying. So then when I When I got off university, I explored about it. I did a workshop about arts education and that's what really started my journey through this world. I started working in 2016 with arts education and architecture education as well and it really fascinated me. power that the educators have in transmitting knowledge and also triggering the kids and the young people to really discuss and reflect in architecture and arts.

SPEAKER_01: 6:02

An interesting strategy and something that you said about the power of the educators having been supportive. Did your art teachers, you know, had that kind of power over you as well? Or did they support you or did they inspire you to do what you've done?

SPEAKER_00: 6:18

Some more than others. I believe that the role of an arts and architecture educator is a bit different from the role of a teacher. Completely different, actually. Because the educator, the arts educator and the architecture educator guides the participants, guides the kids and young people to getting to learning by doing, to learning by experimenting and debating and discussing and they challenge them to really question and take an active part in the architecture dialogue. The teachers have a more formal education role that's really in We

SPEAKER_01: 7:13

are recording this from a different country and it will be interesting to understand where we are in terms of the curriculum. And I think you already started talking about that by defining formal education with school and the creative education that we have here with the arts and architecture or in organizations such as this. And is this still the norm in Portugal or in other countries? is the curriculum of moving toward a more creative and more hands-on project work?

SPEAKER_00: 7:49

We are definitely in the process of moving towards it. We have some organizations that are working towards it. We have Plano Nacional dos Artes in Portugal, which is responsible for motivating and working with schools and establishing relationships between schools and cultural institutions help this sort of relationships between the two and to enrich the formal education. Also here at Casa da Arquitetura we always take the curriculum into consideration when designing all of our workshops and prepare all of our activities. So we adapt and we also know that our There are a lot of schools that really take an active part in really adapting and getting themselves open to the cultural world and the arts world as well. And we are definitely in the process of it.

SPEAKER_01: 9:00

Casa Turia is relatively new. Tell us a little bit about what your role entails as well as some of your programs with the schools. How does that work? And what kind of kids and young people come to your workshops?

SPEAKER_00: 9:13

Casa da Arquitetura was founded in 2009 and then we've come a long way since then. We used to be based at a small house, a small city house here in Matosinhos, which was Cesar's family house. And then we moved to this big building you are in now, which is also in Matosinhos. We moved here in November 2017. This relocation allowed us to expand our range of activities which now includes a lot of exhibitions temporary exhibitions and a big scale exhibition rooms we also have a room specific for the education service and this room allows us to work with schools and also work with individuals that they came to us to participate in our activities. Here at Casa da Arquitetura, our educational service does not only work with kids and young people, but we also work with people from all ages. We believe these intergenerational practices and activities can be enriching for people of all ages who participate in them.

SPEAKER_01: 10:42

Wow. do you think that and why is it so important here the intergenerational aspects of the activities?

SPEAKER_00: 10:49

We believe that the intergenerational aspects of activities are important because when the activities join people from all ages it is possible to exchange experiences in between them and also the education being open to people from all ages is also a big part of our work and our mission. Working with people from all ages is also important because it allows us to promote the knowledge about architecture and its process and also share and make people aware of the importance that architecture has in all of our lives.

SPEAKER_01: 11:39

Coming back to the activities itself, so there intergenerational, you work with schools, you work with the curriculums. Tell us a little bit about more about those activities and how and perhaps, you know, if there's one in particular that is your favorite or that you set up yourself, let's talk a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_00: 11:57

Our activities are destined for schools and they're also open to private people who sign their kids up for participating in the activities and we also have a lot of open days for families and kids to join us and to participate. The activities, we have a regular offer of workshops, mostly for schools during the school year. We also have activities during the seasonal holidays where the kids come to us to be here for a full week with a full experience and the activities are developed from Monday until Friday. There's allows us to work and to really get in depth of a project with these kids. We also have special activities in special days. For example, the inaugurations of exhibitions and also other important holidays here in Portugal. Regarding my favorite activities, this is very difficult to name. I can tell you a bit about our program. We develop a program for each academic year and we are now working with a team for the first time which is Biophilia and we are really getting in depth of the alliance between nature and architecture and the importance that nature can have in architecture and the well-being of the human. We have a work workshop, which is based in biomimicry, motivates the participants to observe natural elements and to really inspire, be inspired by these natural elements and to develop an idea of a design of an architectural project and to really spray their wings and see what they nature object can inspire them to do and to think of the possibilities so biophilia for us is a way of looking to nature to find solutions for our problems for our everyday problems and the world problems as well so this is really inspired us to do a range of workshops and also now that we have the exhibition about parliament de Rocha, the Brazilian architect we are continuing to work on this thing and to really continue to be inspired by it and to motivate people from all ages to get to know biophilia what this means and what can this bring to our everyday lives and how it can be a contribute to architecture and to thinking the built environment

SPEAKER_01: 15:12

And how do you develop those activities? Tell us a little bit about that process as well.

SPEAKER_00: 15:16

For example, the activity I was telling you about based on biomemesis, this activity involves the observation of the natural object through a microscope, and then it involves the description of the observation elements. They do the text on the natural object. The observation is the starting point to getting to... develop an idea, a concept, a solution to what they think might be interesting to develop. We also consider that in our activities it's really important to motivate the open discussion, the explaining of the projects, the debating, the finding the solutions. We also believe that they that the discussion with other participants can be an advantage to the project of each participant. So there's a big part of the dialogue that happens as an introduction and as a conclusion of each activity. The guided visits we do also involve a lot of open discussion and really so our educators really aim to open a door to discussion with these kids and to critical thinking and to stimulating them to exchange ideas in between them, in between them and the educators and to really question what they see, what they feel, what they create. And this creates a big, we aim to create a big forum of ideas.

SPEAKER_01: 17:11

You talked earlier about the curriculum and how you develop your activities having the curriculum in mind. Can you tell us a little bit about that and perhaps what are the subjects that are sort of most aligned with the curriculum and with what you do in your activities here?

SPEAKER_00: 17:32

Arts is very connected with architecture and that's the obvious answer to what subjects in the curriculum curriculum can have an interest in our activities. But the not so obvious subjects are sciences, natural sciences, which really have a connection with our program with the biophilia. We also establish relations with geometry, and history through the heritage. We also have a connection to Portuguese language because we really incentivate the debates and the communication skills between colleagues, between groups, and to each participant communicates their thoughts and intentions. The activities have a connection to another subject that we have here in Portugal, I don't know, which would be the correspondent one in the UK called Estudo do Maio, which would be translated as environment studies, which could be applied to natural environments and also built environment. And that's where the built environment would be integrated in. The other subject would be be cidadania, which is citizenship, and involves the ethics of citizenship.

SPEAKER_01: 19:19

The work you do here in Porto, or perhaps, I don't know, a few even in Portugal, you know, initiatives or organizations such as Casa da Arquitetura, how well perceived their interest in engaging children and young people into the discussion and the shaping of the built-in farm?

SPEAKER_00: 19:36

Our activities are very well perceived by the public. We'll because we have schools that work with us year after year and always come back here to develop programs with us. We also have worked with other schools in the rest of the country because they also come here whenever they come to field trips and we also have developed online workshops with schools from from the north until the south of Portugal. The efforts are made by each school to participate and engage with these different kinds of education and institutions, but there is a big problem here in Portugal that comes from the very strict curriculum and programs that the schools have. From primary school, start to have a bit of a stricter schedule to accomplish and they have a hard time integrating all the other sorts of activities they wish to do outside of the school because the teachers really need to accomplish and to tick all the boxes that they have for the programs to be delivered.

SPEAKER_01: 21:11

And in in terms of parents and guardians of the kids, how do they perceive the work, your activities? And, you know, and again, we can talk about the kind of architecture and if you have an understanding of what's happening in the rest of the country.

SPEAKER_00: 21:30

Well, the guardians and the parents of the kids, they also participate in the activities. So the feedback we have is amazing because the parents really appreciate that the activities, our activities, allow the parents and the guardians to participate with their kids in the activities and to engage in the creative process with that. This allows the participants also to have this exchange of intergenerational perceivings and really enrich the experience of the artistic process, but also enrich the between kid and family.

SPEAKER_01: 22:15

And what do you think is the impact on the built and even on the natural environment of this work you do here, of these activities?

SPEAKER_00: 22:26

I believe these activities are really shaping the younger generation to have a critical approach and thinking about the built environment. The kids and also obviously the adults that participate in our activities can really get a different perspective on the built environment. They can become more active citizens when questioning it and they can have a more active role.

SPEAKER_01: 22:57

What do you think is the impact on children and young people by participating in your activities?

SPEAKER_00: 23:06

I believe that we plant a little seed when they come to the activities, when they participate in the activities. And I hope that seed grows and grows to a beautiful tree of knowledge and experiences. So they sometimes come here for an activity that takes an hour, an hour and a half. And then they come back one year after and another year after. Sometimes they spend a little more time with us. For example, the ones I told you before with the seasonal activity I believe this type of activities can really encourage them to learn new skills that are useful in their everyday life and also their future lives, their professional lives when they grow older.

SPEAKER_01: 24:03

Is there a question I should have asked you that I haven't asked you? And if so, what is that question?

SPEAKER_00: 24:08

Well, one other question I thought would be interesting to discuss and to reflect on would be the similarities or the comparison between the Portuguese case and the UK case. I believe that the Portuguese case of education of architecture for kids is at an earlier stage than the UK one. And the UK has the advantage of having started earlier And so the community is also more aware of its importance. Here in Portugal, we are still making an effort for people to understand the importance of architecture because architecture can really be accessible to all people, not only architects. Unfortunately, there's still the preconceived idea that architecture can be only understood by architects and people that work in this field. But our aim at Casa da Arquitetura is really to make architecture accessible and understood by all people from all backgrounds and all ages.

SPEAKER_01: 25:35

That's a very, very good question.

SPEAKER_00: 25:37

Thank you so much, António. It was a great pleasure to having this conversation with you and we can always do more of this. I look forward to hearing the next episodes of your podcast and I wish you good luck for the future of the podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 25:55

Thank you very much to my guests today, to all the listeners and please subscribe to Architecture for Kids podcast and leave your rating and the review. Recommend us to your friends and family and to find out more about it visit our websites and follow us on and please join me again next week for another episode of Architecture for Kids podcast, brought to you in collaboration with the Build Environment Trust, the Thornton Education Trust and the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University.