In the schoolyard
Team: Cristi Borcan, Tudor Elian, Ana Maria Ţoni, Maria Daria Oancea, Irina Ioniţoiu, Mihai Patu, Andrei Pripasu, Ioana Tilicea, Dan Cioclu, Dan Bălăneanu.
Location: School no. 31, Tei Boulevard, Bucharest
Period: 12 - 20 October 2013
Part of The Days of Non-formal Education event organized by the Komunitas Association, the construction workshop took place at School no. 31, in the Tei neighborhood in Bucharest. In the attempt to temporary open and transform the schoolyard, other workshops were conducted during the event. They involved cleaning and planting of the green space, painting, drawing, graffiti, music and theatre improvisation. The Toolbox was also present to support some of the activities.
Placed in the lively center of the Tei neighborhood, the schoolyard is a hidden indeterminate space - large asphalt areas for crossing or sport and green spaces on the perimeter - a space meant for standard use. However the yard is animated by its everyday activities: glances, calls and gestures are exchanged over the fence, children throw their backpacks together before starting to play, parents wait and discuss near the guardian’s kiosk, older pupils gather near the school entrance. Hidden behind the evermore opaque fences, the space has little use for the people that live in the area.
For two consecutive Saturdays, shortly after the beginning of the school year, the courtyard was open for games and workshops. Besides the physical opening of a space that remains underused outside of the school schedule, activities brought together pupils, children from the neighborhood and from a placement center, parents and inquisitive neighbors, making the schoolyard a place for meeting, interaction and collaboration during the event.
The construction workshop spread throughout the yard in places that were adjacent to the metal fences that surrounded and separated the sport courts. The construction teams, consisting of voluntary architects, decided the configuration of the small equipments on site. Simple objects: a few benches, some with tables or backings, and a podium, try to support the patterns of the yard’s present collective practices.
Without reprogramming the use of the courtyard, the objects managed to specifically open the space to more diverse activities - play, hang out, rest, kill time - allowing for a more intuitive and free interpretation of the space. Most of the children preferred to get involved in painting the objects, while only a few chose to be part of the construction teams, together with the architects. Whatever the choice, they became involved in the transformation of their schoolyard.
The Podium
The Info Bench
The Bench with The Mobile Table
The Tribune-Bench
The benches are still there, loved and actively used by the children - because it was needed, and full of tags and inscriptions - because it is allowed.
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