Two awards given to education through architecture
The Architectural Thinking School for Children was granted the Thornton Education Trust’s Inspire Future Generation Award in two different categories. This award, which is one of the very few in the sphere of architectural education for children, represents a most respected acknowledgement of the school’s activity.
The award in the “Diversity in action” category was given for the summer programme with migrants, currently taking place in Lisbon: they created a project centred around the conflict arising from the war in Ukraine, working with a group of Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian migrants and refugees with a special cross-disciplinary educational programme for these children. Additionally, in the best organisation categories, they were selected as the “Best international non-profit organisation”, for all the work undertaken in six years.
Due to the turbulence of recent years - the revolution in Belarus and the war in Ukraine - the school closed in Minsk, where it had been since 2016, and reopened in Lisbon, Portugal. Under the umbrella of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, it now works with Portuguese, English and Russian-speaking children. They aim to teach children aged 5-15 the understanding of the modern global world through architectural thinking, which is what they call the systems thinking possessed by architects, taken as a pedagogical model.
The Architectural Thinking School is an ongoing educational project taking place at Sinel de Cordes Palace with over 50 students enrolled. We are open to new student registrations.
Thornton Education Trust closes the gap between education and the built environment and ensures that youth engagement is recognised as a valuable part of creating better neighbourhoods and social impact. Their first step is to celebrate the individuals, not for profits, private and public sector already engaged and thereby inspiring others to do the same, identifying resources and create many more partnerships that foster those benefits for children and young people.
Images © Steve Lavers