Intercultural School (Architecture)

The project aims to explore the possibilities of incorporating theatrical principles into education design in order to provide a common world for children coming from all corners of the planet, while fostering confidence, mutual understanding and respect. Such educational space should spark creativity, spatial awareness and courage to experiment with the environment producing flexible individuals who accept life as ongoing and in constant flux.

In theatre, space comes alive thanks to the interaction of people with it. Based on this principle, architectural elements can be manipulated by humans, restoring their relationship with the tangible world in an increasingly virtual environment. This option strengthens the belief that each individual is responsible for creation of their own world, having a chance to change it even if coming from difficult circumstances. Therefore community participation in modification of the built environment is, I believe, a key method of integrating different cultures into a whole. The temporality of space that can be animated by human activity, always offers one a choice of expression. This right should be nurtured from a youngest possible age.

My proposal for the Intercultural School is located on Lisbon’s waterfront, in the vicinity of the most multicultural neighbourhood Mouraria. The project attempts to tackle integration of a high immigrant population in Portugal and use the school to create an empathic community with the help of theatre-based methods.

In order to test the findings and filter the research question through the children’s minds, drawing tasks were assigned to pupils from my former Primary School L.Novomeského, Košice in Slovakia in the course of the project development. Moreover, a two-day workshop was conducted with the pupils from 1.C class in April 2017 with the aim of presenting and interacting with the project by using theatre-based educational techniques in practice. Findings from the workshop further informed the design project, thus establishing a constant idea exchange between the children and myself.