WHAT DOES THE GREEN CITY OF THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE FROM A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE?

Aarhus School of Architecture, DOKK1, and LEGO® have invited 300 children to build the green city of the future

09.09.2019

Children from grades four to five from Aarhus Municipality have been working on the question, “What is a green city to you?” during the last week of August and the first week of September. Together with architecture students from Aarhus School of Architecture, they created proposals for what tomorrow’s green city might look like. They built their ideas using just under half a ton of LEGO® bricks. The result will be on display at DOKK1 until 7 October.

The LEGO® architecture workshop is the result of a collaboration between Aarhus School of Architecture, LEGO® and DOKK1. This year was the third time the workshop was held.

”The school of architecture’s vision is to boost the visibility of architecture – also for children – by creating relevant and playful dissemination of architecture. That is why, last year, we launched the LEGO® architecture workshop, in collaboration with Dokk1 and LEGO®. The workshop aims to create curiosity and interest in the architectural profession at an early age”, Kristine Leth Juul explains.

The workshop ran for ten days. Each day a new class of school children were invited to further develop the city, which has grown to four x four metres. The LEGO® city, which offers a wealth of fine details, opened as an exhibition at DOKK1 on Saturday 31 August.

”The 300 children were given half a ton of LEGO. They then created their interpretation of The Green City from a child’s perspective and built it.”, says architecture student Amalie Guldberg.

Students from Aarhus School of Architecture were in charge of the workshop and also supervised the children. Some days LEGO® employees also participated, contributing their knowledge of learning through play.

Through the workshop Aarhus School of Architecture wanted to give the children an early understanding of some of the basic principles of architecture – and also pass on the joy of designing and experimenting. This year, the theme ‘The Green City of the Future’ defined the scope of the architecture workshop.

The collaboration between Aarhus School of Architecture, LEGO® and DOKK1 will continue next year, in 2020, with a new LEGO® architecture workshop.