CALAS
Workshop of the 1st Edition 2007 “The Ideal House”
What is for us a house? How do we imagine our house of the future? Who writes our future? These are some of the questions we have posed this year to children who have materialised their ideas and illusions about the HOUSE OF THE FUTURE in a creative way by means of the construction of a model that they’ve made their own.
Who are Construint a la sala and what do we do?
Construint a la Sala (Building in the Hall), is a non-profit association made up of professionals from various fields that have a common interest in the world of architecture and education.
For the past ten years, we have annually organized an architectural workshop free of charge for kids between 7 and 12 years old in the Sala Oval of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. It is a unique event in Barcelona aimed at 700 kids, in which more than 200 architects, artists, teachers and other professionals collaborate, and who, in a voluntary way, carry out work so that the children can build a model each year according to the theme proposed to them. The kids, who use recycled materials to which they give a second use, become partakers of the commitment towards the environment.
VIDEO 9th Edition 2015 “Architecture and light”
What is our aim?
Construint a la Sala aims to approach architecture to the kids in a creative, educational, and enjoyable way, providing them with the tools so as to behave like future users responsible for their surroundings.
The workshop receives children by means of an open registration process. The goal is for the children to develop an inter-generational work, in which big and small help each other with the same goal.
It is an enriching experience for the volunteers, given that the direct contact with the kids can be a source of creative inspiration, and opens the doors to an unknown world and full of illusion.
Child constructing his model
And this year’s theme?
It has always been said that to innovate you need to take risks and, on many occasions, architecture has become a showcase for presenting the visions of a future in which the everyday problems can be resolved in a creative way. The majority of these ideas have represented a way very different from the current one of seeing reality, something which has led those who have taken risks to be accused of being crazy, dreamers, visionaries or prophets.
Poster of the Current Edition ”The House of the Future”
That’s why, to celebrate this year as the tenth edition, the topic chosen is The House of the Future. With this theme, our aim is for the children to ask themselves how the constructions will be in ten years’ time and what criteria will be taken into account when building them in the same way as now in terms of comfort, sustainability or home automation.
For us, what is a house? How do we imagine our house of the future? How do we imagine our future? Who is writing our future? During the workshop we have seen how they respond to many of these questions that they have posed before the event in the form of successive posts on the website of the Association Construint a la sala. The children generate concerns, based on which, and with the accompaniment of the volunteers, have worked on constructing their own learning.
In this edition of Construint a la Sala, we have had the opportunity of building our own future and to make our little contribution by creating our HOUSE OF THE FUTURE.
Workshop 3rd Edition 2009 “Cerdà Year”
And you, how do you imagine your house of the future?
