Workshops

English

Name: Each child, one house; each house, one color
Location: Ghavam Aldine shirazi st., Shiraz, Iran
Design Associates: Fatemeh Karimi, Ahmad Rajabi, Azin Pishva, Shaghayegh Jalilpor
Date: March-May 2019
Total area: 5 sqm
Type: Workshop (Urban game pavilion)
Executive team: Zahra Rajabi, Raha Namazi, Zahra Varzandeh, Mohammad Mehrzadeh, Armin Omidvar, Saeed Shamsi, Seyed Ali Shahabi, Fatemeh Bahmani, Maziar Lakzadeh, Nazanin Soleimani, Hasti Nik Sefat, Fatemeh Sayadkooh, Ardalan Yadmaltian
3D: Ahamd Rajabi
Graphic: Ahamd Rajabi, Fateme Karimi
Budget: 666 USD (1 USD=150.000 rials)
Client: Qavam al' Din Shirazi competition-workshop
Credit: Selected and made design of Qavam al'din Shirazi workshop competition

The 5th Competition-Workshop of Qavam al-Din Shirazi’s question was about designing a portable play space for earthquake-affected and vulnerable areas. In the problem-solving process, the design team looked at the question from different angles, including factors such as children's post-traumatic stress disorder (post-traumatic stress disorder) and users' need for relaxation, cultural contexts, climatic conditions as well as the limitation of the construction budget identified its design frameworks as follows:

• Avoidance of designing complex forms and multiplicity of colors according to the specific conditions of the users
• The need to design a structure with minimal noise according to the specific conditions of the users
• Using cheap materials while avoiding the choice of hazardous ones
• considering structural proportions for children's use
• considering a variety of games and the possibility of creating the game by the child himself
• Instill a sense of familiarity to users (using familiar schemas), etc.

Finally, the outline of the project "Each child, one house; each house, one color" was designed while considering the above-mentioned factors for the playing after 7.3 competition. But in the meantime, the designers asked users and citizens to participate in the process of building and finalizing the design of this colorful house. Therefore, part of the structure was deliberately predicted as a soft texture (wooden cubes and coloring of them) so that ordinary people could participate in the completion of the project. Such activities, as one of the principles of tactical urbanism, will be effective in creating a sense of belonging and consolidate the identity of the space by engaging citizens in the early stages of the project and before the projection.

This project, which is based on the concept of home and consideration of cultural elements and handicrafts of Kermanshah, has different levels of play. Children have different choices to explore: they move at different levels, sometimes they walk, sometimes they hang themselves on bars, and sometimes they crawl. They can stop on the way, play with small colored cubes, and create a pattern. Also, they may sit on the projected levels (small houses) and interact with their friends. On the other hand, the open space in the middle can act as a center point for collective activities such as holding plays or storytelling for children. The project is designed for very young users and currently meets a limited number of them, but due to its modular structure, it can expand over time even in other places for a wider range of users. Eventually, this colorful house, by combining color and sound and reflecting mirrors, as well as forcing children to move and discover, through involving different senses of the children, creates various experiences for them and allows them to create games and avoids the dictation of a special method of utilization to them.