Think Education Forward
Basic information
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Full project title
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Project Description
Think Education Forward is a long-term strategic plan for a public primary school renovation in Saint Vlas, Bulgaria, that addresses important educational issues such as children hyperactivity growing into violence, the unchanging school environment that tolerates industrial age education, the limited children's freedom of choice. The project is funded solely by the limited school budget, which allows one project to be implemented each year.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Think Education Forward is a long-term strategic plan for a public primary school renovation in Saint Vlas, Bulgaria, that started in 2015. The project is funded by the limited school budget, which allows us to realize one project each year. So far we have implemented five projects - "5 Rooms", "Out-of-School", "Demokratos", "New Infrastructures", "Sports Hall", all of which address important issues such as children hyperactivity growing into violence, the unchanging school environment that tolerates industrial age education, the limited children's freedom of choice, childhood obesity. After years of successful collaboration with the school management team, in 2021 we have made a research showing the results of our efforts. In 6 years the number of students grew from 136 to 353. Today students enrolled in the school travel every day from nearby cities and villages to visit "St. St. Cyril and Methodius“ school, whereas in 2015 the enrolled students lived mainly in Saint Vlas. After completing Demokratos project in 2018 the school received an innovative status by the Ministry of Education, thus giving teachers freedom to use unconventional educational methods. In 2020 "St. St. Cyril and Methodius“ school entered the Top 10 rank list of schools in the region, and 70% of the students were admitted to elite high schools. According to the headmaster one of the greatest achievements of Think Education Forward project is the lack of a single case of violence after completing 5 Rooms in 2015.
Key objectives for sustainability
By the means of art and design "5 Rooms", "Out-of-School", "Demokratos", "New Infrastructures", "Sports Hall" offer universal solutions to painful educational issues on a national level. The sustainability of the project lies in its applicability to every single school in Bulgaria and its compatibility with innovative educational methodologies, thus ensuring a radical improvement of education itself.
5 ROOMS is a project that deals with children excess energy which sometimes results in violence. The project offers a simple solution - channeling children aggression into constructive activities that develop their imagination, artistic talents and mental abilities. OUT-OF-SCHOOL deals with the problem of the unchanging school typology in Bulgaria and offers an alternative outdoor school design that encourages modern educational methods. DEMOKRATOS deals with the problem of children’s lack of freedom of choice in the educational process. By renovating the school hall, the project transforms it into a democratic space within a traditional school where freedom. The new multifunctional hall embodies the principles of freedom, equality, and pluralism, typical of democratic education. NEW INFRASTRUCTURES is a project for renovating the school hallways which are child-unfriendly, poorly lit with compromised acoustic environment. The renovation proposal aims at transforming the space into new spatial and social infrastructure, and infrastructure of values. SPORTS HALL is a project for renovating the school sports hall. Significantly improving the sports facilities by creating spaces for mind games and physical activities, the project addresses the alarming tendency of incresing levels of childhood obesity in Bulgaria.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The aesthetics of each project of Think Education Forward strategy is regarded by our design team a very powerful tool, which embodies the projects concepts. 5 ROOMS is a space, channeling children aggression into constructive activities that develop their imagination, artistic talents and mental abilities. The insufficient area of the space is transformed into a concept for a clash of 5 rooms – a classroom, a playroom, a dance room, a music room, a mirror room. OUT-OF-SCHOOL is a 190 m2 educational space that allows children to experience outdoor all school activities. The project consists of an amphitheatre area, two rope playgrounds, three shaded study/dining tables with swings instead of chairs, hammock recreation areas. Out-of-School blurs the boundary between academic learning and creative play, encourages experimental methods of teaching such as multi-sensory and interdisciplinary studying. DEMOKRATOS is a democratic space within a traditional school which embodies the principles of freedom, equality, and pluralism, typical of democratic education. Demokratos is always accessible. Its program is created by both students and teachers, thus encouraging equality between them. The flexibility of the hall allows its transformation into a social hub, a debate hall, a theatre hall, a cinema, a presentation hall, a training center, a canteen. NEW INFRASTRUCTURES aims at transforming the space into new spatial and social infrastructure, and infrastructure of values. The spatial infrastructure enables children to navigate easily in the school by colour marking of key areas. The social infrastructure fills the hallways with elements that encourage group games, free communication and art exhibitions. The infrastructure of values builds the spiritual world of the school. The aesthetis of Sports Hall project is a logical continuation of the hallway design, interpreting sports elements.
Key objectives for inclusion
The strategy owes its success to the communication between our design team on one hand and the school body on the other. Every project starts with discussing the issues teachers, students and headmaster experience and what the main goal of the concrete intervention will be. "How to solve a problem" is a task based on a thorough research of world architecture practices, reports of the Ministry of Education in Bulgaria, books by leading educational figures such as Yaacov Hecht, Edward de Bono.
Results in relation to category
After years of successful collaboration with the school management team, in 2021 we have made a research showing the results of our efforts. In 6 years the number of students grew from 136 to 353. Today students enrolled in the school travel every day from nearby cities and villages to visit "St. St. Cyril and Methodius“ school, whereas in 2015 the enrolled students lived mainly in Saint Vlas. After completing Demokratos project in 2018 the school received an innovative status by the Ministry of Education, thus giving teachers freedom to use unconventional educational methods such as multi-sensory and interdisciplinary studying. In 2020 "St. St. Cyril and Methodius“ school entered the Top 10 rank list of schools in the region, and 70% of the students were admitted to elite high schools. According to the headmaster one of the greatest achievements of Think Education Forward project is the lack of a single case of violence after completing 5 Rooms in 2015.
How Citizens benefit
Before its implementation each project is presented to Sveti Vlas citizens, student parents, members of Nesebar municipality. They are invited to share their thoughts and recommendations. After 5 Rooms project successful implementation a certain trust was gained and a lot of parents became volunteers in the next projects, donating small but essential items such as air-conditioners, helping with the media promotion of the projects, or making use of the newly renovated school spaces by creating extracurricular art courses.
Innovative character
Think Education Forward is a long-term project aiming at rethinking and renovating the problematic Bulgarian school typology and educational system. This responsible task, exectuted by Think Forward architecture studio and the school community, involves identifying key educational and architectural problems as well as thorough research of worldwide recognized educational practices. The project which started in 2015 is still in progress and will be completed after every single space of the building is renovated. Its innovativeness is multileveled:
- The project offers solutions to key national educational issues by the means of art and design, which have not been addressed so far.
- Due to its long-term execution we could witness its success and results in real time. It could be said that the project has become a tutorial for rethinking Bulgarian schools.
- All of the projects are financed by the school itself except the last project - Sports Hall, which has received a significant anonymous donation. The donation was given because of the proven success of the prior projects and the school drastic transformation.
- The project lays out a plan for a step-by-step renovation which could be applied on a national level using solely the school delegated budget.
- Because of this long-term strategy each project could be executed with sustainable materials, thus ensuring the quality of the renovation and the lack of necessity of repairing the renovation, typical of school renovations executed by Bulgarian municipalities.
- The innovative character of the project has been internationally recognized by architectural community, receiving first prize of Bulgarian Architecture Awards, A'design Gold award, nomination for The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award, Dezeen awards longlist nomination, BigSEE interior design award.
