The Brief

We have all been fantasizers since childhood where architecture has taken a dormancy in our developmental stages. We have been architects of our own worlds. From creating sandcastles by the beaches, huts, and tents, we have all relished our accomplishments being little designers. At all stages of life, we are inescapably in dialogue with our physical surroundings where one tends to adapt to places that we find. We propose and create new places based on desires and needs. It is through creation of spaces, that we make sense of where we find ourselves.

Being a child, one constantly lives in a world of imagination, where no boundary is set. As and when we start getting exposed to more buildings and architectural styles, these fantasies become stagnant with grids and columns. Thus, it is imperative that we architects, who are bound by ideas clouded in reality, reimagine the architecture of a child’s imagination to build a place for themselves. It may not necessarily be in parallel with structural integrity or cost estimates, but rather a place for oneself to project the imagination onto the world around us, based on ideas, needs and desires.

Lions Park along the beach, a favourite spot for Children of Kozhikode for ages is identified as the site and venue of the workshop. The park, which has been in a miserable state due to the lack of maintenance and upgrade, is about to get a facelift, under the aegis of the Kozhikode Corporation and Tourism Department. The ideas coming out of the workshops can be included in the actual design of Lions Park, making it a place for children, designed by children.

A total of thirty children, roughly between the age group of 10 to 14, will be selected from Government schools in the city. They will be further split into five groups, headed by an architect each.