Introduction: 20mins
- Introduce students to the work of Marjetica Potrc:
Marjetica Potrc is an artist and architect who lives in Berlin. She was born in Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia) in 1953. Marjetica is interested in making artwork that helps people reflect about their place in the world, where we live and how we live together.
She travels all over the world building things with different communities in different places. The most important part of her work is collaboration, working with other people. Marjetica says: “space matters when it becomes a place.” This means that when people work together or build something together they can feel a sense of belonging that was not there before.
- Ask children to think of a place near your school or where they live that was built by the community. Talk about this place, introduce questions that elaborate on the idea of community and belonging to a place (customs, games, flags, etc. )
Warm Up : 20 mins
The Great Game of Power →
see book 1, p. 24
Development: 1hr 45mins
Part 1: Building (45 minutes)
- it is important that the space this activity takes place in is empty apart from the materials used for the class.
– Split children into groups of 4/5
– Ask each group to take a table and four chairs and move them to “the best space in the room” (this is subjective.)
– Place a selection of large building materials at the centre of the room (keep back about half of the materials including pegs/ clips and large pieces of fabric.)
– Ask children to gather their materials from the pile (this can be a free-for-all or they could take turns, this depends on the group), take them to their selected space and build a shelter for themselves. Ask them to decide the parameters and requirements of this space.
– Encourage them to make a sketch/ design plan before they begin (in their notebook), nevertheless, be aware that some children will work better as they think through the materials while building.
– Walk around amongst the groups and distribute the materials that were kept back in an even way. Make sure all groups have some boxes, some pegs and some fabric. – After about 40 minutes they should have assembled something fairly sturdy (they will often progress into building narratives around certain parts of the construction, like defence, specific sleeping/ cooking/ eating spaces.)
– At this point, put out some pastels, rolls of brown paper and scissors. These can be used for signage.
– Take a tour of each shelter, ask children to sit in a circle on the floor while each group presents. Ask if they have come up with a team name, a song, a dance, a name for their shelter, do they have rules? Have they developed any relationships with the surrounding shelters? (If they have bartered/ stolen materials from other groups, this can lead to an interesting conversation.) Break