Fantasy Design turns children and teenagers into designers

Design Museum Helsinki coordinates the European design education project Fantasy Design in Community 2009-2011, where children and adolescents solve challenges in their environment through the means of design.

 

The goal of the EU-funded project is to engage the students in real design processes as members of design teams, led by design professionals. The project explores opportunities to include children and adolescents in design processes, while teaching the students the many ways in which design can impact our environment. The project also gives the design teams opportunities to discuss their design-based solutions with members of the international design community. The focus is on processes rather than on design objects.

 

Besides Finland, the participating countries in the Fantasy Design project are Belgium, Denmark and Spain. The Finnish component takes place in the cities of Helsinki, Lahti and Oulu.

 

Work in Helsinki takes place at youth centres of the City of Helsinki Youth Department. The goal is to design participatory practices and ecologically sustainable solutions. Young people at the centres redesign their facilities in collaboration with youth workers. For example, the Luuppi Youth Centre has an unused backyard, and the centre’s patrons have been engaged through activity workshops in studying possibilities to put the backyard into active use – a skateboarding ramp is in the making, and park benches carved from trees cut down from the yard are in the plans.

 

In Lahti, students of Art and Design School TAIKA are turning a nearby city park more pleasant for its users. Since February 2010, a group of 9-year-olds and another group of 12-year-olds have been participating in the work through a project called Finding a Park. The children are familiarized with city planning and work with Lahti city planners on their ideas.

 

In Oulu, students of the Lintulampi Primary School are redesigning their schoolyard in workshops led by visiting artists and designers.

 

Design Museum Helsinki’s partnering organizations are Design museum Gent (Belgium), University College Sealand (Denmark) and the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas (Spain). The results of the Fantasy Design project will be displayed in a touring exhibition that debuts at Design Museum Helsinki in spring 2011. All work will be made available on the project’s Website.