About the Architectural Thinking School for Children

The Architectural Thinking School for Children is a think tank composed of children and an interdisciplinary team of professionals. It operates at the intersection of experimental pedagogy and a wide range of disciplines, using architectural thinking as a tool to promote children as full-fledged participants in the intellectual and artistic adult world.

The School was founded in 2016 by the architect Alexander Novikov and the art critic and designer Elena Karpilova, as an institution of supplementary education. The school is located in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 2022 it was recognized as the Best International Organisation by the Thornton Education Trust in London (Inspire Future Generations Awards).

The Architectural Thinking School for Children teaches architectural thinking as a tool for understanding the modern global world. We took the architect's work as a model, since they possess a huge range of knowledge and skills: they are good at conducting research, using knowledge from completely different disciplines, creating projects, and presenting them to the public. The systems thinking possessed by a professional architect is what we call architectural thinking.
The school has more than 16 studios: architecture, contemporary art, sculpture, object design, journalism, graphic design, psychology, biology, sociology, political science, economics, etc. Classes relating to all of the studios take place within one common, interdisciplinary program of study and are conducted by expert practitioners in the relevant fields.

The school program is designed for 7 years of study and is organized in accordance with the principle of "one year, one course". School courses: "Development", "Systems Thinking", "Interdisciplinarity-1, 2", "City Research", and "Professions-1, 2". Each course is divided into four quarters. During each of the quarters, the student completes classes in different studios and, in the end, creates one final project: a book, a film, a map of the city, etc.


ACHIEVEMENTS
300+ alumni
3,000+ children attended workshops and talks
founder of the Foreign Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2024
winner of the «Best International Organisation» of the Inspire Future Generations Awards by Thornton Education Trust. London, 2022
winner of the «Diversity in Action» of the Inspire Future Generations Awards by Thornton Education Trust. London, 2022
partnership with the Lisbon Architecture Triennale
«Architectural Thinking and Education» lecture for the National Plan for the Arts (Ministry of Education + Ministry of Culture of Portugal) and Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Lisbon, 2021
nomination under the Best Organisation category at TET's Inspire Future Generations Awards. London, 2021
nomination under the Individuals of the Year category at TET's Inspire Future Generations Awards. London, 2021
invited speakers at the «100 Day Studio» Architecture Foundation. London. Great Britain. 2020
«HOUSEДОМДОМ: A book of children's projects and other avant-garde architecture» book release. 2019
invited tutors and speakers at BILDING Art and Architecture School. Innsbruck, Austria. 2020
invited speakers at Creating Future III. Helsinki, Finland, 2019
invited speakers at the Future Architecture Platform Creative Exchange. Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2017
official selection at the Future Architecture Platform Call for Ideas, Slovenia, 2018
invited tutors at the Future Architecture Summer School. Graz, Austria, 2017
Architecture videos for children and adults release. 2019
Publication in «Archifutures Vol. 5». dpr-barcelona. 2018
Minsk Eye interactive map launch. 2017
Belavia Uniform Competition. 2017
Winner at FSP Land Art Competition. 2017
invited tutors at BINA Belgrade International Architecture Week. Belgrade, Serbia, 2017
partnership with Velux, Alconost, EPAM, Hörmann & others
EXHIBITIONS
I Children Biennale at the National Centre for Contemporary Arts. 2021
Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2020
Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2019
Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2018
Minsk Urbanism Festival. 2018
Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2017
ХII National Architecture Festival. 2017
Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2016

MOVIE PREVIEWS
Architectural Thinking School Online Movie Preview. 2021
Architectural Thinking School Online Movie Preview. 2020
Architectural Thinking School Movie Preview. 2019
Architectural Thinking School Movie Preview. 2018
Architectural Thinking School Movie Preview. 2017
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