Green Apple Kids: November 1st Workshop Review

A wise person (I think it was Kevin Costner) once said, “If you build it, they will come.” And the developers in our local community seem to have canonized this quote. Our community’s children know all too well about the current, ever encroaching, building phenomena. Scaffolding inhibits their right of way on sidewalks, building materials litter their parks and the giant, gleaming, monolithic structures generally dwarf their points of view.

Presenter Ilya Korolev helped our kids voice their opinions regarding the current construction boom in the city. First Ilya read from the book 'Where We Live' (Adventures in Architecture by Bode, Achim) pointing the Green Apple Kids’ attentions to pictures of dwellings (both modern and historic) from around the world. The kids engaged in discussions as to why some houses were high in trees, or close to the water or made of certain materials.

Next it was time for our budding builders to create a scale city of their own design, utilizing materials pulled from household recycle bins. Some took the roles of architects, while others worked on interior design. A few kids teamed up to figure out the city’s infrastructure, while one dedicated his time to the inhabitants’ safety and security. And everyone was concerned about clean-up and waste disposal.

The experience encouraged the kids to think of alternate ways in which we can impact our environment through building and also displayed the many occupations that go into making a city function. Can we build it differently? Yes we can!