A workshop with the children of SOU Milano - School of Architecture for Children

At the invitation of the architect Caterina Malinconico, we developed a workshop with the children of SOU Milano - School of Architecture for Children, the school of architecture for children aged 7 to 12, of Mario Cucinella and Caterina Malinconico and this allowed us to come into contact with their inexhaustible creativity. The school is organized with a weekly meeting and addresses issues related to urban planning, architecture and the environment, but also to art, design and food education.

We held a lesson in which we explored with the children an often overlooked aspect of the house: the walls and their coverings. We started by telling the children the history of living with a focus on the walls, highlighting how they can be optimized with good design. After an initial moment of questions and exploration on the technology of our walls and the materials used by XILIA, they began to work on the model by creating rooms with new functions.

We hit the target: to give the walls not only a spatial division function but also an innovative design solution and an attractive aesthetic.

In the practical part, the little designers, divided into teams, worked on 3 walls, experimenting with different materials and techniques, and then assembled them in a shared house, complete with a clothes horse on the roof!

Working with children allows you to break out of any mental scheme: it was incredible to see how each group interpreted their own project, like the one that created the "disco-library"!

This experience taught us how important it is to stimulate children's creativity and let them free to express their imagination. We can't wait to admire the completed work at the final presentation!

The SOU School was born in Favara, Sicily, in the context of Farm Cultural Park, an independent cultural center recognized internationally as one of the most important urban regeneration experiences in the world, on the initiative of Andrea Bartoli and Florinda Saieva, a couple of professionals with a great passion for contemporary culture and the great dream of improving small portions of the world.

“In an increasingly technological world, SOU is a place of pure, instinctive creativity, where children can express their intuitions, feelings and dreams, tell how they see the city, how they imagine the future through art, architecture, experimentation. A place where you work with your hands, with materials; a place of exchange to talk and listen. With them we will try to design their visions also through play”, says Mario Cucinella.

“In the change we are going through, there is a very strong risk of losing sight of the value of people. Working with children, with those who are writing the future without any prejudice and have the strength to generate empathy, listening and relationship, is a scenario in which it is impossible not to immerse yourself!”, says Caterina Malinconico.