This year's tenth edition of the international student design workshop Mood for Wood was held under the motto Let's play! Participants from Poland, France and Germany, under the watchful eye of tutors, designed and made five pieces of wooden urban furniture, which are especially designed for the youngest residents of Poznan.
The organizers of the workshop were the Common Point Association and the Poznan branch of the Association of Polish Architects , and the project coordinators were Maria Dondajewska, Ada Kocieniewska and Magda Wypusz. Fifty students, working in five teams, focused on the challenge of creating four pieces of urban furniture in the area of the Children's Place under the Sun and one object in the area of the forest in Gluszyn.
report on the 10th edition of the Mood for Wood workshop
© SARP Poznan
Dzieciiniec pod Słońcem is a Jordan garden, located between Dębińska Street and Warta River in Poznań, on which the Youth Culture Center No. 1 is located. The complex was designed in 1929 as a place intended for children and young people, conducive to play and physical activity. In recent years, the facility has undergone extensive renovation and is once again becoming one of the most important cultural facilities on the map of Poznań dedicated to children. In the historic space of the Jordan garden, participants of the Mood for Wood workshop proposed four pieces of urban furniture with the youth and users of the Youth Cultural Center in mind. The goal was to introduce into the modest and geometrically planned space of the garden contemporary elements that are functional and attractive to children, which will enrich the cultural offer of the Youth Cultural Center, fit into the historical context of the establishment, but most importantly will foster play and develop creativity in the youngest, explain the organizers of the event.
The project group, led by Nils Wenk, made the summer stage
Photo: Dawid Majewski
summer stage
Rising to the challenge, the first team led by German architect Nils Wenk, designed a 32-square-meter summer stage. The piece of furniture combines elements of a traditional theater stage, a stage platform and a structure that allows free arrangement of theatrical decorations. In turn, its location allows the organization of performances at different times of the day. The simple form of the structure refers to the axial layout of the garden of the Child under the Sun.
The furniture for artistic activities consists of three elements
photo: Dawid Majewski
space for artistic activities
The second group was led by French designer Martial Marquet. The students created a multifunctional space for art activities near the playground - a piece of furniture consisting of three elements: a circular bench, a long table and a staircase. The circular bench facilitates the organization of group activities, for example, discussions about art, lectures, meetings with invited artists. The second element, the long table, allows for collaborative creation during traditional art classes. Meanwhile, a structure in the form of a staircase creates an auditorium.
The workshop group, led by Yasser Almaamoun, created picnic benches
Photo: Dawid Majewski
picnic and workshop furniture
The task of the group led by Yasser Almaamoun, a Syrian architect living in Berlin, was to create picnic and workshop furniture for the wards of the Youth Cultural Center. The students created three large tables for all MDK users and visitors to the Poznan garden. The tables, set along the line of shade cast by a large maple tree, vary in size - the largest one seats sixteen people and is ideal for workshops, up to eight people will find space at the medium one, intended for a picnic, and the smallest one is a place for four parents watching children playing on the activity path.
TTT activity path
Photo: Dawid Majewski
activity path
The fourth object is the TTT activity path designed for children, made under the guidance of architects from the Otamto office. It is a space for playing, climbing and exploring, intended to encourage the youngest children to be creative themselves so as to reinterpret the garden space. The figurative and asymmetrical appearance of the three resulting elements opens up a wide field of interpretation - the whole is intended to arouse curiosity in users and the desire for unlimited play in the midst of nature.
A piece of furniture for observing nature
photo: Dawid Majewski
furniture for nature observation
The task of the fifth design group, supervised by architect Karol Szparkowski, was to create a piece of furniture for nature observation, in the valley of Gluszynka near the watercourses Głuszynka and Głuszec. The object was created in a place surrounded by pine forests, meadows and peat bogs, and the designers wanted to create a cozy space allowing the perception of nature with different senses. Hence the unusual form - a slightly slanted nest that plunges into the surroundings. The authors wanted to consider the importance of observing nature as a whole - both on a macro and micro scale. Standing at the top of the stairs or sitting on a bench, one can see and admire the views around the nest - landscapes of the peat bog and the mists forming in the Grouse valley, or birds flying by. By micro, the designers mean observing insects in the grass, rodents in the meadow or tree tops.
all workshop participants
Photo: Dawid Majewski
The process that the participants of the Mood for Wood workshop go through is a huge challenge and involves weeks of intensive work, but leaves them with immense satisfaction from the change they have created with their own hands - a valuable space for the local community, the workshop organizers conclude.
