Since the beginning of Russia's war with Ukraine, thousands of people fleeing the barbaric aggressor have been arriving across the Polish border every day. As part of the Open Schools initiative, the first school for children from Ukraine who had to flee the war will be built in Warsaw.
Immofinanz has decided to donate an entire floor in the myhive Mokotow Two office building for temporary use . The space of one thousand two hundred square meters will be used to create a school for children from Ukraine. The space is to be designed by XYstudio, a studio specializing in educational projects.
We are acting out of concern for all children. We want to ensure that children from Ukraine return to a minimum of daily routine as soon as possible. Contact with teachers, other students and the ability to communicate in their own language will give them a substitute for a sense of security and relative normality. Equally important is the fact that public schools in Poland's larger cities are sometimes overcrowded. We are concerned that if Ukrainian children join such establishments under mandatory districting, there will be insufficient space, literally and figuratively, to take care of the psyche of students of both nationalities and provide them with conditions for effective learning and integration," says Magda Garncarek, initiator of the Open Schools campaign.
The XYstudio studio has experience in designing educational facilities. Pictured is the Edison school
©XYstudio
need for adaptation
Theschool in the office building will be adapted for about one hundred and sixty children and is expected to be ready in four or five weeks. Creating a new place for children from Ukraine will require a wide range of measures - creating a space that allows overcoming trauma or free learning in Ukrainian. As the initiators of the action, Immofinanz, XYstudio and Open Schools point out, more companies ready to support the initiative are still joining the project.
Creating the right conditions is a challenge not only for newly created schools, but also for public schools that Ukrainian children will be able to attend.
With the students who will continue their education in Polish public schools in mind, we will gather ideas and solutions to help everyone adapt to the new reality. These could be, for example, bilingual visual identification systems that will make it easier for new students to orient themselves in school spaces, or special zones outside the classrooms to foster current needs: integration, quietness. We need the creativity of designers, architects and the students themselves to come up with solutions that will make this difficult time easier," announces Magda Garncarek.
Adaptation to unique conditions must take into account the needs of children arriving from areas under barbaric attacks - designers must understand the need to create a space where its users can feel safe and at ease. We look forward to more solutions designed by XYstudio, believing that more studios will join them.
We would also like to remind you about the action Designers_ci for Ukraine organized by NIAIU(SEE HERE!) and the verified list of collections with Ukraine(SEE HERE!).
For more information on the activities of the Opening Schools initiative, please visit their website(SEE HERE!).
