INNOVATIVE LEARNING SPACES FOR RADICAL GOODPRODUCED BY TIMOTHY AHRENSBACHFOR GLOBAL PLATFORMS | ACTIONAID DENMARKLICENSED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

20151

INNOVATIVE LEARNING SPACES FOR RADICAL GOOD

a recipe book

CONTENTS

Introduction 3Global Platform spaces 4

Case /// Copenhagen, Denmark 5Case /// Nairobi, Kenya 6Case /// Nanyuki, Kenya 7Case /// Yangon, Myanmar 8Case /// Suchitoto, El Salvador 9Case /// Amman, Jordan 10

RECIPE SECTION 11

Cross-stitching map 12Blackboard calendar 14Stencils 16Milk crate boxes 18Hairpin furniture 20

PAGE 2

INTRODUCTION

The Global Platforms are ActionAid’s training hubs for youth activism and empower-ment. First set up in 2009, the Global Platform network has since expanded to include ten different locations across four continents.

The Global Platforms provide innovative trainings and capacity building for organisations and young individuals who wish to take positive action in their societies. Through these trainings youth are provided with knowledge, skills and attitude to be active global citi-zens.

Set up in a variety of spaces, ranging from an old correctional facility for American youth offenders at the foot of Mt. Kenya to a family villa in downtown Yangon to a vacant hotel in the quaint colonial village of Suchitoto in El Salvador, the Global Platforms have been ad hoc training facilities relying on the imaginative minds of the trainers to make the most out of the existing space.

In 2013-2014 the Danish Ministry of Culture provided a series of grants for the physical upgrading of the Global Platforms, ensuring that they would be fit-for-purpose and that the learning environment could facilitate the kinds of creative and innovative learning methods the organisation has become known for.

Thanks to the pro-bono support of Architecture 00 and designers Sebastian Reumert, Alex Carron-Brown, Owen Rutter, Gabija Bakutyte and Kristian Ravn-Ellestad six of the Global Platforms underwent extensive refurbishments, the results of which are shown in this publication.

We hope this booklet can help inspire similar civic ventures around the world and invite you to try out, mass produce and share as much of the content and ideas as possible. After all, we can only build a radically better world, if we do it together.

3

SPACES

SITE TYPE: GRAMMAR SCHOOL

LOCATION: COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

COMPLETION:

LEAD DESIGNER:

SEPTEMBER 2013

ARCHITECTURE 00

Global Platform Denmark was set up in 2009 in a former grammar school in inner-city Copenhagen. In 2013 it was relaunched with a new strategy to make it a powerhouse for global citizenship and education and a place where people and organisations would gather and collaborate on activities aimed at helping Danish youth become active, global citizens.

The 6 floor building was refurbished in the summer of 2013 with the help of 46 young volunteers (aged 18-30) from all over the world, who co-designed and built the new spaces using primarly locally sourced, recycled materials. The new centre consists of two floors of learning spaces, two floors of co-working space for NGO’s, a shared kitchen area, dormitories for participants and an urban garden open to the public.

SITE TYPE: VILLA

LOCATION: NAIROBI, KENYA

COMPLETION:

LEAD DESIGNER:

SEPTEMBER 2014

SEBASTIAN REUMERT

Global Platform Nairobi was established in 2012 in the inner-city area of Kilimani only 1 mile away from Kibera, one of Africa’s biggest informal settlements. Within recent years Nairobi has become the tech hub of East Africa and has earned the nick-name of Silicone Savannah. This regional tech focus was reflect-ed in the Global Platform’s training programme, which featured a strong focus on social media training and online campaigning.

In order to facilitate this, a social media hub was established with a media lab and offices for the Global Change Lab - an online learning site. The new Global Platform was built primarily with materials and furni-ture sourced from the adjacent informal settlement of Kibera.

SITE TYPE:CORRECTIONAL FACILITY FOR YOUTH OFFENDERS

LOCATION: NANYUKI, KENYA

COMPLETION:

LEAD DESIGNER:

OCTOBER 2014

ALEXANDRA CARRON-BROWN

The Global Platform at the foot of Mt. Kenya was originally a correctional facility for youth offenders from Baltimore, USA. The space was later taken over by the Daraja Girls School, who rents part of their cam-pus to Global Platform Mt. Kenya. The space forms the ideal environment for cultural exchanges and learning about global citizenship, and so volunteers from Denmark and Sweden have come here since 2009 to emerge themselves in the local culture and nature. The newly refurbished space attempts to engender these cultural exchanges through up-cycled, social furnitures that allow participants to share, connect and learn.

SITE TYPE: VILLA

LOCATION: YANGON, MYANMAR

COMPLETION:

LEAD DESIGNER:

OCTOBER 2014

SEBASTIAN REUMERT

Established in August 2011, ActionAid and Global Platform Myanmar were some of the first organisations to support local young people and assist them in getting their voices heard following the recent opening up of the country. The Global Platform provides trainings in youth and governance and creative activism and supports the training of Fellows, a unique project which aims to develop young leaders in Myanmar to work with their communities.

With regional infrastructure being weak and young people from the regions generally struggling to travel to the capital, the Global Platform Myanmar was designed to enable quick dis- and re-assembly - with pipe furnitures and stackable timber crates - thereby allowing trainers to bring their class rooms with them when doing trainings outside Yangon.

SITE TYPE: HOTEL

LOCATION: SUCHITOTO, EL SALVADOR

COMPLETION:

LEAD DESIGNERS:

JANUARY 2015

GABIJA BAKUTYTE &KRISTIAN RAVN-ELLESTAD

Housed in a former hotel with no less than two swimming pools and overlooking the majestic Lake Suchi-toto the Global Platform El Salvador undoubtedly takes the prize for best location. However, much like the rest of this small country the picturesque mountain village of Suchitoto struggles with serious issues around access to water, mining and women’s rights - amongst others.

Since 2008 Global Platform El Salvador has been facilitating creative campaigns around these issues and so the refurbishment taking place i winter 2014 focused on setting up a toolshed to enable young creative campaigners to build their own campaign materials. Through three creative design camps a diverse group of people were trained in how to use tools, build furniture and upcycle local materials.

SITE TYPE: EMBASSY

LOCATION: AMMAN, JORDAN

Originally established in 2010 the Global Platform Amman was relocated to the old Pakistani Embassy building in Al Webdeh in 2014, which it now shares with the regional ActionAid office. The move included completely fitting out two floors of office space, training rooms, dormitories, a large garden and a roof top terasse.

In order to deliver this large scale project on a shoe string budget, the furniture designed was mainly based on DIY principles, allowing trainers and volunteers to assemble the pieces themselves from pre-ordered materials following simple step-by-step instructions. To enable this a design catalogue was created, which has since evolved into this publication.

COMPLETION:

LEAD DESIGNER:

FEBRUARY 2015

TIM AHRENSBACH

RECIPES

DIY CROSS-STITCH WORLD MAP (and other fun things)

1

2

Find a cross-stitch pattern that you would like to use (a standard world map and letters template can be found on the GP media cloud). Count the max. number of triangles top to bottom and left to right. Now look at the space you have available, measure your heights and lengths.This will give you an idea of how big your trian-gles need to be.

For instance, the standard Global Platform world map is 56 triangles wide and 28 triangles tall (2:1). If your space is, let’s say 300 cm wide and 150 cm tall you’d probably want triangles that are 5 x 5 cm (e.g. 300 cm / 56 triangles = 5.3). If you already have triangles made, and they happen to be smaller than this - don’t worry, you’ll just make a smaller graphic and you can use the rest of the wall for something else.

FIRSTMEASURE

Now, cut out as many triangles as you need - and preferably a little extra. Triangles need to be isosceles right angled triangles, which means that both sides of a 90 degrees angle should be the same length! - like this one!

SECONDCUT

MATH ALERT!! >>

5 cm

5 cm

3Create one or several horizontal “help lines” using a spir-it level and masking tape. This will help you make sure your sign doesn’t get crooked.

THIRDLINE UP

INGREDIENS

• Triangles, 100 - 1.000 pieces of any material -cardboard, plywood, cork, styrofoam or even silver tape can do (for the world map you need 585 triangles).

• Cross-stitch pattern• Spirit level• Masking tape• Wood glue or similar adhesive

3-5 daysEasy - but supervision and diligence required!

Help lines of masking tape

€€From 5 euros

TIP from Lasse Hove Bæk:

You can also use a projector to project your pattern on the wall and

simply place triangles on top of this.

4

FOURTHGLUE the back of your triangle with wood glue or similar adhesive

5

FIFTHPLACE your triangle on the wall. Press gently to make sure it sticks.

6

SIXTHTICK OFF the triangle on your cross-stitch pattern. This way you can keep tab of where you are in the process.

7

SIXTHREPEAT until done.

TOP LEFTWORLD MAP FROM GLOBAL PLATFORM TANZANIA MADE FROM OLD PINBOARDS

BOTTOMFLOOR NUMBERS FROM GLOBAL PLATFORM DENMARK MADE FROM SILVER TAPE

TOP RIGHTWORLD MAP FROM GLOBAL PLATFORM MYANMAR MADE FROM STICKERS

BLACKBOARD CALENDAR

1

2

Decide on the format of your calendar. This includes the following:

• Calendar length: Day, week, month, quarter or year• Calendar unit: Hour, day or week• Calendar scope: Is it a calendar for the whole Global Platform or

one for each team member?

Now, depending on your selection and the size of the wall, you’ll have to figure out which formats and sizes work best for you. How-ever, on the opposite page you can find the standard measure-ments for a month planner.

FIRSTDECIDE

Wash down the wall with all-purpose cleaner and make sure that the wall is totally free of dirt.

SECONDWASH

MATH ALERT!! >>

3 THIRDOUTLINE

INGREDIENS

• Blackboard paint (1-2 liters)• Spirit level• Measuring tape• Masking tape (lots)• Paint brush or roller• Thinner (for removing oil-based

paints)• All-purpose cleaner• Mixing tin

2 daysEasy - bits of math required! €€From 10 euros

Create the lines of the blackboard using ample amounts of masking tape. The idea is that the areas that are covered with masking tape will stay white when you paint the wall with blackboard paint.TIP: The wider the tape, the less the paint will seep through. TIP: Use a spirit level to ensure that your calendar doesn’t get crooked.

4 FOURTHPAINT

5 FIFTHRIP-OFF

TOPYEAR PLANNER ACROSS TWO WALLSGLOBAL PLATFORM NAIROBI

BOTTOMONE WEEK TRAINING PLANGLOBAL PLATFORM MT. KENYA

Using a roller or paint brush paint the entire area with blackboard paint. You can simply roll across the masking tape - but make sure your paint doesn’t seep through!

Follow the instructions on the paint tin careful-ly, covering the area 2-3 times.

This is the most exciting part!Once the paint has thoroughly dried, you can start removing the masking tape. Make sure to do this nice and slowly to avoid ripping off bits of the blackboard paint.

TEMPLATE DIMENSION

SHARED MONTH PLANNER7 columns (7 days), 6 rows (5 weeks + one top row)Units (days): 30 cm (tall) x 40 cm (wide)Length: (7 columns x 40 cm) + (7 x 2 cm between columns) = 294 cm Heigth: (6 rowx x 30 cm) + (6 x 2 cm between rows) = 192 cm

STENCILS

1

2

Project the stencil of your choice unto the wall where you wish to have your final stencil.

FIRSTPROJECT

With a sharp pencil, outline all of the black shapes on the wall. Sometimes it helps to write a small x in all the shapes, so that you remember which ones need to be painted, and which ones don’t.

SECONDOUTLINE

INGREDIENS

• Black or dark paint (1 dl)• Thin paint brushes• Projector• Pencil

2 hoursEasy €€From 1 euro

x

x

x

x

NB!Because of the way our eyes work, stencils can only be made with dark colours on light surfaces, not the other way around!

3 THIRDPAINT

4 FOURTHRE-PAINT

TOP LEFT: VOLUNTEERS DOING A STENCIL AT GLOBAL PLAT-FORM MT. KENYA

BOTTOM LEFT: STENCIL AT GLOBAL PLATFORM NAIROBI

RIGHT: ACTIONAID STENCIL AT GLOBAL PLATFORM NAIROBI

Once you have outlined all the shapes on the wall, switch off the projector.Now carefully fill in all the shapes with black (or dark) paint.

Let the stencil dry for 2-3 hours. If needed, give it another coat.

MILK-CRATE BOXES (or beer, or soda)

1

2

Clean your crates properly and let dry.FIRSTCLEAN

Using a power drill and a wood or metal drill bit, drill holes for your plas-tric strips.

SECONDDRILL

INGREDIENS per 10 crates• 10 crates• Plywood, 2 standard sheets (2,4x1,2 m)• Strips, 80• Saw - hand, jiigsaw or circular• Drill with metal or wood drill bit• Formica (whiteboard) or blackboard paint

(optional)

2 hoursMedium €€From 3 euros

NB!You will need at least 2 but preferably 3-4 crates per person you’re expecting in the room, so if max capacity is 20 people make sure to have 40-80 crates.

The crates

The timber bits

1

2

Measure the sides and tops of your crates so you know what sizes to make your tim-ber bits in. Remember to measure on the “outside” of the plastic as each timber bit will have to rest on the plastic frame.

FIRSTMEASURE

Using a normal hand saw, a circular saw or a jigsaw, cut your timber bits in the sizes you need.

SECONDSAW

3 THIRDADD

4 FOURTHDRILL

FROM LEFT:

RECYCLED MILK CRATES AT GLOBAL PLATFORM DENMARKRE-CYCLED BEER CRATES AT GLOBAL PLATFORM EL SALVADOR RE-CYCLED SODA CRATES AT GLOBAL PLATFORM JORDAN

You now have the option of adding various hacks to your timber bits and make them into small whiteboards, black-boards, scrabble letters, mini stencils or whatever your heart fancies.

For instructions on how to make blackboards and stencils, please see page 14 and 16 respectively.

Drill holes in each corner so you can insert the plastic strips through these. Make sure to use a drill bit as thick as a plastic strip.

5 FIFTHSTRIP

Insert plastic strips through the holes in your box and through the corresponding holes in your timber bit. Simply pull the strip tight to fasten.

If you make a mistake, don’t worry! Simply cut the strip with good scissors and start over.

HAIRPIN FURNITURE

1

2

Decide on the length of the hairpin legs.For low stools or chairs: 30 cm tallFor tall stools or tables: 70 cm tallFor tall tables (standing height): 100 cm tall

FIRSTDECIDE

Get a welder to do make the hairpin legs. They are fairly simple and rebars are rela-tively cheap. However, costs can vary (set of 4 cost 20 euro in Jordan and £18 in the UK).

SECONDORDER

INGREDIENS - one table• 2 sheets of plywood (eg. 150 cm x 100

cm, 18 mm)• Wood glue• Fasteners / clamps• 16 screws (20-30 mm)• Drill• Varnish, clear• Sandpaper, 200

2 hoursMedium €€From 25 euros

NB!Most welders can make hairpin legs relatively easily out of reinforced steel bars (REBARS) or similar material.

The hairpin legs

The timber tops

1Using a normal hand saw, a circular saw or a jigsaw, cut your timber tops in the sizes you need. Remember, you will normally need 2 sheets on top of each other for sturdiness.

FIRSTSAW

20 cm20 cm

TOP BIT: Flat with 4 holes for screws

LEGS:3 legs welded to the top bit and welded together at the bottom.

2 SECONDGLUE

3 THIRDVARNISH

If you need two sheets - glue them together with wood glue and fasten tightly with clamps. Leave them for at least one day.

Varnish the table tops with clear varnish.Leave to dry (specifications on the bottle)

5 FIFTHASSEMBLE

Screw the legs on to the bottom corners of the timber top - as seen here...

4 FOURTHSAND

Sand down lightly with fine sandpaper. Wipe.Varnish with a second layer.

1 m

0,42 mFrom below

0,7 mFrom side

36 mm

HAIRPIN STOOL AND TABLE AT GLOBAL PLATFORM JORDAN

ABOUT ACTIONAID

We fight poverty by helping the poor to fight for their rights and break the structures, which holds them back in hunger and poverty.

We have almost 70 years of experience with development work and our work aims to improve poor people’s conditions of life, in order for them to manage without support in the long run. Our target groups are primarily women and youth.

Together with local organizations we work to empower people living in poverty and sup-port them in knowing and demanding their rights, in order for them to build democratic and sustainable societies.

As part of the international alliance ActionAid we work with human rights based devel-opment in more than 40 countries and reach more than 25 million of the world´s poor.

Read more at

www.actionaid.orgwww.globalplatforms.org

INNOVATIVE LEARNING SPACES FOR RADICAL GOODPRODUCED BY TIMOTHY AHRENSBACHFOR GLOBAL PLATFORMS | ACTIONAID DENMARKLICENSED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS

2015

INNOVATIVE LEARNING SPACES FOR RADICAL GOOD

a recipe book