Spolka and the war in Ukraine: Creating caring interiors and exteriors for children and youth

What is sensitive design and how is it applicable in crisis settings?

War has turned our world upside down. For many of us, it meant questioning and radically reassessing our priorities, our roles, and our purpose. In the face of this terrible situation, our previous projects seemed insignificant and banal. Together we sought to turn feelings of hopelessness, anger and sadness into something meaningful. Helping allowed us to manage these emotions a little better. So we tried to get involved, individually or collectively, in various aid and humanitarian activities. In 2022 and 2023, we have actively cooperated with humanitarian organizations People in Need Slovakia and Mareena in the creation of leisure areas for children and youth in emergency accommodation facilities in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian part of Ukraine. Our role was mainly:

– Research implementation: identifying needs in a spatial and social context.
– Sensitive design and program planning.
– Covering the intervention and subsequent delivery.
– Covering the development of and compliance with methodological procedures. \

Our active cooperation with the non-profit organization People in Need Slovakia started right after the war broke out in Ukraine. Our organization responded to the need to provide the most vulnerable groups – children and young people – with dignified and attractive conditions in temporary shelters in Slovakia for education, leisure and entertainment.

The first of the joint projects was given the working title Kjutik (children's corner). We worked with a crisis design, designed directly on the place where people fleeing the war were living. We realised five spaces in a few days in the form of workshops. We were assisted by architecture students from the Faculty of Arts in Košice as well as people from Ukraine, living on the spot. Over time, we transformed the crisis design and active cooperation into larger interventions in the form of three Low-threshold centres in Žilina, Prešov and Spišská Nová Ves.

In July 2022, we started an intensive cooperation with Mareena, an organization that operates in the Humanitarian Centre in Gabčíkovo. It offers emergency accommodation for more than 800 people, mostly elderly, women and children from Ukraine. Spolka created social spaces and temporary rest areas in the building. In doing so, we applied sensitive and inclusive place-making and tried as much as possible to take into account the needs of the different (not only age) groups accommodated. We first researched needs through interviews with interested individuals and organisations and analysed available data. We then started to redesign and furnish the individual spaces. We furnished a common room, two classrooms and, temporarily, four rest areas.

In addition, at the end of last year, we created a guidance system for this building complex. We designed the new signage for the tracts, floors and important rooms to be easy to read and understood by all age and cultural groups. Although some residents have lived at the centre since the war began and are familiar with the building, new refugees threatened by the war in a neighbouring country continue to arrive at the centre.

At the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, we participated in the project Child friendly Spaces – in the establishment of 40 children's leisure areas in the Transcarpathian part of Ukraine. We worked in emergency housing facilities, schools, kindergartens and bomb shelters.

We aimed to bring the holiday atmosphere where needed most – the project resulted in more child and youth-friendly spaces. Spaces that allow for more joyful leisure time or compulsory time in the shelter for the duration of the alarms.

The projects are carried out by Spolka in cooperation with Mareena, People in Need Slovakia, a team of Ukrainian architects, volunteers in specific locations and Sign of Hope organization. The project in cooperation with People in Need Slovakia was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Team Children's corners and low-threshold centres: Kristina Roman, Viktória Mravčáková, Michal Sládek, Katarína Onderková.

Team Creating sensitive spaces in the Humanitarian centre in Gabčíkovo: Michal Sládek, Katarína Onderková, Lýdia Grešáková, Zuzana Révészová.

Team Orientation in the Gabčíkovo premises: Barbora Krejčová, Viktória Mravčáková, Michal Sládek.

Team Adaptation of emergency spaces in Ukraine: Kristina Roman, Zuzana Révészová, Michal Sládek, Viktória Mravčáková, Katarína Onderková, Lýdia Grešáková.