OUR COMPANY
THE ARCHITECTURAL THINKING SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN
Lisbon, Porto & online
Official Participant
Italy, 2025
Finalist
United Kingdom, 2024
Unofficial Participant
Italy, 2024
Winner
United Kingdom, 2022
Winner
United Kingdom, 2022
Finalist
United Kingdom, 2021
Finalist
United Kingdom, 2021
The Architectural Thinking School for Children is an experimental educational platform composed of children and an interdisciplinary team of professionals.

Founded in 2016 by architect Alexander Novikov and curator Elena Karpilova, the School uses architectural thinking as a tool for understanding the contemporary world and developing interdisciplinary ways of thinking.

Originally established in Belarus and now based in Lisbon, Portugal, the School works across architecture, art, design, and education through long-term programs, workshops, research, and public projects.

In 2022, the School was recognized as Best International Organisation by the Thornton Education Trust in London (Inspire Future Generations Awards).

The Architectural Thinking School for Children teaches architectural thinking as a tool for understanding the modern global world. We took the architect's work as a model, since they possess a huge range of knowledge and skills: they are good at conducting research, using knowledge from completely different disciplines, creating projects, and presenting them to the public. The systems thinking possessed by a professional architect is what we call architectural thinking.
The school has more than 16 studios: architecture, contemporary art, sculpture, object design, journalism, graphic design, psychology, biology, sociology, political science, economics, etc. Classes relating to all of the studios take place within one common, interdisciplinary program of study and are conducted by expert practitioners in the relevant fields.

The school program is designed for 7 years of study and is organized in accordance with the principle of "one year, one course". School courses: "Development", "Systems Thinking", "Interdisciplinarity-1, 2", "City Research", and "Professions-1, 2". Each course is divided into four quarters. During each of the quarters, the student completes classes in different studios and, in the end, creates one final project: a book, a film, a map of the city, etc.


ACHIEVEMENTS

300+ alumni
3,000+ children attended workshops and talks
★ founder of the Foreign Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2024
★ winner of the «Best International Organisation» of the Inspire Future Generations Awards by Thornton Education Trust. London, 2022
★ winner of the «Diversity in Action» of the Inspire Future Generations Awards by Thornton Education Trust. London, 2022
★ partnership with the Lisbon Architecture Triennale
★ «Architectural Thinking and Education» lecture for the National Plan for the Arts (Ministry of Education + Ministry of Culture of Portugal) and Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Lisbon, 2021
★ nomination under the Best Organisation category at TET's Inspire Future Generations Awards. London, 2021
★ nomination under the Individuals of the Year category at TET's Inspire Future Generations Awards. London, 2021
★ invited speakers at the «100 Day Studio» Architecture Foundation. London. Great Britain. 2020
★ «HOUSEДОМДОМ: A book of children's projects and other avant-garde architecture» book release. 2019
★ invited tutors and speakers at BILDING Art and Architecture School. Innsbruck, Austria. 2020
★ invited speakers at Creating Future III. Helsinki, Finland, 2019
★ invited speakers at the Future Architecture Platform Creative Exchange. Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2017
★ official selection at the Future Architecture Platform Call for Ideas, Slovenia, 2018
★ invited tutors at the Future Architecture Summer School. Graz, Austria, 2017
★ Architecture videos for children and adults release. 2019
★ Publication in «Archifutures Vol. 5». dpr-barcelona. 2018
★ Minsk Eye interactive map launch. 2017
★ Belavia Uniform Competition. 2017
★ Winner at FSP Land Art Competition. 2017
★ invited tutors at BINA Belgrade International Architecture Week. Belgrade, Serbia, 2017
★ partnership with Velux, Alconost, EPAM, Hörmann & others
EXHIBITIONS
★ I Children Biennale at the National Centre for Contemporary Arts. 2021
★ Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2020
★ Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2019
★ Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2018
★ Minsk Urbanism Festival. 2018
★ Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2017
★ ХII National Architecture Festival. 2017
★ Architectural Thinking School Exhibition. 2016

MOVIE PREVIEWS
★ Architectural Thinking School Online Movie Preview. 2021
★ Architectural Thinking School Online Movie Preview. 2020
★ Architectural Thinking School Movie Preview. 2019
★ Architectural Thinking School Movie Preview. 2018
★ Architectural Thinking School Movie Preview. 2017

STUDENTS' PROJECTS

MEDIA

TUTORS

FOTO GALLERY