Jesse Greulich
Building Pillow Forts: An embodied learning process
“Space comes into being only when we form situations.”
(Lukas Feireiss, Space is the Place: Current Reflections on Art and Architecture, 2020, p. 89)
‘Building Pillow Forts’ is a research project that takes place within the four walls of a maker space at an international school. It is a shared experience, co-created and shaped through the contributions of 177 learners between the age of 8–9 years old and one facilitator. What started with the question of “What does it mean to own a space?” in relation to the learning environment led to the pursuit of a methodology designed to deliver an embodied learning process.
This research strives to build the confidence of learners by deconstructing, reconstructing, and finally, reclaiming the classroom space as their own over a period of six weeks. The aim is to collapse the way much of traditional school learning has been shaped through the training and disciplining of the body of the learner, to recognise that the learner is the vessel of learning. Together with the student makers, and using the combination of body, space and materials, an embodied learning experience was successfully delivered through guidance, engagement, reflection, sharing and sparking a joy in making.
Thesis: