The World Economic Forum has estimated that 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up doing jobs that don’t yet exist. In such a rapidly evolving employment landscape, education needs to rethink its purpose and reform its methods for new goals.
Instead of memorizing knowledge that will be outdated rapidly, education needs to provide children strong tools to understand and navigate the complexity of our own lives, of society and of the economy.
The single most important skill identified for future is creativity, the skill to produce novel solutions, the ability to create, engage, participate, and innovate. This is where Finnish Arkki excels.
Pioneer in Architecture Education
Arkki’s solution resonates with the current focus of teaching creativity, critical thinking, and complex problem-solving skills to children and youth. Already 26 years ago, Arkki was a pioneer in providing architecture education for ages 4-19 as an extracurricular program and has since developed a wide range of programs.
“We need a new type of thinking, new type of learning, new skills. This is very much in the heart of Arkki. It provides the future generations with skills that will be useful in the 21st century,” explains Finland’s former Ambassador for Thailand, H.E. Mrs. Satu Suikkari-Kleven. “Arkki was ahead of time providing children in Finland with the skills that we are talking about all over the world today.”
Expanding to ASEAN
Starting its franchising journey from Greece in 2014, Arkki International now operates in 7 countries. In 2018, it partnered with Viet Motion Ltd in Vietnam to establish a master franchise agreement with plans to cover all ten ASEAN countries in the near future.
“With its unique pedagogical approach, Arkki empowers children with the most essential 21st-century skills – like creativity, complex problem solving and critical thinking.” Phi Van Nguyen, the CEO and Chairman of Viet Motion, comments.
“Arkki education prepares them to walk confidently into the future, which by and large is unknown. Innovation requires much more than just mechanical learning of individual subjects; and Arkki is all about experimenting, combining knowledge of different disciplines, and learning the process to create something unique.”
Focus on Holistic Learning
Arkki opened its doors in Thailand in July 2019. Arkki’s first center is located in the new Bambini Villa children’s mall in the Sukhumvit area. Arkki Thailand offers an after-school program and theme courses on creative education for 4-10-year-old children.
Arkki’s concept is to use architecture and design projects as holistic real-world phenomena to teach innovation skills and integrate different subjects.
Through architecture and design-related project work, Arkki’s program introduces children cross -disciplinary projects about science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) as well as humanities and social sciences.
“I Don’t Want to Go Home”
The first year of operating in Thailand has been a fruitful and enriching experience for the Arkki staff. Pihla Meskanen, CEO of Arkki International, praises the collaboration with their Thai partner. Investing time, passion, and know-how of both partners has led to extraordinary results and successful partnerships with various actors in the society.
Jere Keskinen, Arkki’s program coordinator and teacher trainer, is thrilled to be able to share the Finnish educational know-how and principles across the globe as people everywhere strive for the best education for their children.
“Arkki Thailand’s teachers are truly dedicated professionals, and I enjoy working with them. I have also had the opportunity to teach children in Thailand and Vietnam. Some of the kids just love it so much they don’t want to go home!”
Hands-on Design Projects
Arkki programs invite pupils to tackle complex real-world challenges through hands-on design processes. This includes pondering and reflecting on responsible consumption and production. It also teaches how to contribute to sustainable development and how to reduce the ecological footprint by rethinking, recycling and reuse in product design and fashion design.
Arkki’s Product design course is a very popular example. Pupils are encouraged to practice design thinking in envisioning sustainable products.
In Bangkok, the pupils have collaborated with Toyota to design their own future cars, and with PTT Global Chemical to reduce the threat of plastic pollution in our seas.
Occupying Catwalks
Many of the creative projects guide the children to think about the biggest challenges of our times through personal experimentation and hands-on learning.
In a collaboration with PTT Global Chemical, Arkki Thailand students were provided the opportunity to visit the company and interview its managers to learn about marine conservation and sustainability. The students then applied their creativity to design and made a collection of clothes utilizing fabrics upcycled from marine plastic and recycled from their old clothes.
The students sustainability efforts did not go unnoticed and they had an extra surprise at the end, when they were invited to exhibit and model their fashion creations on the catwalk at the main event center during Bangkok Design Week 2020.
Redesigning Wat Bang Pho Pier
Arkki’s projects reflect the sustainable development goals by the UN on how to achieve sustainable cities and communities, improving urban planning and management.
Arkki received the UNICEF CFCI 2019 Inspire Award in the category “Meaningful Child Participation” for its participation in a project in Vietnam. This was a breakthrough for Arkki.
Early 2020, Arkki facilitated an urban design project In Bangkok, making children’s voices heard in developing the Wat Bang Pho pier, a temple area located in the Bang Sue district in Bangkok. Arkki did conduct the program, redesigning the area around the Wat Bang Pho Pier. The process included interviewing the stakeholders, collecting information, and understanding the different requirements of the various stakeholders in the community.
Founded by Finnish Architects
Arkki School of Architecture for Children and Youth was founded in Finland in 1993 and is run by a non-profit organization called Arkki ry. Arkki International Ltd. was established in 2013 to respond to the growing international interest in Arkki, to license the trademarks and know-how of the Arkki outside Finland.
In Finland, Arkki’s program follows the National Core Curriculum for the Advanced Syllabus of the Basic Education in the Arts.
Arkki was founded by three architects; Tuuli Tiitola-Meskanen, Miina Vuorinen, and Pihla Meskanen. During the 27 years of operation, more than 150 architects have contributed to the development of the Arkki program.
To inspire children at home during the Covid-19 crisis, Arkki has launched free online projects, which have reached children in 43 countries.
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