Once we had our methods and tools decided to combine them into  different workshop formats that would fit the different groups. Many of our chosen methods we derived from ‘Baupiloten’, whom we mention in the Research section of this book. We choose to do so because they are one of the more experienced firms for participation in Berlin, many of their methods have been tested in numerous different projects and planning processes. We also consulted with another firm who has wide experience with citizen participation, Nonconform. They often conduct intense workshop formats over numerous days in areas or villages that are about to be redeveloped or have something new built there. These two firms have different approaches and work on different types of projects but have both been an inspiration to us and based on the knowledge we gained from them.

 

In dialog with Nonconform we brainstormed and created workshop formats that could challenge the children to break out of the set norms and conventions of a school. These ideas were the basis for the workshops we tested and then narrowed down to the four formats we used at the Peter-Petersen-Schule.

 

We planned the workshops so that they were fairly open and flexible, without a strict time plan. Most of all we felt it necessary to be able to change them on spot if something wasn’t working or the children were more interesting in certain aspects of the workshop. 

 

We worked with many classes and groups but closely and repeatedly with two groups of children. The class 1.6 with whom we held the monster and show box workshops was the younger group (ages 6-8). The other was during the workshop-hours for the older kids (age 9-11) where we got to work with a group of 12 children continuously for 4 consecutive weeks. The following pictures describe the timeline of the entire process and different workshops .