On 5 April 2022, IntCDC researchers, staff and visiting professor Martin Tamke transformed from employees to family people as they met after work to share their passion for construction and engineering with their children while networking with other members from the Cluster.
Networking took place at the Children's Building Site, where children up to 5 years old (and their parents!) became little builders, architects and craftsmen, building their city of the future, and at the Snack Zone, where parents and hungry children got coffee, cold chocolate, muffins and pretzels.
Older children participated in two fascinating workshops: one on animal housing, where they built a cosy nest for the animal inhabitants, and one on building with bamboo, where they combined simple geometric shapes to build complex spatial structures such as domes or towers.
Some of the bamboo structures were later “rebuilt” by younger siblings, who rearranged the reusable parts to suit their needs, in keeping with the IntCDC spirit of adaptive architecture.
In the end, the children proudly carried home the results of the workshops or the reusable parts with new knowledge about construction techniques, while the IntCDC parents made new contacts and enjoyed a playful afternoon with their family.