Today’s session of the Gabfest Club (Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine) was dedicated to the topic «Urban Living». As city dwellers in Ukraine many club members consider their living conditions inferior – with not enough living space. Today we explored the topic of urban living and tried to compare affordable housing projects in Ukraine and in the USA.
To start the ball rolling we watched a video about the Soviet «Khrouschevkas» – cheap houses from prefabricated blocks that allowed millions of Soviet people to improve their living conditions after WW2.
It turned out that in New York City a similar project was initiated last year by Mayor Bloomberg. The «My Micro NY» building will be the first multifamily building in Manhattan to be built entirely from prefabricated modular pieces. The Mayor stated: «The growth rate for one- and two-person households greatly exceeds that of households with three or more people, and addressing that housing challenge requires us to think creatively and beyond our current regulations».
The group watched several videos illustrating the topic of space-optimizing in modern urban life. Micro-living phenomenon triggered heated debate about strong and weak points of the «affordable housing» projects. The group was particularly impressed by the videos about a transformable flat displayed in the Museum of New York. The videos with tips about living in tiny spaces were also enjoyed by all the present.
The session was very educational and urged some interested club members to explore the topic further - for their own home improvements.
Participants number – 27 persons.
WOA Dnipropetrovsk continues its project “Discover USA”.
The visitors from school # 23 came to Dnipropetrovsk information and resource center "Window on America".
The Head of Dnipropetrovsk information and resource center "Window on America" Svitlana Usenko informed the students and their teachers about the funds and free resources of the WOA center.
The YouTube videos were showed to the students on the topics «Windy city - Chicago» and «Big Apple – New York».
The 7th graders improved their auditing skills by listening to the native-speaking comments to the videos. Several new phases and expressions were presented to the group by the WOA’s staff and the teacher.
Number of participants – 16 (teacher of English – 1, pupils – 15).
WOA Dnipropetrovsk continues its project “Discover USA”.
The visitors from school # 23 came to Dnipropetrovsk information and resource center "Window on America".
The Head of Dnipropetrovsk information and resource center "Window on America" Svitlana Usenko informed the students and their teachers about the funds and free resources of the WOA center.
The relevant YouTube videos were showed to the students on the topics «Windy city - Chicago» and «Big Apple – New York».
Number of participants – 17 (teachers of English – 2, pupils – 15).
