quest to learn: school, games, space

• from the book Educational facilities 1995-96 review AIA press, Washington D.C.

1)Amelia Elementary School, Virginia -

(nice idea for floor+shelf furniture)

2) Ventana Vista Elementary School, Arizona

- Classrooms are organised as villages, were each age group of student occupies its own village. Each village has its own landmark to guide children through the site. At the intersections of the villages are the common spaces, library and so on.

-also there is extensive blackboard use and innovative schoolyard idea, designed in levels.

• Schools from the book Class architecture, Michael J. Crosbie, Images Publishing 2001

1)Mary c Burke elementary school, HMFH

-fostering the idea of designing small communities that operate as separate entities, with their own public entrances and administrative areas. There are four schoolhouses that are distinguished between them by colourful geometrical patterns and colors.

-great idea of using interiors as a small ‘city’ with different facades for different classrooms

2) Crossroads elementary school, Cuningham Group, Minessota

-(montessori program)

- great idea of defining the common zone as the ‘inquiry zone’, an area for hands on learning and student display where all students interact!! This zone is brightly colored and provides with small units that work as open working cabinets.

3) Kennedy Elementary School, Wisconsin, Bray associates

-Here classrooms are grouped as neighborhoods!! So for example fifth graders have their own neighborhood to help their transition to middle school, while kindergarden and early childhood share a space close to the playground. Each neighborhood has a commons space for activities and shared learning, a room for teacher planning and a space for children with disabilities. the neighborhoods surround a central VILLAGE that contains the main commons, performance space, library and administrative offers.

4) Stanley Makowsi- Early childhood Center

-floor idea, auditorium like-

4) Strawberry Vale School, Patkau Architects

-this school located in Canada includes 16 classrooms, a gymnasium and a library. Classrooms are grouped in pods. Natural lighting is provided through the controlled placement of the windows, clerestories and skylights combined with reflective interior surfaces that distribute light evenly throughout the interior spaces.

-amazing, wooden interiors-

• from the book Harvard Educational Review, Architecture and Education

• from the book New Schools for small schools in New York, The Architectural League, Public Education Association, Princeton Architectural press

the projects in this catalogue are the result of an unusual exploration by 50 teams of architects, of what New York Schools would look like of they where to be smaller.

1) Washington Heights, Elementary school, HMFH architects

facing the problems of an urban school, that lives in a busy corner of a crowded neighborhood, this projects maximizes certain features that urban schools frequently lack- abundant natural light and outdoor playspace- and promotes community access and identification. the building is organised around a five story skylit atrium and features a community mural which would be designed by local artists creating an ongoing recaord of community names, images and events!

2) Sunset Park, Adam Gaon and Nick Isaak

-The interesting part in this design, is the innovative use of gardens inside the building, that function as playgrounds but also fit a sustainable design. Also, as most of the New York projects, there is an effort to connect to the local surroundings, the neighborhood. In relation to the above stands the ‘ classroom bar’ -whose metaphor and scale are derived from the neighboring brownstones.

2) Sunset Park, Curtis, Doern, Ginsberg

Apart from the ‘house’, ‘village’ looking classrooms and sections that we talked about in previous examples, what is particularly interesting in this project is the use of central atrium that fosters exhibitions and performances.

3)Washington heights, hypotenuse design

In this project, playgrounds and common areas are designed as separate oval spaces that stand out the square looking classrooms.

4)Moririsania, Yan Andre Leroy, Entrup Burkhard

An unusual concept. Circular classrooms float within the mountainous looking structure of the building.

5)Washington heights, Mark Demarta and Ted Sheridan

On one level the proposal tries to give to a child access to everyday objects seen in the urban industrial enviroment, by designing playground toys: helicopters, a subway car, a freight container a water tank. On another level this proposal makes playful gestures towards its surrounding environment, there is a spiral side that leads to the helicopter and so on.  A great example of how as a designer you can link with local and usually uninteresting surroundings in a creative way.

6)Morissania, Intergroup

The School House concept.- The sites relate to residents needs and have resources interchangeable with the needs of the community activities.

Steinberg sketches-

5) Acorn School, New York

Mirecourt School- France, Architecture-Studio et O. Paré, Paris 2002