In these tough times making good school design decisions has never been more difficult or more important. To find out how some of the nation’s top architects and administrators are coping with these challenges attend Architectural Record’s Schools of the 21st Century Symposium. It will be held Friday, April 9th, at the Hyatt McCormick Place in Chicago, the day before the NSBA Conference. The event is free of charge and is being presented with the support of McGraw-Hill Education and the American Architectural Foundation.
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Nontraditional Schools
Students who participated in the “Redesign Your School” competition had the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start over from scratch. And, in an iPod- obsessed culture, we expected most would simply junk the traditional school building structure in favor of computer-based virtual learning that could take place anywhere.
Students’ vision of nontraditional school design (top) uses the landscape to extend learning outdoors. One student’s idea that a hallway could be shaped like a strand of DNA (above) converges with another’s concept of buildings that can be made into didactic tools.
Drawings: © Ha Pham, SOM
This was true, but only to a limited extent. We were surprised to learn that few students wanted to give up interacting with their peers or learning from teachers; most wanted more opportunities for engagement. In fact, in our analysis of the student essays, we saw that there is a perception among the students that many traditional school spaces do not provide adequate opportunities for the informal exchange of ideas and chance encounters between students and teachers. We responded by creating “nexus points” that act as living room, library, cafeteria, gallery and performance space. The students’ visions of nontraditional school design also incorporate many landscape elements that allow learning to be extended outside the classroom and into the environment and community. Spaces that have multiple uses and possibilities were also embraced by these young designers—who see themselves as busy learners who want to use the time they spend moving from space to space to accomplish both their assigned and their self-imposed learning goals. To that end, buildings could function as didactic tools. Why, asked one, couldn’t a hallway be shaped like strands of DNA? We agree with the students that the traditional grid of desks does not take advantage of the many wireless and multimedia tools available to teachers and students today, but we believe the traditional components of the school environment can be updated while preserving the valuable traditions of teaching and learning.
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Nexus points allow all sorts of interaction and activities (above left). Classrooms (above right) make use of the latest technology. Team members from left: Darrell Puffer, AIA, SOM; Beth Hebert, Crow Island School (retired); Lisa LaCharité-Lostritto, University of Maryland; Don Carlson, FAIA, Mithun Architects. Drawings: © Ha Pham, SOM |