The school without a corridor
Here we have an opportunity to reimagine the school of the "new culture of education" as a counterpoint to the post-industrial model involving a culture of standardization in which conformity is the primary measure of success. What is the architectural response that celebrates the curiosity and adaptability of pedagogy to meet contemporary modes of education? If engagement and curiosity are the drivers of success, how can the space provoke, stimulate and engage each student?
In the heart of a large-scale natural environment, the future municipal park will be part of a recreation/civic system connected to Mount Shefford, we see an opportunity to link this pedagogical approach to this idyllic context. The architectural concept proposes a landscape approach in which the school is seen as an integral and continuous part of the park in the making.
Fragments and a unifying interior void
A dominant typology since the 1960s, the central corridor serving the classrooms uses an efficient construction system that has many practical and economic advantages. Our reflection on the school of the 21st century stems from an understanding of the advantages and constraints of this model resulting from an industrialized process.
By eliminating the figure of the corridor as a single-use space, our proposal results from a spatial research that tends neither towards the free plan nor towards the classical distribution model. A succession of spatial fragments are arranged in a flexible enfilade with a potential for flexibility and densification of use superior to the two previous models. Conceived as a continuous field, the interior is fluid and participates, together with the landscape, in creating the illusion of a space without limits. Thus, the project proposes to redefine the connections between the various components of the program. Each classroom group, organized around the interior courtyard, relates to a generous collaborative space that offers visual and usage connections between the various cycles.
We believe in the benefits of cross-pollination between age groups to foster a greater sense of community, tolerance and empathy. In this sense, this void at the heart of the project is intended to be the vehicle for social mixing throughout the 1080 days that the student will spend in this school. Traditional figure-ground hierarchies are erased and a new spatial condition emerges in which the act of teaching and learning becomes resilient and can allow itself to evolve and be redefined by individual experiences and wills according to the principles formulated by Sir Ken Robinson; "As a densely woven fabric of reciprocating ideas, experiences, desires and insights".
The imprint of local heritage
Inspired by the design of the Eastern Townships farmlands and based on the dimensioning of an effective structural span, a system of bands with alternating offsets defines a spatial rhythm extended throughout the site. In material continuity with the wooded area to the south and the pine forest to the north, the exposed wood structure participates poetically in the atmosphere of the site and responds to the ecological and economic issues of our time.
The wood beams and decking articulate the ceilings and contribute to acoustic control while reducing the carbon footprint of the construction.
The school, with its airy facade of rough hemlock planks superimposed on a fieldstone base, has a decidedly Eastern European character. It strongly evokes the ancestral construction techniques of the neighbouring barns and is thus imbued with a hint of local soul while presenting a sober and contemporary face.
A spatial strategy supported by an integration of systems
The fluid bands of collaborative spaces are strategically separated by inhabited walls. These, in addition to constituting thresholds that gently delineate the collective spaces, federate three functions:
1) Particular learning spaces: a careful juxtaposition of space scales provides students and teachers with spaces of refuge and concentration allowing for flexibility in teaching and learning.
2) All ventilation, water and electrical services, freeing the rest of the school from technical elements. The planning of the mechanics is intended to be efficient and adapted to the uses throughout the year, alternating between natural and mechanical ventilation.
3) Vertical circulation and sanitary services.
This strategy embodies both versatility and predictability and responds to the needs of contemporary schools: inclusive, appropriable and scalable. These rational and simple spaces are rich in opportunities; diagonal views, overhangs, cross ventilation.
The school and its changing landscapes
The mixed forest and pine forest, the two major landscape features of the site, offer rich contrasts with the agricultural structure celebrating the man-made landscape of the Eastern Townships. This landscape system in which the school is inserted offers alternating vegetation surfaces of various natures: flowering meadows and their mixed and colored perennials and grasses, food gardens and their medicinal herbs and colored vegetables, rain gardens and their characteristic vegetation. In the hollow of these vegetal strips are arranged programmed "singular rooms" - swings, pear ball or basketball areas for example -, welcoming free play - sand area, large gathering areas near the school, outdoor classrooms in the forests. Their scale and layout reflect the varied needs of children as they progress from the early childhood stages to childhood.
Temporalities
Informal" pathways crisscross the entire site allowing children to discover the various landscape interests and seasonal attractions. These paths change position as needed. This flexible design strategy is proposed to create engaging processes that encourage children's participation in the spontaneous marking and programming of the courtyard space and in the discovery of rich pathways and activities while learning to respect nature.
Discoveries through play
The various open spaces of the site stimulate the imagination and encourage the transformation of the environment. Among the possible free play activities, self-construction using recycled materials and preserved birch trunks could be considered.
Daily outings are also an opportunity to be active through large movement games, cross-country on a 2 km loop for example. An existing mound overlooking the mixed woodland is being cleared and landscaped to provide a nice winter sliding area. Among other seasonal attractions, squash picking in the food gardens can become an opportunity to celebrate the harvest with the community. A banquet could follow a collective cooking activity. Indeed, the community food gardens are linked to the community interiors, kitchens, dining room, and the large vegetated platform to which the outdoor pyramid responds.
Classrooms in the landscape
Each classroom is immersed in a natural environment. To provide a place conducive to concentration, tree species planted in strategic locations form a visual screen of intimacy that promotes concentration. The overall organization of the site goes beyond the usual front-back duality, forming a series of thresholds, from the house to the school, from the interior to the exterior, from the meadow to the forest, that suggest different appropriations of the site. The alley of apple trees and shrubs guides children and adults from the street to the school. At the back, this alley marks the threshold of the area for the little ones.
Large spaces, outside and inside
The large community spaces in the heart of the school are arranged as flexible, spatially rich landscape elements. The vegetated hill of the bleacher, topped by its oculus, is the highlight and personifies the spirit of free play and discovery of use. At once a dining room, a public square, a Roman theater and a playful cave, it serves as a focal point between the gymnasium, the daycare, the art rooms, the staff offices and the instructional kitchen.
Our proposal maximizes the potential for seasonal use of the school by the community and facilitates the development of the envisioned citizen campus.
Outside of school hours, the classroom wing can be closed to make room for public use of the common spaces during evenings and school breaks. These spaces can be used throughout the year and will be the ideal place for end-of-year shows on the bleachers, summer camps in the gymnasium, senior citizen meetings in the workshops, etc. Above all, it will be a place of discovery for all, somewhere between the forest and Mount Shefford.
(Competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
Stage 1:
This proposal appears to be moving toward the mountains. The solution proposes an original demonstration of pavilion-linear. The jury recognizes the architectural strength of this proposal despite the fact that it does not take up the hypothesis of the pavilion typology expressed in the program orientations. The concept allows for a clear and simple organization of spaces. The jury notes a sensitive integration on the site with a minimum impact that favors a good quality of light.
The collaborative intent is effectively expressed. The small, medium and large spaces in the school and their metaphorical title are valuable. There is a nice penetration from the exterior to the interior of the school. However, the inner courtyard is diffuse, the center, the common space, the gathering point, is not clearly seen from the other spaces in the school. The heart of the school is not clearly visible.
This project reflects a different organization of learning spaces than the program. The gathering spaces by grade are interesting. Several elements are not addressed, including the expressed need for L-shaped classroom organization.
The architectural image would benefit from being stronger, it is rather anonymous; the specificities of Shefford Township should be recognizable.
Recommendations
Siting, integration of context and landscape
The siting should allow for a better view of the mountain. Even if the concept is obvious by its clarity, that the integration of nature is underlined as an appreciated element, that the strolling is rich in all the axes, finally that the dialogue between the forest and the mountain is inspiring, the line of force of the mountain must be integrated and it would be advisable to materialize more and in a warm and sensitive way. The jury would like to see a hierarchy of outdoor spaces. There needs to be a better understanding of how to occupy the outdoor spaces.
Relationship between exterior and interior design
The layout, main entrance and landing need to be worked on. The main entrance should have a greater presence and not be buried in the project. The number of entrances and their proportions are questioned.
The function and design of the exterior spaces created by the volumes must be better defined. Their dimensions and designs should take into consideration climate, sunlight, security, their role, views from the inside to the outside and views from the outside to the inside, ... Porches should be integrated and improved.
Interior design
The heart must be more generous, its integration, especially on the first floor, must be worked on to invite gatherings. The whole must be warm in its materiality.
The plan, the volumetry and the materiality must be improved. More variety with scales and proportions must be explored to make the building more human. More generosity in the treatment of spaces could be given to the proposal. The interior would benefit from being enriched in its materiality. The locker rooms are key places in the elementary school, and the plan must be revised to facilitate the management of these transition periods in an efficient (to accommodate 320 students) and humanizing manner. The circulation spaces would benefit from being more playful, dynamic and inspiring.
Stage 2:
The jury highlights the richness of the landscape thinking that is very sensitively integrated into the project and provides a seasonally changing learning landscape. Although the typology is not pavilion, the relationship between the interior and the site is well felt by the jury. The jury also appreciates the details regarding the tectonics of the project. The materialization of the exterior envelope shows a beautiful integration to the context and constitutes a nice evolution between the initial phase and the presented project. Inside, the jury notes the interesting spatial relationships between the community space, the bleacher and the dining room. The dining room extends to the exterior and offers a privileged moment in the project where the scale of the project is expanded in a generous architectural gesture.
In addition, the jury highlights its positive appreciation of the following features:
+ The simplicity and warmth of the interior spaces.
+ The presence of small-scale spaces that generate privileged moments and generous views of the landscape.
+ The brightness of the collaborative spaces.
+ The thickness of the strips that allows to identify different volumes in the whole.
+ The concept of thickness for the integration of the concentration spaces that also serve as buffer zones in relation to the collaboration spaces.
Finally, the jury expresses some reservations about these elements:
+ The positioning of the heart of the school which is off-center.
+ The monolithic aspect of the project. In spite of the integration of the agricultural frameworks into the project, the form of the project does not appeal to the jury, which perceives a closed and autonomous ensemble in relation to its location in nature.
+ The lack of variety of spaces in section.
+ The volumetry of the ensemble, which has an institutional character compared to phase 1, where the jury clearly perceived the shift between each of the bands.
+ The proposed hybrid typology, whereas a pavilion typology was desired.
+ The very limited interior courtyard, whereas it is desired that it be at the center of the project.
+ The integration and relationship with the future community center.
+ The sequence of the checkroom, which seems less well understood.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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