WHEREWELEARN ReimaginingEducationalSpaces
Contents 4 INTRODUCTION 6 DESIGN WITH AGILITY 8 TEO Center for Culture, Art and Content A. Lerman Architects 16 Straf! KABO Beringen a2o architecten and AAC Architecture 24 ARTAVE/CCM Music School Aurora Arquitectos 28 Jinlong School Crossboundaries 32 Town House, Kingston University London Grafton Architects 36 The Check Point Building for the Faculty of Computer Sciences at Tel Aviv University Kimmel Eshkolot Architects 42 Bobergsskolan Max Arkitekter and Caroline Olsson Arkitektur 48 Xaverius College Kindergarten Borgerhout META architectuurbureau 54 Integrated Secondary School Mahlsdorf NKBAK 60 iADC Design Museum Rocco Design Architects Associates 66 X Museum Beijing TEMP 70 KEY TAKEAWAYS 72 DESIGN FOR INNOVATION 74 Avenues Shenzhen Early Learning Center Aybars Aşçı (Efficiency Lab for Architecture) 82 Aesthetic Lab CloudForm Laboratory 86 Baoshan WTE Exhibition Center Kokaistudios 90 Afterschool Learning Hubs 1 & 2 ksestudio 98 The Youth Activity Center Moguang Studio and REDe Architects 102 G’s Academy Fukuoka Nomoto Sekkei 110 The University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch O&O Baukunst 118 Längenfeldgasse Primary and Vocational School PPAG architects 126 Idea Exchange Old Post Office RDHA 130 Kornets Hus Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter 134 Basisschool Veerkracht Studio Ard Hoksbergen and Studioninedots 140 Deakin Law School Building Woods Bagot 144 KEY TAKEAWAYS 2 WHERE WE LEARN
146 DESIGN FOR COMMUNITY 148 Peach Hut Atelier XI 154 ARTCOR Calujac Architecture 158 Erdu Primary School GF Architecture and Paul Mok 162 Groenendaal College and Park Classrooms HUB 168 House of Knowledge Liljewall and MAF Arkitektkontor 176 Cayton Children’s Museum OFFICEUNTITLED 182 Ydalir School and Kindergarten Ola Roald Arkitektur 188 Ket & Co B612associates and OSK-AR architecten 192 Mountain House in Mist Shulin Architecture Design 198 School by a School De Zwarte Hond and Studio Nauta 204 KEY TAKEAWAYS 206 DESIGN WITH NATURE 208 Biblioteca Padre Charbonneau Andrade Morettin Arquitetos 212 Rice Field Bookstore of Tanjiawan Agricultural Site Park Beeeed Atelier 216 Bennington College Commons Renovation Christoff : Finio Architecture 224 Park Pavilion, The Hoge Veluwe National Park De Zwarte Hond and Monadnock 230 Primary School and Kindergarten in Haslach Drei Architekten 236 David Brownlow Theatre Jonathan Tuckey Design 242 Media Library Epernon MU architecture 246 Cottonwood Canyon Experience Center Signal Architecture + Research 250 Glass House Laboratory STAY Architects 254 H-Farm Campus Zanon Architetti Associati 262 KEY TAKEAWAYS 264 DESIGNER INDEX 272 CREDITS 3CONTENTS
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4 WHERE WE LEARN
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Introduction
Education is the future or said differently, there is no future without learning. But as we don’t know the future, education must adapt to every moment of contempo rary life, respond and propose something new: a vision of the future. Hence in the proposition for education, two opposites meet. While the exact outcome of the future is uncertain, our vision and understanding of the present are brought to the fore within ideological and architectural structures that propose certainty. Adapting how we learn is the only way to learn something genuinely new. In 2022, we know that our current situation is not promising. As a population, we face unprecedented planetary, political and social challenges that require imme diate action. To harvest our time’s technological and cre ative potential, we need to leave the straight-jacketed and strict paradigms once associated with a fruitful education behind and allow space for experimentation, inclusivity and expression. Expressing the hunger of multiple generations to change the world for the better, the spaces in which we learn are rapidly adapting to become radical yet fluid containers for the production and the sharing of knowledge, exactly how and where it is needed the most. This book explores 43 projects at the forefront of this movement, picking up the four fundamental notions
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5INTRODUCTION
we have identified to drive the new spaces in which we learn. Accordingly, the book is organised into four chap ters – Designing with Agility, Innovation, Community and Nature. Naturally, many of these projects respond to more than one driver. Reading the key takeaways of each chapter clarifies why that is a success and how they can be integrated when approaching a project with an education scope. The most important feature of the projects presented here is their diversity, arguing powerfully that there is no single way but a cacophony of possibilities and needs that include learning for multiple ages; learning in urban and rural settings; learning in solitude and community and learning in ways and spaces that have not been seenWhatbefore.effect will these spaces have on our future and that of generations to come? We don’t know with certainty, but we know that a different future is possible. We know that change can be learned. We hope that readers will be inspired by the courage of the architects included in this volume and find practical references to take and expand upon in their own spaces and communities.
HERZLIYA
A breath of freshness and simplicity lies over TEO’s mod ernist structure, assembled from prefabricated and site-cast concrete elements within a 50 x 50 m2 plan set around a central patio. The various programmes and functions of the public cultural centre extend to a music conservatory, a dance school, an art and ceramics studio, a gallery, a senior recreation centre and a cafeteria. Connection, commu nity and multidisciplinary expertise are fostered in the unique cultural facility, making it a focal point for the knowledge exchange between the city’s art practitioners and residents. A partially inserted upper floor completes the offer with a library and a 300-m2 open deck for gather ings and activities. For as much as an architectural intervention can be a functional statement with immediate social impact, TEO’s success lies in the inversion of the city’s urban fabric and the creation of a nodal point that unites various types of learning in the public sphere.
The Theodor Herzl Center for Culture, Art and Content stands in such stark contrast with the area in and for which it has been built that its purpose becomes immediately evident. Communicating openness among the privacy of luxurious mansions and tall housing developments in the district of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, the low-rise complex exposes itself with a vast panorama toward the ocean.
10 WHERE WE LEARN DESIGN WITH AGILITY
ABOVE Concrete units – partly cast on-site and partly precast –unite with textured glass and metal in a unique geometric shape that strongly defines all exterior and interior surfaces. RIGHT The central patio connects the various spaces creating a safe internal area for gatherings. P hotos Amit Geron 11A. LERMAN ARCHITECTSTEO CENTER FOR CULTURE, ART AND CONTENT
In its sobriety, the entire doesn’tprojecttryto be more than what it is 52 WHERE WE LEARN DESIGN WITH AGILITY
53META ARCHITECTUURBUREAUXAVERIUS COLLEGE KINDERGARTENBORGERHOUT
RIGHT One of the site’s few factory buildings has been transformed into an Exhibition Center and functions as a symbolic gateway to this landmark scheme. Terrence Zhang
Photos
86 WHERE WE LEARN DESIGN FOR INNOVATION
Industrial renovation by Kokaistudios: first step in the Baoshan WTE ‘greenCenterExhibitionwithinaparkcity’
87KOKAISTUDIOSBAOSHAN WTE EXHIBITION CENTER
SHANGHAI In a uniquely iconic site, the renovation realised by Kokaistudios brings together a derelict industrial site, all its grit and signs of intense usage, with the neat contrast of minimal architectural intervention.The specificity of the site lies precisely in highlighting this rela tionship between the old and the new rather than hiding it or cleaning it up. The industrial memory stays intact here, accentuated by prefabri cated elements and reusable materials that speak of a different time. In a straightforward construction process of only 4 months, the archi tects have succeeded in installing a sanctuary to exhibit models, drawings and plans outlining the broader development of the site, playing an essential educational role through hosting students studying green energy strategies.Through a well-considered dialogue between light and heavy materials, translucent and solid, dirty and clean, the exhibition centre brings to the fore the need for a new ecological context and future to be considered. Touching the strings of its visitors and collaborators already when they look at the site for the first time creates an emotional connec tion and situation of direct physical understanding of an abstract and complex issue.
ABOVE A mix of nature, industrial remnants and clever architecture create a magic atmosphere around the complex.
88 WHERE WE LEARN DESIGN FOR INNOVATION
RIGHT No matter how rough, all architectural elements come together to support the main protagonists: the light and the industrial outdoors.
The soft poetry of the architectural intervention gives the educational component its force, as an urgent invitation rather than a dragging need 89KOKAISTUDIOSBAOSHAN WTE EXHIBITION CENTER
Shulin happinessfeelandwhereprovidesHouseDesignArchitecture’sMountaininMistaspacechildrentheelderlycanfreedomand RIGHT Where there was once an old cowshed, a beautiful timber and glass construction has been designed to serve the community. P hotos Yilong Zhao 192 WHERE WE LEARN DESIGN FOR COMMUNITY
193SHULIN ARCHITECTURE DESIGNMOUNTAIN HOUSE IN MIST
JINHUA
The essence of the structure located in an ancient mountain forest in Wuyi County, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, is pure and simple. Its secret lies in coexistence. First and foremost, the house concurs with the rich, complex and omnipresent nature scattering the old village at different altitudes within the mountain line, separated by dense, ancient forests. Some of the village features are intact, while others have with ered with time, like the collapsed old cowshed. We all must coexist with change, and the village has seen much of it. In this new chapter, the book house aims to propose a serene reading space that allows people to settle for a Onmoment.theone hand, the project is targeted toward young people and children who have left the mountains for more liveable conditions. On the other hand, it provides a colourful place in which the elderly can escape isolation and feel the happiness of connection and silent coex istence. Held by ten structural columns, the house features a first floor with an overhead semi-outdoor space and a tiny water bar accessible to villagers and passers-by. The second floor houses the books, shelves and areas for quiet reading. A staircase connects this section to the outdoors, thus linking various activities.
ABOVE Nearly completely translucent, the modest house radiates light through the valley and symbolises happiness.
RIGHT A small pond appears below the bottom of the first-floor patio. Rain drops fall from the deck into the pool on rainy days, and visitors can hear the sound inside.
194 WHERE WE LEARN DESIGN FOR COMMUNITY
195SHULIN ARCHITECTURE DESIGNMOUNTAIN HOUSE IN MIST
+SignalCenterCanyonCottonwoodfromExperiencedesignedbyArchitectureResearch RIGHT
Learn to look at the outside Balancing nature with the manufactured, the Experience Center was designed to suit the landscape it is part of: resilient, rugged and self-sufficient.
Photos Gabe Border 246 WHERE WE LEARN DESIGN WITH NATURE
247SIGNAL ARCHITECTURERESEARCH+COTTONWOOD CANYON EXPERIENCECENTER
DESIGN WITH AGILITY X Museum Beijing by TEMP DESIGN FOR INNOVATION G’s Academy Fukuoka by Nomoto Sekkei
Where We Learn investigates how learning spaces are evolving to be made more engaging, flexible and all-around better suited to today’s challenges and opportunities. When educational spaces are designed not only to suit, but to harness the power of new learning models, they have a catalytic potential to improve the way knowledge is shared and retained. At one time static, spaces where learning takes place have expanded far beyond the walls of the classroom to spill into more flexible and interactive settings.
Where We Learn offers some of the most novel insights into the design and performance of new environments that are better adapted to contemporary pedagogical practices. This book sheds light on over 40 projects worldwide, ranging from kindergartens, schools and universities to libraries, study cafes and museums. Geared towards readers interested in understanding the broader impact of design on the human experience, Where We Learn highlights imaginative projects while remaining grounded in practical contexts and real-world settings.
DESIGN FOR COMMUNITY Mountain House in Mist by Shulin Architecture Design DESIGN WITH NATURE Cottonwood Canyon Experience Center by Signal Architecture + Research
