WALDORF SCHOOL EL TIL·LER
BELLATERRA BARCELONA
Eduard Balcells
Architecture+Urbanism+Landscape
Alcoves & frames The facade as space A contemporary spatial expression of Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy
The new Waldorf School “El Til·ler” (The Linden Tree) in Bellaterra, Barcelona, proposes a contemporary spatial expression of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy. The layout of the buildings follows the topography; they are arranged along a meandering “rambla” (the Mediterranean name for high street) which ends on a square that opens to the landscape and the exceptional views onto the Vallès Valley and the Collserola mountains. The access to the classrooms follows a gradual spatial transition: from the rambla one goes down or up to the playground of each age, then through a porch, a vestibule, and finally into the classroom. Five buildings from two other plots currently occupied by the school are recycled; they are dismantled, transported, and reconstructed in a new configuration, carefully adapted to the conditions of the school’s new site -topography, sun exposure, views, access, existing vegetation. The new building, which houses kindergarten and common spaces, frees the plan from columns and concentrates them at the facades, forming thick buttresses. The spaces between the buttresses become alcoves, which are shaped according to the needs of each space. From the outside, the alcoves are contained within frames which order the facade and visually reduce the size of the building, bringing it closer to the size of children. The seasonal table, the most singular spatial element of the Waldorf pedagogy, organizes the new kindergarten classrooms. This small altar, where the cycles of nature are explained, is placed focally, within an alcove that provides a unique natural light -lateral, reflected and diffuse. The façade evolves from a flat surface into an inhabited space. The classroom turns into a house, and the school becomes a small village on a hill.
Contents
1. Introduction / Site, assignment, process > 8
2. The school as spatial expression of the Waldorf pedagogy > 26
3. Urbanism / Sequences, Horizons, Light. Topography as support for pedagogy > 32
4. Landscape / Open Scape. Biological dynamics as pedagogical garden > 82
5. Architecture / Alcoves & Frames. The facade as space > 110
6
1.
Introduction Site, assignm
7
/ ment, process
8
Site assignment process
The assignment consists in the recycling of five existing buildings, of a total surface of 1.000m2, which the school has built over the years in two other sites in Bellaterra. One of the buildings is modular, with a steel structure and wooden cladding, and the other three are made of panels of crosslaminated timber (CLT), and clad in wood. The recycling and careful reconfiguration of these buildings on the new site, that has extensive green areas of which as much as possible needed to be preserved, is one of the major challenges of the project. Additionally, the school wanted to build an extension of 1.000m2 containing kindergarten and common spaces that doubles the surface of the school. The total built surface is then 2.000m2, on a 12.000m2 site. The budget for the project is modest: the school extension has been built for one forth less than the average public school in Catalonia. Because of the client being a cooperative association of teachers and parents, dialogue was paramount in all stages of design and construction. Before starting to design, there were extensive interviews with the teachers of the different education cycles, in order to understand their needs and also their interpretation and practice of the Waldorf pedagogy. The outcome of these interviews was a synthetic diagrammatic matrix that was the basis for the design of the school.
9
The site is located in Bellaterra, a housing neighborhood in the Vallès area, at the feet of the Galliners mountains, within the Barcelona metropolitan area. Bellaterra lies within what is called the Vallès Green Corridor, which extends between the Sant Llorenç de Munt i l’Obac natural reserve and the Collserola Mountains natural park. It is, therefore, a dominantly green area, where the large gardens of the single family houses form an extension of the neighbouring mountain forests and valley crops.
10
The project’s site in metropolitan Barcelona The site is located in Bellaterra, a dominantly green housing neighborhood in the Vallès area, within what is called the Vallès Green Corridor, between Sant Llorenç and Collserola mountains.
Garraf Natural Park
Llobregat river delta
Bellaterra Garden City
El Til¡ler Waldorf-Steiner School
Vallès Green Corridor
11
Collserola Natural Park
Marina Natural Park
Barcelona
12
The project’s site in Bellaterra Garden City Bellaterra is one of the first garden cities in Catalonia, located at the feet of the Galliners mountain. The site is not far by foot or bicycle from the train stop and the forest.
Sant Cugat del Vallès
Galliners mountain
El Til·ler Waldorf-Steiner School
Sabadell
Vallès Green Corridor
UAB Autonomous University of Barcelona
Cerdanyola del Vallès
13
Bellaterra Garden City
Assignment: recycling of five buildings & design of new building for kindergarten & common spaces which doubles the current built surface of the school. The school is now renting two sites in Bellaterra Garden City, where the school’s cooperative of teachers and parents have erected five buildings. They have bought a new site and want to dismantle, transport and recycle these buildings on the new site. We are commissioned to organize the recycled buildings within the new site and to design a new building for kindergarten & common spaces which doubles the existing built surface of the school.
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Bellaterra Garden City
Bellaterra Garden City
500m2 Recycle
500m2 Recycled
Sant Cugat del Vallès AP-7 highway
1000m2 New
15
Bellaterra Garden City
ed
Sabadell
UAB Autonomous University of Barcelona
Cerdanyola del Vallès
Recycled buildings. Construction phase. Transporting and re-assembling the recycled buildings in a new and precisely taylored configuration at the school’s new site.
Spatial aspects derived from Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy. The interviews with the teachers’ team revealed spatial aspectes that were fundamental. Each of these aspects was listed and the teachers of the different educational stages explained how these spatial aspects translated into their daily teaching practice. A table was then produced in which the spatial implications of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy were listed and represented graphically for each age.
18
CONSCIOUSNESS From individual consciousness to social consciousness From the inner world (imagination, dream, fantasy) to the outer world (reason, selfcontrol, socialization, experimentation)
SPACE Light in the classroom Relation between child and nature Sequence of access to the classroom Landscape associated with each age Relation between classroom and playground Relation between classroom and terrain Horizons (visual field)
19
Relation between child and common space
20
Diagrammatic matrix of the spatial expression of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy (I). As outcome of teh interviews with teachers, the following table was produced in which the spatial implications of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy were listed and represented graphically for each age. This table became the basis to which we referred back during the design process.
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Diagrammatic matrix of the spatial expression of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy (II).
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2.
The school a spatial expre of the Waldor
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as ession rf pedagogy
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The school as spatial expression of the Waldorf pedagogy
In the design of the school, pedagogy was placed at the center, and most of the efforts were put into finding out what a contemporary spatial expression of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy should be like. The conclusions of extensive interviews with the teachers’ team and the underlying pedagogical principles were used as the basis for the design in all its aspects: urbanism, landscape and architecture. Pedagogical principles are translated to spatial conditions.
In landscape, the observation and understanding of the processes of nature are at the basis of the school’s landscapes, which form an Open Scape. Open Scape refers to the fact that the school garden will not be a fixed picture but an evolving landscape of which the final condition is not known. The observation and understanding of the biological dynamics will become a basis for the children to find out for themselves which directions the development of the garden can take. In architecture, the design of the new building for kindergarten and common spaces is based on the programmatic needs of the school, which meant that the kindergarten classrooms needed to sit on to of the column-free eurythmics hall. The consequence was that the structure of the building moved to the perimeter, becoming thicker in the shape of buttresses. The spaces between buttresses become inhabited spaces or alcoves. The façade evolves from a flat surface into an inhabited space.
27
In urbanism, the steep topography provides the basis for the careful placement of the buildings, following its contours and in three terraces. The movement and rotation of the buildings following the topography provides specific conditions -sequences, horizons, light- adapted to each age. The classroom turns into a house, and the school becomes a small village on a hill.
28
The project as a contemporary spatial expression of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy in a Mediterranean context. The design of the school in all its aspects (urbanism, landscape and architecture) is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Waldorf-Steiner pedagogical system, as understood and practised by the teacher’s team, which were interviewed thoroughly before starting the design process and also consulted during design and construction.
WALDORF PEDAGOGY
SPATIAL EXPRESSION
Urbanism Sequences, Horizons, Light
Landscape Open Scape Biological dynamics as pedagogical garden
Architecture Alcoves & Frames The facade as space
29
Topography as support for pedagogy
30
3.
Urbanism / Sequences Horizons Light Topography a for pedagogy
as support y
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32
Sequences Horizons Light Topography as support for pedagogy
A careful adaptation to the steep topography provides the basis for the layout of the program according to Waldorf pedagogy.
The sequence of access to the classroom always goes through the same elements (rambla, playground, porch, vestibule, classroom), but the sizes, proportions and dispositions of the elements changes with age. This way, for example, in kindergarten, the porch becomes a true outdoors room for open-air activities, while in secondary school it is much smaller and only provides a small shelter from rain and sun. The layout of the buildings is also used to provide different fields of view -horizons- according to the age. At kindergarten, the ascending slope which defines the edge of the playground provides a very close horizon. The horizon is the farthest at secondary education, where the views from the square and the classrooms reach the whole Vallès valley with the Collserola mountains as backdrop. The rotation of the classrooms to adapt to the topography is therefore used to provide changing relationships with the outside, so that the passage from one course to the next is more marked. Both the access sequence, the horizons and the light change from one year to the next. The classroom becomes a house, and the school a small village on a hill.
33
The school is organized along a civic axis or high street, which in the Mediterranean context is called “rambla”. The rambla becomes a physical expression of the “path of knowledge”, as Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy, defined education. The buildings are laid out along the rambla, which meanders following the topography. All the common spaces of the school are accessible from the level of the rambla. The precise disposition of the buildings on the topography is used to provide an expression of pedagogy adapted to each age.
Pedagogical principles
34
Education as a “path of knowledge� From inner consciousness (inner world) to social consciousness (outer world)
Spatial personalitzation, not seriation Topography as support for pedagogy
Spatial expression Path of knowledge (“rambla�) as civic axis which vertebrates the school
35
Sequences Progression towards the classroom from more common to more specific: Path of knowledge (rambla) > courtyard > porch > vestibule > classroom. Horizons Visual field of view from the classroom opens and goes further as children grow. Each classroom has a different relation with the landscape. Light Each classroom has a specific kind of light (intensity and color) due to different orientations, thus personalizing the classroom further.
36
The design is guided by a quote from Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Antroposophic philosophy, of which Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy is part of. The quote was provided by the teachers’ team, as a guiding principle of their understanding and practice of thw Waldorf-Steiner pedagogy.
“Antroposophy is the path o which leads from individual c to social consciousness (ou
Rudolf Steiner Founder of the Antroposophical philosophy and pedagogy Founder of the first Waldorf-Steiner school
37
of knowledge, knowledge consciousness (inner world) uter world).�
Vertical topography. Balcony on the landscape.
ews
BALCONY
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m
ic
vi
STEEP SLOPE
Panoramic views. Over Vallès valley & Collserola mountains.
n a P
a r o
VISUAL FIELDS PROGRESSIVELY OPENING
39
Horizontal topography. Close & far horizons (visual fields).
The school as a small village on a hill. Topography as support for the urban layout of the school.
Ram bla
Access
PAT H OF K NOW
LED
Square
GE Stair
Path of knowledge / Civic axis Civic axis & buildings along it follow the topography Kindergarten playground Secondary Education playground Porch Vestibule
Ram bla
Primary school playground
Spatial sequence to classroom Rambla / Playground / Porch / Receiving room / Classroom
Kind erga rten S Sc eco ho nd ol ar y
40
Classroom
Primar y School
Horizons Horizon (depth of views) expands with age
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Natural light intensity Different orientations mean different light intensity
Natural light color Different orientations mean different light color
Kindergarten Playground
Sports Playground / parking
Secondary School Playground
KIN D COM ERGA RT MO N S EN / PA C ES Ram bla PAT HO FK NOW n ee nt Ca
PRIM
A RY
Orchards / Water gardens
LED
R A D N L O C OO E H S C S
Y
Plaรงa
GE
SCHO
Stair
OL
Amphitheatre Primary School Playground
School complex layout Along the Path of Knowledge; following the topography
The layout of the school complex follows the topography. The school becomes a small village on a hill.
Kindergart playgroun
Sports Court
Kin
der gar
Ra
ten
mb
la
Pa
th
of
Kn
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P ed rim uc ar at y io n Amphitheatre
Primary Education playground
o
ten nd Secondary Education playground
ary d n o Sec ation c edu
ow
led
Orchards / Water gardens
Square
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ge
St
air
Program organization in three main levels, diagrammatic section. Common programs (workshops, eurythmics hall, canteen, etc) along the civic axis (Path of knowledge - rambla). Classrooms at higher and lower levels.
Upper level
Porch+ bridge
Classrooms
44
Common spaces
Porch
Playground
PA KNO (R
ATH OF OWLEDGE Rambla)
Porch+ bridge
Common spaces 45
Intermediate level
Classrooms
Porch
Lower level
Playground
The school complex is organized in terraces which adapt to the steep topography. Overall transversal section.
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2
3
4
1
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5 6
7
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
2
5
10 m
Rambla (Mediterranean high street) Kindergarten playground Kindergarten classrooms (new building) Eurythmics hall (new building) Workshop (recycled building) Primary school classroom (recycled building) Primary school playground
Overall plan. plan.
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10 1
8
48
7
5
5
6
11
Overall plan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
New kindergarten and common spaces building Kindergarten playground Secondary school building Secondary school playground Primary school building Primary school playground Cantine and storage Rambla (Mediterranean high street) Square Sports playground
Amphitheater Vegetable garden Reed ponds for on site waste water treatment
4 13
12
3
49
9
5
N
Upper level. Kindergarten & Secondary Education.
6 4 3 4
4 1
3 4
2
3
1
1
3
5
50
1
Kindergarten (new building) 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12
Classroom 2-3 ye a rs classroom Porch Receiving room Teacher’s support space Playground Secondary School (recycled building) 9th class 10th class 11th class 12th class Receiving room Playground
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4
12
10
11 9 8
11
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N
Intermediate level. Path of Knowledge (Rambla) & Common Spaces.
9 10 30
4
8 7
3
11 6
5
1
2
26
25
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13
12
14
24 15 16
Common Spaces (new building) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Eurythmics Hall Eurythmics Hall anteroom Storage Hallway Teacher’s room Director’s office Visit’s room Reception Administration Accounting Support classroom
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Common Spaces (recycled buildings) Canteen Canteen’s office Carpenter workshop Stone&metal workshop Technology classroom Library 7th class
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
8th class Art classroom Music classroom Laboratory Teacher’s room Receiving rooms Main access Rambla Square Orchards Water cleansing gardens Sports court / parking
24 17
29
23
28 4
22 27
21
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20
24 18
19
N
Lower level. Primary Education.
54
10
1 9 7
2 3 7
4
8
11
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Primary School (recycled buildings) 1st class 2nd class 3rd class 4rth class 5th class 6th class Receiving rooms Playground Kitchen Storage Amphitheatre
55 6
5 7
N
Rambla (Path of knowledge). Main Access. Project phase visualization.
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Rambla (Path of Knowledge). Main access. The lighter-colored building is the new kindergarten and common spaces building. The darker-colored buildings are the recycled and re-assembled buildings.
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Rambla (Path of Knowledge). To the left, the new kindergarten and common spaces building.
Rambla (Path of knowledge). Project phase visualization. At the left, the new building for kindergarten and common spaces.
Rambla (Path of Knowledge). At the left foreground, the new kindergarten and common spaces building. All other buldings are recycled (they have been dismantled, transported and re-assembled to fit the new school’s site). In the background, the square where the rambla ends, open to the landscape.
Rambla (Path of Knowledge). The buildings delimit the space without closing it. Openings towards the small adjacent valley between the buildings.
Rambla (Path of Knowledge). At the right, the new kindergarten and common spaces building. At left, the recycled buildings.
Rambla (Path of Knowledge). The access to the the upper level of each building is done via bridges. View of the rambla from one of the access bridges.
Rambla (Path of Knowledge). Openings towards the landscape between the buildings.
Rambla (Path of knowledge). Project phase visualization. The rambla ends at a square which opens to the landscape.
The square at the end of the rambla, opening toward the landscape. View from blow the porch of the secondary education building.
Openness towards the landscape. View of Collserola mountains and Valès Valley from the orchards area, just below the square at the end of the rambla.
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4.
Landscape / Open Scape Biological dy as pedagogic
ynamics cal garden
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Open Scape Biological dynamics as pedagogical garden
Two biological spaces, the Spontaneous Garden and the Cultivated Garden, will interact between them and with the surroundings to form an Open Scape.
In the Cultivated Garden, intensive maintenance, watering and upkeeping is needed. This garden comprises new elements: orchards, hedges as green railings, fruit trees, water cleansing lily ponds, and foreign trees, like the linden -the “til·ler” which lends its name to the school. This garden enriches the biodiversity of the Spontaneous Garden. The fact that the site is located within the Vallès Diffuse Corridor -formed by the exotic private gardens of single family houses- means that seeds from neighbouring plots will bring further exotic plants.
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In the Spotaneous Garden, nature is left alone, as it has happened during the last years of abandonment of the site. Nature will go through spontaneous biological succession towards the local vegetal climax -the typical local landscape-, which is the Mediterranean Forest, dominated by oak. It’s a dry garden, where plants are not watered: only the adapted plants will survive. Most of the site will be a Spontaneous Garden, saving precious water in a semi-arid Mediterranean climate.
Climate is also changing globally, with local consequences: now, in Bellaterra, palm trees do not die from freezing in winter as they used to. On the contrary, they thrive and multiply spontaneously. Climate Change is also modifying the local climax, the Mediterranean Forest. Exotic and local species are now competing in a warmer climate, leaving the future of the Mediterranean Forest open: an Open Scape appears. Students will engage in trying to anticipate how will this future Mediterranean Forest be: will palm trees and ailanthus dominate over the traditional oaks? If so, when will this start to happen? Each year, the biological dynamics of the garden will be documented by the students in the “Dynamic Mural”.
Pedagogical principles
84
Dialogue with nature, not imposition
Human beings as bio-diversifying agents
Importance of natures’s rhythms
The garden in common
Spatial expression Spontaneous garden Most of the garden is left for nature to reconquer, which will tend to the local climax (Mediterranean oak forest)
Dynamic Mural Observation & conceptualization of nature’s rhythms and biological dyamics Self-organization The garden will be run by the cooperative of teachers and parents
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Cultivated garden Parts of the garden are intensively planted and kept: they enrich the bio-diversity of the spontaneous garden
Open Scape
The site is located within the Diffuse Corridor, part of the Vallès Green Corridor. The Diffuse Corridor comprises the built areas where greenery is abundant enough, and where exotic private gardens and local vegetation form a biological hybrid.
Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac Natural Park
86
Vallès Green Corridor
Galliners Mountain El Til·ler Waldorf-Steiner School
Collse Natural
Llobregat River
87 Besòs River
erola Park
Barcelona
Mediterranean Sea
Vallès Green Corridor
Vallès Diffuse Green Corridor
The site occupies the most privileged plot within the urbanized area. On the only hill within the urbanization; next to the main creek; close to the forest.
Galliners Mountain
El Til¡ler Waldorf-Steiner School
88
El Pedregar Hill
Sant Cugat del Vallès
Collserola Natural park
Vallès Green Corridor
Vallès Diffuse Green Corridor
Hill
Creek
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Cerdanyola del Vallès
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The site is located within one of the oldest Garden Cities in Catalonia: Bellaterra. The gardens are full of exotic plants which mix with the local vegetation, forming the Diffuse Corridor
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The site epitomizes the “exotic garden” that forms the Vallès Diffuse Corridor. Formerly the gardens of a millionnaire, it’s epitomizes the exotic garden typical of the Vallès Difuse Corridor.
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After years of abandonment, local and exotic vegetation are spontaneously recolonizing the site. Local vegetation and seeds from neighbouring plots are taking over the site. If left alone, the garden will tend to the local climax vegetation (the Mediterranean oak forest).
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The existing garden is being spontaneously recolonized; new pines are growing. Students will witness and study how, from an exotic garden, nature makes its way towards the local climax vegetation.
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Landscape concept: Open Scape. As interplay between the Spontaneous garden, the Cultivated garden, the immediate environment of exotic gardens of single family houses, and Climate Change.
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Evolution towards the Open Scape. Exotic and local species are now competing in a warmer climate, leaving the future of the Mediterranean Forest open: an Open Scape appears. How will the future Mediterranean Forest look like: will palm trees and ailanthus dominate over the traditional oaks?
Shrub (Quercus coccifera)
Oak (Quercus ilex)
100
Parasol pine
TYPICAL MEDITERRANEAN OAK FOREST > 1900
Wild grasses
Palm tree Grass Shrub (Quercus coccifera)
Young pine Oak
Young palm tree
Young ailanthus
ABANDONED EXOTIC GARDEN 2016-2018
Oak?
OPEN SCAPE 2019 >
?
Wild grasses? grasses
Magnolia? Magnolia
Palm tree? tree
Ailanthus? Ailanthus
Pittosporum? Pittosporum
101
Yucca
Shrub (Quercus coccifera)
Grass
Oak (Quercus ilex)
Pittosporum
Cypress
Parasol pine
Cactus
Magnolia
EXOTIC GARDEN 1900-2016
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Spontaneous Garden. Nature is left alone, as it has happened during the last years of abandonment of the site. Nature will go through spontaneous biological succession towards the local vegetal climax (the typical local landscape), which is the Mediterranean Forest, dominated by oak.
Pioneer grass planting stabilizing the slopes
103 Spontaneous renaturalization of preserved garden
Cultivated Garden. intensive maintenance, watering and upkeeping is needed. This garden comprises new elements: orchards, hedges as green railings, fruit trees, water cleansing gardens, and foreign trees (linden, the “til¡lerâ€? which lends its name to the school).
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Flower trees
Hedges as green railings
Amphitheatre
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Orchard
Water-cleansing gardens
Linden tree (“El Til·ler”) at the square
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Dynamic Mural as main pedagogic material. Representation of the yearly biological dynamics of the garden.
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5.
Architecture Alcoves & Fra The facade a
New kindergarten & comm
mon spaces building
109
/ ames as space
110
Alcoves & Frames The facade as space New kindergarten & common spaces building
For the teachers’ team it was paramount to personalize the spaces, in order to avoid the feeling of serial education that does not focus on each particular child. This personalization is addressed through two strategies: on one hand, the classrooms are laid out not in a row but in a fan cluster arrangement, which implies that each classroom has an equal size and shape but is personalized by having a different relationship with the outside -views, access and light. On the other hand, the alcoves are also used to personalize the spaces, as they are all shaped differently according to the pedagogical and programmatic needs of each space.
111
The spatial qualities of the new kindergarten and common spaces building are determined by the most adequate way of solving the structural challenge of having classrooms on top of a necessarily column-free eurythmics hall. The most logic and economic solution is to avoid any column within the plan and to concentrate them at the perimeter at both building levels. This results in the suppression of inner columns and the consequent thickening of the perimetral ones, which become buttresses. In order to make the space between them usable, alcoves appear: the façade evolves from a plane into a tridimensional inhabited space. The facades are ventilated and made entirely of certifiedtimber sem-prefabricated panels, matching the cladding of the recycled buildings and thus providing an urban ensemble.
In order to generate a building at the scale of children, the visible columns in the inside, spaced less than usual, plus the alcoves in between, generate a perception of the space in smaller units. In the same way, at the outside, the facade is subdivided in a matrix of smaller frames, each corresponding to one alcove in the inside. The porches, which fragment the volume of the facade, again reduce the overall visual size of the building. The “seasonal table”, a small altar to nature where its cycles are explained, is the most unique spatial feature of Waldorf pedagogy, present in all the classrooms of the school and at all stages of education. This feature is used as the focal point of the new kindergarten classrooms, around which the space of the classroom is organized.
Pedagogical principles
112
Spatial personalitzation, not seriation
Spaces at the scale of children
Importance of natures’s rhythms
Spatial expression Alcoves The faรงade as space
Alcoves Visually reducing the scale of the interior spaces Frames Visually reducing the scale of a large facade Porches Visually reducing the scale of a large building
The Seasonal Table Focal point & organizer of the classroom
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Cluster layout, not row Classrooms not on a line, but arrayed
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Alcoves / The facade as space. Inspiration (I).
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Alcoves / The facade as space. Inspiration (II).
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Butressess / Alcoves. Structural needs turn the facade into an inhabited space.
Kindergarten Classroom
Kindergarten Classroom
Floors: in situ concrete slab
Eurythmics Hall Transversal section of building
118
Conventional structure: perimetral & inner columns Not possible: Eurythmics Hall needs to be column-free
Facade as line Typical thin facade
Kindergarten Classroom
Kindergarten Classroom
Buttress Eurythmics Hall
Alcove
Floors: presstressed concrete plates
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Buttresses: thicker perimetral columns Column-free plan & Spaces between buttresses form alcoves
Facade as space Thick, inhabited facade
New kindergarten and common spaces building. Transversal section showcasing alcoves (thick facade).
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120
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4
121 1
0
1. 2. 3. 4.
1
2
3m
Rambla (Mediterranean high street) Kindergarten playground Kindergarten classrooms Eurythmics hall
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New kindergarten and common spaces building. Exploded axonometric showing large span structure of perimetral buttresses, alcoves, frames, porches and bridges+porches.
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5
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Structural buttress Alcove Frame Porch Access bridge+porch
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3
2
Frames. Visually reducing the scale of a long building.
Large size, large scale Long facade, repetitive & seriated facade
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Rambla Porches. Visually reducing the scale vertically.
Rambla / A visually high facade The perception is that of a massive and high facade (two storeys).
Kindergarten Porches. Visually reducing the scale horizontally.
Kindergarten level / One long facade The perception from a child’s point of view is that of a very long facade
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Frames: large size, small scale Facade perceived as a matrix of frames with diverse content
Rambla / A visually much lower facade A porch the length of the facade visually cuts the height in two, forming an outdoors coverded access to the main common spaces (administration, eurythmics hall). The perception is that of a less massive and lower building.
Kindergarten level / Visually, much shorter stretches of facade Porches interrupt the view; perception is of shorter facades joined together
Alcoves & Frames. The façade as space Conceptual illustration.
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The facades cease to be flat to become an inhabited space, with alcoves that house benches, shelves, cabinets, cupboards, tables, etc. The alcoves show on the facade, where they are surrounded by frames that order the facade and visually bring the size of the building closer to the size of children.
Kindergarten classroom Free play area window
Kindergarten classroom Seasonal table
Kindergarten classroom Receiving room entrance
Kindergarten classroom Receiving room lateral
Teacher’s support space High table
Support classroom Low table & shelf
Rambla Outdoors bench & window
Eurythmics hall Shelves
Kindergarten classroom Free play area window
Teacher’s support space High window & bench
Teacher’s support space Storage space
Administration Office table & storage
Reception Bench
Eurythmics hall High window & shelf
Rambla Outdoors bench & windows
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Kindergarten classroom Tables’ area window
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Viewed from the Path of knowledge (rambla), the spine that organizes the school complex.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces seen from the rambla. Project phase visualization. In the built project, the facades were simplified and the porches will be built at a later phase.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces seen from the rambla, the urban axis that articulates the school. The building shows its full height of two floors and provides a more urban scale towards the rambla. From the level of the rambla the common spaces (reception, administration and eurythmics hall) are directly accessed. The first floor houses the kindergarten classrooms, which are reached from the playground located one level above the rambla, through bridges that span the green slopes which surround the back of the building. These green slopes provide all the groud floor spaces with natural light and ventilation, avoiding the construction of retaining walls and providing a more natural solution to the level differences of the site.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces seen from the rambla. Detail of the facade and the frames that order the facade and reduce its scale.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Viewed from the rambla at dusk. Detail of frames which visually reduce the facade’s size to one closer to the size of children.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Viewed from the rambla.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. The frames order the facade while allowing for any desired fenestration.
New kindergarten and common spaces building. Lower level plan / Commons spaces. 1. Reception 2. Administration 3. Management 4. Bathroom 5. Offices 6. Teacher’s room 7. Support classroom 8. Eurythmics hall vestibule 9. Eurythmics hall (multipurpose hall) 10. Storage 11. Bathroom 12. Rambla 13. Green slope 13
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New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Eurythmics hall interior. Project phase visualization. Side windows are either higher or lower than eye-level, in order to provide for the necessary intimacy for the practice of eurythmics. At the rambla side, higgh windows prevent eye-level contact between interior and exterior. At the green slope side, the very low windows prevent distractions caused by the business of the kindergarten playground at the upper level. While keeping this main ideas, in the built project the facades were simplified.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Eurythmics hall interior, green slope side. Alcoves are formed by low windows that provide intimacy from the activity of the upper level kindergarten’s playground, as eurythmics requires concentration. Low benches are integrated in the thickness of the facade, between the structural buttresses.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Eurythmics hall interior, rambla side. Alcoves are formed by high windows which provide retreat from the busy rambla, as the practice of eurythmics requires concentration. Low benches can be also used for storage.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Library interior. The regular structural rhythm of buttresses provides a flexible abut also ordered possibilities of variation of the alcoves as needed.
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Kindergarten Classroom
Classroom layout: cluster (personalization), not row (seriation). Kindergarten classrooms not on a line, but arrayed.
Corridor Row / Seriation All classrooms are identical (same space, same light, same views) Classrooms on a line with access corridor
Corridor & Teacher’s support room
Cluster / Personalization Space is the same, but relation with outside changes (views, light) Classrooms rotated: corridor as teacher’s support room, classrooms accessed via outside porch
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Kindergarten Classroom
New kindergarten and common spaces building. Upper level plan / Kindergarten.
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1. Kindergarten classroom 2. Classroom bathroom 3. Office 4. Vestibule 5. Access bridge+porch 6. Classroom 2-3 years old 7. Storage 8. Bathroom 9. Hedge (green railing) 10. Kindergarten playground 11. Green slope
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New building for kindergarten and common spaces, seen from the kindergarten’s playground (upper level, kindergarten classrooms). Project phase visualization. The access porches will be built at a later phase.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces, seen from the kindergarten’s playground (upper level, kindergarten classrooms). Only one floor of the building is visible, bringing its scale even closer to that of children. Each classroom is accessed by a bridge that, in time, will be covered to form a porch. The metal mesh fence will be invaded by climbing plants and shrubs, becoming a hedge which will act as green railing.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces viewed from the kindergarten’s playground (upper level, kindergarten classrooms). The frames that order the facade are very visible. This strong order provides a stable matrix for flexibility and variation; the contents of each frame, which expresses the corresponding interior alcove, can vary, adjusting to the programmatic and pedagogic needs of the interior spaces.
New building for kindergarten and common spaces. Seen from the kindergarten’s playground (upper level, kindergarten classrooms).
Green slopes around the back of the building provide natural light and ventilation. The green slopes make it possible to avoid the use of retaining walls. At the first floor level, each kindergarten classroom is accessed via a bridge.
The access bridges to each kindergarten classroom becomes spaces for outdoor activities and a spatial transition element between playground and classroom. Project phase visualization. The porches will be added at a later phase.
Access bridge to kindergarten classroom seen from the playground. The bridges, in time, will be covered to form a porches.
Access bridge to each kindergarten classroom. It becomes a space for outdoor activities.
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Free-play area
Tables area
Seasonal Table
Kindergarten classrooms are organized around the Seasonal Table. The Seasonal Table (a unique feature of the typical Waldorf classroom) becomes the focus and organizer of the classroom.
Seasonal Table as an afterthought The Seasonal Table can be understood as a small “altar to nature”: students put there the natural objects corresponding to the season. This is an element which is unique to the Waldorf pedagogy. Usually, it is not an integrated element, and in most cases it’s a normal table placed at the corner of the classroom.
Seasonal Table Articulation Free-play area 173
Tables area
Seasonal Table articulating the classroom The uniqueness of the Seasonal Table is recognized; it organizes the classroom and takes central stage
The alcoves of the kindergarten classroom as organizers of space.
Transversal sections
Low window Children’s height
High w lateral
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Inner elevation
Season (Articu
Plan Tables area
Middle window Adult’s height
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nal Table ulation)
Free-play area
Interior of kindergarten’s classroom, with the three alcoves that articulate the space. Project phase visualization with the three facade alcoves which organize the classroom’s space. At the center, the “seasonal table”, the small altar to nature specific of Waldorf pedagogy.
Interior of kindergarten’s classroom. At the center, organizing the classroom, the alcove with the seasonal table, the small altar to nature specific to the Waldorf pedagogy, with a unique natural light (lateral, reflected and diffused). To the left, the work area with tables, with a higher window to foster concentration. To the right, the free play area, with a low window and bench, at the height of children.
Construction / Facade details. The concrete structure of the new kindergarten and common spaces building is hybrid: the columns are made in-situ and the roof slabs are prefabricated. The thick concrete structure provides a very good thermal inertia and sound insulation. The facades are entirely made of semi-prefabricated certified-timber panels -including the thermal insulation which is made of wood-fiber panels. The facades have an excellent thermal behaviour, as the facade panels completely wrap the structure -avoiding thermal bridges completely. The facades are also ventilated, which means that moist and rain are fastly dried up and that in summer the facade has an extra protection against sun heat.
North facade Detailed section
West facade Detailed section
Facades Detailed plan
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Interior of kindergarten’s classroom. Details of the inhabited facade, with the alcoves that appear between the buttresses and organize the space following the Waldorf pedagogy and the needs of the program.
Interior of kindergarten’s classroom, with the three alcoves that articulate the space. At the center, organizing the classroom, the alcove with the seasonal table, the small altar to nature specific to the Waldorf pedagogy, with a unique natural light (lateral, reflected and diffused).
Interior of kindergarten’s classroom. Details of the alcoves that organize the space.
Interior of kindergarten’s classroom. The alcoves become a place for play, reading, resting and even contemplation.
Interior of kindergarten’s classroom. Detail of the alcove with the seasonal table, the small altar to nature specific to the Waldorf pedagogy, with a unique natural light -lateral, reflected and diffused.
Credits Project authors Eduard Balcells Architecture+Urbanism+Landscape; Ignasi Rius, architect; Daniel Tigges, architect Client Fundació per a l’art d’educar de Rudolf Steiner Collaborators Manel Romero, architect; Elisabeth Terrisse, architect Structural engineering Bernuz-Fernández Mechanical engineering Progetic Landscape consultant Factors de Paisatge (Manuel Colominas) Quantity surveyor Egaractiva Construction company Maheco Virtual images Sbda Photography of urban ensemble (photos contained in pages 58 to 79) Eduard Balcells Photography of architecture (new kindergarten and common spaces building, photos contained in pages 128 to 191, plus book covers) Adrià Goula © Eduard Balcells Architecture+Urbanism+Landscape Any form of reproduction, distribution, public communication or transformation of this work can only be carried out with the authorization of its owners, except for the exclusions provided for by law. The architecture photos contained within this book (photos contained in pages 128 to 191, plus book covers) are authored and copyrighted by Adrià Goula - adriagoula@coac.net; adria@adriagoula.com If you would be interested in knowing more about the project or in publishing partially or completely any material contained in the present book, please feel free to contact eduardbalcells@coac.net
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“The facade evolves from a flat surface into an inhabited space. The classroom turns into a house, and the school becomes a small village on a hill.�