Splay / Stagger / Stack: Learning from Architecture as Play
Blue = K - 8 Red = Elementary Turquoise = K - 12
Splay (horizontally / planimetrically) @ Donald McKay School K-8 East Boston Low density
This project offers prototypes for rapidly deployable, post-carbon forms of educational buildings as toys for learning. Architecture as play invites children outside into al fresco classrooms, where the cognitive impacts of screen-learning and limited social exchange are offest by engagement with a flexible, reconfigurable tectonic spaces. Children are invited to participate in the becoming of the classrooms, to use their hands, eyes, and ideas to take physical and intellectual ownership of the space through individual and group work. Given the wide variety of urban fabrics that exist within the Boston Public School District boundary, a prototype was developed which could be deployed across low, medium, and high density contexts. An analysis of all BPS schools which teach K-6 was conducted, and three sites were chosen as testing grounds for their archetypal nature: small, medium, and large buildable areas corresponding to urban, semi-urban, and suburban neighborhoods.
Axon, 1:500 Stagger (in plan and section) @ Warren Prescott School Bunker Hill Medium density Boston Public Schools
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50'-8" 12'-8"
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Axon, 1:500
12'-8"
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50'-8"
The structural system of the prototype consists of four perimeter vierendeel trusses supporting longspan glulam beams and cross-laminated timber panels. The CLT panels establish a 12’ x 12’ module within the project both in plan and section, this allows for a maximum flexibility of infill materials which are 4’ x 8’, a ubiquitous dimension within the construction industry. Each prototype is designed for 20 students and 1 teacher. The unit provides a bathoom (top right in plan), space for an elevator and services distribution (top left in plan), a mobile teaching tech wall (bottom center plan), three mobile storage / partition furniture units, three small group break out / specialized learning zones, and is universally accessible. All furniture, including student desks, are mobile on wheels. Furthermore, the enclosure of the prototype is itself flexible. The lower portions of the walls are broken down into manageable 4’x 4’ modules which can be mix and matched per the desires of the students: opaque panels for painting on, colored plastic for color play, and cork panels for pinning up.
Prototypical Plan, 1/8” = 1’ - 0”
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Axon, 1:500
Splay (horizontally / planimetrically) @ Donald McKay School K-8 East Boston Low density
Skylights of various shapes and colors couple with adjustable curtains to permit dynamic conditions of light, sounds, texture, movement, privacy and control
Interior rendering, looking towards the central community courtyard
Long-span glulam beams allow for a column-free flexible classroom space
The lower portion of the wall is broken down into 4’ x 4’ modules for mix and match play
Sand boxes and tree rings (above)
The 4’ x 4’ modules for mix and match play become the facade expression of the architecture
Water basins and sand box (above)
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Splay (horizontally / planimetrically) @ Donald McKay School K-8 East Boston Low density
Site Plan, 1:500 For the lowest density site, three learning units for classroom-based activities and one multi-purpose unit for meals and assemblies are arranged within a nine-square grid. Each prototype receives a dedicated outdoors space which offers planter boxes, trees, sand boxes, water basins, and space for running and play. The central courtyard is conceptualized as the community collective outdoor space, whereas the outdoor space dedicated to the multipurpose prototype becomes an entry court with safe but visually connected access to the street for drop-off and pick-up. In all cases, the proposals are adjacent to existing school to take advantage of the MEP utilities and pedagogical resources already available. The prototypes are shown in with four different
N^ furniture configurations to support lecturestyle learning, small group learning (clusters of four), large group learning (20 students in a circle), and meal time. All configurations adhere to the Covid-related spacing requirements of 6’0” between students during all activities. For future-use, it is expected that classroom will again densify to their normal levels, in which case the capacity of the prototypes would double from 20 to 40. In this case, exposed glulam beams and modular building components would permit for easy retrofitting and more permament space division. Furthermore, the structure is designed to easily accept more services through the core and waterproofing and insulation for long-term investments.
Stack (vertically / sectionally ) @ the Eliot Innovation School K-8 North End High density
At higher density sites, where land is scarce and student populations dense, the prototype can be stacked vertically due to the inherent structural capacityies of the vierendeel truss. Each protype is hoisted above its corresponding outdoor space and connects down to it via a large stair-as-theater built out of red-stained CLT panels. Ramps and elevators ensure accessibility, and two means of egress is maintained in case of emergency. Nets and railings provide safety and visual transparency, while curtain tracks surround the perimeter of each level to block wind and contain heat. Services are distributed vertically through the two vertical cores and branch horizontally per level as required. Future MEP services intended to be left
exposed against CLT finishes. Due to issues related to daylight and projector beam strength, large high-lux LCD screens can be fastened to mobile teaching walls for instruction purposes. The cores are pushed to the north to permit maximum daylight for students and plants from the east, south, and west throughout the day. As an exercise in post-carbon design, this project seeks to demonstrate the constructibility, beauty, and flexibility of wood as a renewable building material. As a porous material, it absorbs sound and controls moisture, yet the strength of its fibers permit spans similar to steel.
South facade
Looking @ southwest corner
Section , 1/8” = 1’-0”