MONTESSORI SCHOOL

Critic: Anastasia Congdon Fall 2018

This project aims to situate an elementary school on a site in Columbus just north of the university's campus. This site is a ravine and a ledge, with the ledge sitting between the ravine and one of Columbus' busiest streets. This particular elementary school is designed as a Montessori model, a teaching style that treats the teacher as collaborator and a coach to a students self-motivated education.

Drawing from the Apollo Schools built by Herman Hertzberger, the formal strategy of this project uses the Roman palazzo typology, introducing light, and reducing corridorization. These courtyard modules chain together to produce a mat building. The same system that produces planometric organization allows for sectional shears, enabling the mat to respond to the sites grade.

Each module is tuned for a particular subject. Students will spend the first half of their day in one module, break for lunch and recess, and spend the latter half of their day in another module space. Twice a week, students will venture out to the forest module, a folly in the landscape dedicated to dance and art. This folly is gazed upon from the school, and gazes upon the school, centralizing the ravine landscape.

A cluster of four 7x7ft. units is defined as being a "classroom unit". These are spaces for pausing, and group learning. 7x7 was decided upon for being a minimum threshold for space making, based on the kids' size.

A 7x28ft attachment is the circulation component. The width can be halfed for minor circulation paths. Major circulation paths are coded in hard wood, and use the grain of the slats to code directional relationships.

The combination of circulation and pause produce the basic unit for interior aggregation. Any unused portion of the circulation can be used to increase the scale of surrounding classrooms.

Circulation locks together around an interstitial space that is left to produce a courtyard, or in the case of larger programs requiring more interior space, this space appears on the roof as a sun cannon.

Each basic pause/circulation unit has the freedom to move sectionally. The exercises spatial segregations via raumplan, reducing wall use and increasing voyeurism.

Interior collage showing the scale of the smallest aggregate unit. (7x7ft)

As these units shear in section, they produce wall gaps, enabling more opportunities for light to enter the interior space.

Lastly, the smallest scale returns, appearing on the perimeter of the modules. These units are used to produce intimate space, and connect modules.