TLTF12 Building Innovative Learning Spaces

Editor's Notes

• #22: Google sketch up
• #34: Excellence will be provided through Experience, Excellence will be provided through design, Excellence will be provided through Vision…. And perhaps most of all, it will be provided through Teamwork.
• #35: Excellence will be provided through Experience, Excellence will be provided through design, Excellence will be provided through Vision…. And perhaps most of all, it will be provided through Teamwork.
• #36: Excellence will be provided through Experience, Excellence will be provided through design, Excellence will be provided through Vision…. And perhaps most of all, it will be provided through Teamwork.
• #37: Excellence will be provided through Experience, Excellence will be provided through design, Excellence will be provided through Vision…. And perhaps most of all, it will be provided through Teamwork.
• #42: An extension of a typical Slovenian prefab kindergarten from the ’80s, the colorful, interactive design is a response to the school’s lack of play equipment. The addition’s three exterior walls are made of “toy slats”: natural wooden planks that the kids can play with to “get to know different colors, experience wood as a natural material and constantly change the appearance of their kindergarten, all at the same time.”
• #45: A catalyst for the development of an up-and-coming community, the bold learning complex houses a pre-school, an elementary school, and a rec center. Circulation is through a series of interior courtyards, allowing children to get fresh air between classes and to have a pleasant — albeit brief — experience of the outdoors during an otherwise enclosed school day.
• #48: Built around an expansive courtyard, this whimsical day-nursery sits in an eclectic Parisian neighborhood next to an intrusive 12-story building. Keeping the size of its Lilliputian inhabitants in mind, the scale of the project is intentionally small, and the design focuses on protection, both from the encroaching building next door and the city in general. The French architects described this elegant, cheerful school by stating that “the goal is to propose for this tiny program a frame of living that generates as much an emotion with the future occupants (children, parents, staff) than the local residents.” A win-win situation for the kids and the community.
• #50: The Timayui preschool is made up of flexible modules surrounding a courtyard like the petals of a flower, creating playgrounds, outdoor classrooms, gardens, and orchards. Not only does the school provide a healthy, inspiring environment for the children, but it also strives to ameliorate the surrounding impoverished community. Hoping to lead by example, the innovative, open-source project was designed to be easily replicated.
• #53: The focal point of this Japanese nursery school is what the architects are calling a House of Light, conical light-wells “of different shapes, different colors and facing different directions, changing with the time and the seasons.” The kids are invited to notice the change in light during the year and to play and chase the lights as they move across the walls of the room. Poetic and brilliant.
• #54: The striking simplicity of this project stands out and reminds us of a quote by the great American columnist Billy Vaughn , famous for his folksy aphorisms: “A three-year-old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a 56-dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm.” Surely a child would find great pleasure and inspiration in this blank green canvas of a space.
• #57: Japan and the designer uses a play on light
• #58: We have to give this project points for commendable creativity. Designed as a body cell, the nursery sits at the center as the “nucleus.” Cytoplasm is represented by the surrounding gardens, and the exterior wall is akin to the membrane. The pre-K kids might be too young to fully appreciate the reference, but if a little cellular biology seeps in by osmosis, then we give the architects a giant gold star.
• #61: This Danish equivalent of a high school is definitely where we most wish we’d spent our formative teen years. The progressive, media-oriented design was inspired by a philosophy that favors “open study environments” instead of traditional classrooms. Sprawling on a giant beanbag in a floating circular loft space while debating the future of Square in the world of retail? Yes, please.
• #62: Marcel Sembat High School by archi5 with B. Huidobro — Sotteville lès Rouen, France If there’s a way to help the chronically disinterested and unaware youth of the world think twice about issues of sustainability, surely this is the way. Waking up every day to attend school in one of the most beautiful green-roofed structures in the world should be every child’s right.
• #64: Diamond Ranch High School by Morphosis — Pomona, California
• #65: Central Los Angeles Area High School #9 for the Visual and Performing Arts by Coop Himmelblau — Los Angeles, California Located just off the Hollywood freeway, this public arts school in the heart of downtown Los Angeles is known for — according to the Los Angeles Times — its stunning cone-shaped library, a soaring lobby opening onto Grand Avenue, a 140-foot tower rising above a 950-seat theater, and giant, circular windows. Granted, all this grandeur comes with a hefty price tag that’s spawned an ongoing debate over a campus that “flaunts a district’s-worth of design at one site.”
• #67: Cambodia Perhaps not as grand as some of the other designs we’ve featured, this rural Cambodian school’s brilliance lies in the thought and careful consideration of the non-Western culture. Designed by Finnish architecture firm Rudanko + Kankkunen and built by members of the local community from hand-dried blocks of soil, the training center teaches local, underprivileged families to earn their own living in a colorful, inspiring space unlike any in the impoverished region.
• #69: Chromatic Play by Juana Canet Arquitectos — Mallorca, Spain
• #71: School Barvaux-Condroz by LR Architects — Barvaux-Condroz, Belgium