The Stagnated School

An argument for architectures renewed interest in education

Assuming that the schools goal is to prepare its students to enter the workforce, it has historically been quite successful. Its past efficacy reduced its need for change.

B+

Top-down

Uniformity

Metric Assessment

The Changing Job Market: 1950-2000

Other

Manufacturing

Service

The traditional school was successful because of its top-down nature and its focus on uniformity and metric assessment, which are reinforced by its architecture. The job market, historically based in agriculture and manufacturing, valued the skills that came from this type of education.

Job Market in 1950

Other Manufacturing

Percent of US population 25-29 years

Service

The job market has changed drastically in the last half century. Manufacturing jobs, which used to account for a third of US jobs, have dropped to around ten percent. This is attributed to increased automation and offshoring.

While there has been an increase in the number of jobs that require skilled labor, educational attainment has increased disproportionately in the US, resulting in an oversaturation of the skilled job market.
Increases in Educational Attainment: 1950-2005
100 90

Employment Rate: College graduates under age 25

80

70

60

22.4% Unemployed
High school degree or more

Job Market in 2002

50

40

30

Source: USA Today, U.S. manufacturing jobs fading away fast, 2002

20

22.0% Working; no degree required

Batchelors degree or more
1950 1960 1970

55.6% Working; degree required

10

Year

1980

1990

2000

Science and Technology Employment: 1950-2000

Conflicting Interests
Collective, Institution-focused Individual, Student-focused
Employees (in millions)

Source: The US Census Bureau, Current Population Survey and 1950 Census of the Population New York Times, Outlook is Bleak Even for Recent College Graduates, 2011

1950

1960

1970 Year

1980

1990

2000

Prioritize uniformity and metric assessment to secure state and federal funding

Prioritize overall student growth and learning to be successful entering the workforce

School Admin City Government

School Building

Students Parents

Teachers

The high tech industry has also had an impact. Not only has it played a larger role in the job market with its fast growth, but the evolution of the field itself is the fastest of any the world has seen. Our world is evolving at an unprecedented speed. There is a growing need to adapt, create, and innovate in order to keep up with or stay ahead of the curve. Uniformity and narrow definitions of success are obsolete in this new job market; creativity and innovation have taken their place.
Source: The US Science and Technology Workforce, Report for Congress, 6/30/2009

Over the last 50 years, a new job market has emerged. The traditional school model continues to teach towards the job market that existed then. Progressive education has recognized the growing importance of creative problem-solving and hands-on learning over rote memorization, and has developed radical pedagogies that embrace these methods. Education is most effective when pedagogy and school atmosphere are in alignment. Educators are doing their part to adapt: architecture must follow suit, or risk obsolescence in the area of education. Would it be so far fetched in our increasingly digital world to dispose of the school building altogether?

Over the last century, dramatic advances have been made in the fields of human development and pedagogical thinking. Yet, the school building stands stagnant.

Either school designers from over a century ago were incredibly forward-thinking, or weve got some serious catching up to do.

The centralized resource plan

The dumbbell plan

The spine plan

The courtyard plan

The classroomclustering plan

The courtyard with classroom clustering plan

Organizational Scale
Uniformity of organization: double-loaded corridor strategy, standard size of and relationships between program

Material and Human Scale

Materiality: Prescribed classroom materials with uniform performance: durable, washable, anti-septic, long-lasting, child-resistant Ergonomics: Adult furniture scaled down to a childs size. Differences in a childs movement and behavior are not addressed or accounted for.

Playground

School Building

Playground

Buffer

Interior Scale
Uniformity of classroom layout: lecture or group work format, defined front of room

Urban Relationship Scale

Parking as means of monastic isolation from the adjacent community; single entry and exit point with multiple access points from within for enclosed outdoor space.

An analysis of the conventional school model by scale

Traditional School Breakdown

School Precedents

Mark Horton, The Little School

A porous wall divides the open space and provides circulation that, due to its size, is accessible only to children. This design converts the typical double-loaded corridor into a solid, rather than the traditional void. Additionally, it takes into account the ergonomics, energy, and movement of children in a way that traditional schools neglect to.

The Loose fit

Material and Human

Bottom-Up Interventions Conceptual Antithesis

Programmatic Antithesis (Typologies)

Lebbeus Woods System Wein

Andy Goldsworthy Fall Leaves

Olafur Eliasson Your Blind Passenger

Playground

Arkitema, Hellerup Skole

Non-School Precedents

Organization

The Hellerup Skole is one of the few successful examples of an open plan school. It finds its success through pedagogical alignment, coupled with the differentiation of spaces. A variety of specific environments are created that are more or less conducive to certain activities, rather than a uniform environment through the space.

Interior The Great Mosque of Cordoba

Michael Townsend One Kinsley Avenue

Adventure Playgrounds

Museum

The Public School

MVRDV Villa VPRO

Urban Relationship

Stephane Malka Self Defense

H. Roy Kelley RAND Corporation

Mall

The Public School looks at the concept of the city as a school. There is a fluid relationship between teachers and students based on interest and expertise. Anyone can teach, and anyone can come to learn. Classes take place around the city, taking full advantage of the city as a laboratory.

Bernard Tschumi Parc de la Villette

The Imagine Bus Project

LeCorbusier Venice Hospital

Urban Transit Network

Precedent Analysis
Positioning intent with regard to the existing and theoretical

A look at alternative strategies, both within the school and without

Situating the Major Players

Home schooling Potteries Thinkbelt

Formal Education Traditional School

Waldorf School

Montessori Hertzberger Waldorf Nature Schools

Cedric Price Potteries Thinkbelt

Distributed control, undefined

Top-down, defined

High School for Recording Arts

High School for Recording Arts Bright Works

Brightworks: An Extraordinary School

The Public School Ideas Circus Danfoss Universe Museums, Galleries, Exploratoria Informal Learning Unschooling

Danfoss Universe Exploratorium

Archigram Ideas Circus

Thickened Poche

A mat-building experiment that interlocks top-down and kid-only landscapes

Process Diagram: Thickening the Poche

Floorplan: The Little School

Abstracted Little School floorplan Black is poche. Yellow is occupiable by children only. Green and blue are programmed areas.

Poche is thickened

Poche is stretched further, creating a void within itself. Kid-only access is maintained. Red becomes kid-only space.

Design intent: enabling beyond the Field Condition

Utility of program space Classroom utility must remain intact. Circulation and sound containment play a significant role, as well as maintaining typical classroom dimensions and qualities, like a designated front of the room. Mat-building Like Corbusiers Venice Hospital or MVRDVs Villa VPRO, this building type allows for adaptable interiors and blurred boundary conditions, along with a non-iconic form. Implying programmed space Traditional program footprints are legible without full enclosure. Overlapping footprints make boundaries within this landscape ambiguous, and the poche landscape yields a diversity of spaces.

Enfilade Flowing space with no corridors, direct connections open between rooms

Endless storage Site visits to progressive schools revealed storage to be seriously lacking, with alternate measures taken to compensate.

Inverting the typical relationship of child reliance With much of the storage space located inside of the poche, roles are reversed in that adults are positioned to ask the kids to put away and access class materials.

Inerlocking continuous landscapes At ground level sits the topdown, programmed landscape. Around and above is the kid-accessed, more loosely defined landscape.

Safe outdoor space The site is flanked by Oak and Fell, two streets with heavy vehicular traffic. Separation between children and traffic is a must.

Defining the Field in support of design intent

Possible program combinations: Degree of overlap:

Degree of alignment:

Orientation:

Orientation for sun:

N W E S W S N E S W S E N E

Guiding circulation with alignment:

Overlap + alignment combos:

Grain in 1 direction, optimal for sun (small program)

Perpendicular grain

2 different grains

2 different grains with perpendicular variation

Multi-directional
W

Circulation:
Direct Defined, stright Thick straight Angled, narrow

Directing circulation through overlap:

Angled, thick

Funneled

Pinched

Bulging

Corner

Undirected

Directed

Kate Ganim | Thesis Review | Spring 2012 | Latent Politics | Brian Price

Site Plan: Program blocks, entry points, and orientation

Fell Key Small program, 800 sf Medium program, 1,500 sf Large program, 5,000 sf Front of room (non-porous wall) Entry point Baker Poche Occupiable poche Ground (adult) circulation Above (kid) circulation

Panhandle Oak

Poche thicknesses and Circulation

Directedness of circulation at ground level, Top-down, adult controlled space

Circulation at elevated level connecting occupiable poche, Distributed control, kid-occupied space

Layering of dual landscapes

Interlocking landscapes and sectional shifts

10

20 15

Broderick