Playcenter
A design for a elementary public school within a public park. A project about turning a roof into a field.
The space in which you learn should have everything to do with how and what you are learning. This project focused on three verbs: learn, play, socialize. Playcenter offers a new pedagogical approach to elementary education. Not only are instructors important to teaching, but the students are encouraged to teach and learn from one another.
The first floor of the building is where the playing and socializing occur. In two similar spaces, butted up against one another, the gymnasium and the lobby/lunchroom/heart of the building are joint, with only a single pane of glass separating. It is important that while some have lunch, students witness others playing in gym class. Classrooms are situated above, as education is always hovering above. Omnipresent, learning is what drives each activity within Playcenter. Because of its site, within a public park, and in order to give square footage back to the park, Playcenter's roof is a shelter from the interior and an artificially constructed landscape on the exterior. In section there is action on the ground floor, the second floor and the roof. Always movement, always learning.
Spring 2015
