The ongoing pandemic has been a disruption to the everyday routines of billions around the world, as due to being confined to their households, the separation between work and rest has become extremely blurry, with people forced to rethink and reconfigure the layout of their personal spaces. Conversations have abounded on how to create flexible working spaces in a home environment, and if offices themselves are an outdated model that we should leave behind. A missing part of that conversation, however, is the impact that the pandemic has had on children, specifically primary-school level children, on their education - as inequalities are emphasized, some children learning with slow internet connection speeds, or struggling to have the space required to adequately complete educational activities.
Courtesy of Valentino Gareri Architectural Atelier
Valentino Gareri has proposed a sustainable and modular educational building for the new post COVID-19 era. Entitled Tree-House School, the project reinforces the relationship with nature, with connected outdoor and indoor spaces.
Upon winning the contract to design the new State Fire Brigade School in Wurzburg, gmp Architekten recently presented their design which involves a new practice hall on the site of the Fire Brigade School in order to meet the changed requirements of the training program. The site is in a very exposed location so that the new practice hall building will be visible from afar, and will clearly mark the position of the State Fire Brigade School within the Zellerau neighborhood. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Jestico + Whiles’ design for the new £61m National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester has recently been granted planning consent. The new facility will be designed with the goal to be the world-leading research and incubator center dedicated to the development of graphene, helping the UK to remain at the forefront of the commercialization of this revolutionary material. The project will be housed within a compact 7,600m2 five-storey building, with the main cleanroom located on the lower ground floor to achieve best vibration performance.More images and architects’ description after the break.
Awarded the second prize in the recent Ramat Efal Education Campus Competition, the ‘Fields of Knowledge’ proposal by ShaGa Studio + Auerbach Halevy Architects/Ori Rittenberg(Rotem) integrates a series of linear ‘knowledge fields’ into a rich and varied learning experience, weaving together exteriors and interiors, the public and the community. Evoking the memories of old agriculture fields in Ramat Efal, their design criticizes an existing plan that splits the campus into three divided plots and suggests instead an integration of both school & public programs within an overall ‘field condition’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The formal strategy in the design for the Innovative Bioclimatic European School by Atelier3AM, which won the third prize in the international competition, is based on the strong contrast of materials, and propelled by the duality of opaque/transparent. Inspired by the courtyard typology, their design creates a cluster of three separate courtyard buildings defining each educational unit, and connected by a central square. This objective was confronted by the physical site constraints, as well as by opportunities presented by sensible solar orientation and the channeling of the predominant winds. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by architecture students, Ian M. Ellis and Frances Peterson, their proposal for the North Brother Island School for Autistic Children in New York City aims to provide a necessary resource for the Bronx, which is heavily underserved in terms of school for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The project is also designed with the intention that it will dissolve the negative stigma of the island, stabilize its naturalized growth as habitat for the birds, and introduce research and education programs to provide a cutting edge learning environment for the public, parents, and children. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by NPC Grupo Arquitetura, their design for the Escola Senai is designed with the theme of an industrial technical school. Their concept has characteristics that associate concerns with the teaching program and industrial activities, which, while conflicting, complement each other. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by AREA (Architecture Research Athens), their proposal, ‘Mosaic’, for the Innovative, Bioclimatic, European School Complex in Crete, springs from the belief that a diverse and stimulating educational environment, rich in experiences, provides the best context for mutual learning. Conceived as an organic whole, the Mosaic complex appears as a grid of multiple, interlocking “pavilions”, each with its own, unique architectural character, all of which are arranged within an orderly and seamless Master Plan. More images and architects’ description after the break.
In Bangladesh, where rising sea levels are having profound effects on the landscape, one nonprofit organization called Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha run by architect Mohammed Rezwan is fighting back by adapting, a true quality of resilience. Rising water levels and the tumultuous climate is displacing people by the thousands; a projected 20% of Bangladesh is expected to be covered in water within twenty years. For a country that is one of the densest populated state on the planet, this figure has disastrous consequences for a population that has limited access to fresh water, food, and medicine. In response to these conditions, Shidhulai has focused on providing education, training and care against the odds of climate change by adapting to the altered landscape: moving schools and community centers onto the water – on boats.
Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture (KKA) shared with us their winning proposal for Nya Kollaskolan, which is expected to be the largest passive-house school in Sweden, as well as one of the largest passive house buildings in the country. A centerpiece in the new Kollastaden area in the center of Kungsbacka, the school will supplement the existing school, built in 2000, and host around 360 students and 75 employees. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by J. Mayer H. Architects, the new, modern college seminar building for FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management University of Applied Sciences gGmbH will include approximately 1,400 student seats, office units, underground parking and a spacious, green campus. The innovative building also features an extraordinary exterior façade with curved cantilevered balconies. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in Valdespartera Ecocity, a newly built neighborhood located in the residential expansion south of Zaragoza, the design for the Kindergarten by Magen Arquitectos is characterized by its strong expression of horizontality. The definition of the platform floor and the importance and extent of the roof form a broad continuous porch into the yard, supported structurally in tension with cantilevered decks at the top.When projected to the outside by the porch continuum becomes more intense the horizontal relationship with the outside center. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Aimed at being a city for kids, the Prinsessegade Kindergarten and Youth Club Winning Proposal by COBE + NORD Architects, in collaboration with PK3 and Grontmij, will be the largest daycare center in all of Denmark. It also presents a big challenge – how to avoid creating a daycare factory when building an institution for so many users. Their design is not just one huge building, but rather a cluster of many small and varied buildings, grouped around two central streets that connect to the surrounding city structure. Like Copenhagen, it has different neighborhoods, different houses, different public spaces, squares and parks. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Loisos + Ubbelohde just received the highest award at the 2012 Architecture at Zero competition for their proposal, ‘Silver Streak’. The contest, sponsored by PG&E and AIA San Francisco, was conceived as a response to the lofty zero net energy targets set out by the California Public Utility Commission. As the recipient of one of two honor awards, their design for the University of California, Merced campus features an administration building that acts as both a threshold to campus and an energy field in the large plane of the agricultural valley. More images and architects’ description after the break.
WRNS Studio and Rudolph and Sletten, Inc., recently won a design/build competition for a new faculty office building at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus, which takes cues from the workplaces of high-tech companies. When completed, the 7-story academic office building will house UCSF physicians, faculty, and students in an interdisciplinary, flexible, light-filled environment. Drawing on the principles of the activity-based workplace, the design gives each occupant a “home base” workstation, but also a variety of other spaces for specific work and social activities, ranging from huddle rooms and breakout areas to conference rooms. More images and architects’ description after the break.
To celebrate the start of a seven-month land use review process, Cornell has released preliminary renderings of the first academic building planned for Cornell Tech – the new world-class technology and entrepreneurship campus in New York City that was masterplanned by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM).
The modern campus strives to rethink academic workspace, prioritize environmental performance, and exploit the unique urban condition of Roosevelt Island. In May, Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne, founder of Morphosis, was appointed as architect of the first landmark building, which will set the stage for the carbon positive campus.
