THE CONCEPT

It is easiest to learn when you don’t realize you are learning at all.

The internet has created an interconnected world where information is not only at your fingertips, but the connective tissue that exists between all knowledge is laid bare. As a result, current educational needs cannot be met with the rote memorization of facts students already carry in their pockets. Still everyone needs practice with real life skills, such as maintaining emotional stability, the art of interacting with others, or what to do with this plethora of information. Skills that can be taught through the art of play.

Inside the city there is little place to run, to be oneself alone, or to find adventure away from cars, parents, or creeps.

This school, uniquely situated inside a park, has the ability to provide the children with a varied landscape designed to help support healthy minds, bodies, relationships, and imaginations. Preparing the students not only for work, but for finding joy in their lives as they become adults in this interconnected world.

The drawing to the left is meant to imagine a physical world that is as diverse and interconnected as our virtual world. Mixing the kinetic, cerebral, and digital seamlessly, carving space for students who crave both the quiet of a library and the chaos of tag.

The binary code bleeding onto the page speaks of the beginning of the world as depicted by the ancient texts of the Zohar. And the globe in the center represents both the universal shape of joy, and Froebel’s first Kindergarten gift which was used to represent all things.

THE STICKS

In elevation, moments of play are indicated by horizontal lines.

A quote from an imaginary alumnus:

“When I was kid I loved my school. I was born in NYC where I couldn’t run further than a block before my mother would start screaming for me to stop. In our tiny apartment my parents were never more than a room away and playgrounds were tiny, caged in squares surrounded by a million adult eyes.

But school was different. I remember when I first saw it from the hill above, it was a swirling mass of dots and circles, I’d never seen anything like it.

Once you entered the gates it was its own little world. There were these great big sticks that jutted from the ground and into the sky.

I would run my hands along them and catch glimpses through the gaps of other children.

Sometimes I would come across tiny doorways and I would run through them giggling.

My mom would try to follow me, but she was too large to easily fit.

It felt like a world built for me. “

THE PLAN

The school is located in a park next to a river, making it a unique location in NYC.

The circle, as a representation of joy, is repeated in plan to create both the underlying grid and the classrooms. In order to support a project based curriculum, each group of classrooms is linked to a community activity space or a unique site condition in order to create a project module.

THE BUILDINGS

At the scale of the child.

The buildings are predominately low in order to create a scale comfortable for small children. Geodesic domed greenhouses, inspired by famed kindergartner Buckminster Fuller, continue the circular theme, and create semi outdoor spaces for the children to learn in the winter. Bubble windows bow out from the sides of the buildings creating large views of the outdoors which support lower stress levels and increased focus.