The team that designed PUBLIC / SCHOOL / GROUNDS took a deep dive into the history of classrooms. César Lopez of University of Virginia, Jess Myers of Syracuse University, Amelyn Ng of Columbia University, and Germán Pallares-Avitia of Rhode Island School of Design found that since the days of the little red schoolhouse these spaces have typically been teacher-centered, with students sitting in rows facing the front. Some children in the back can’t see the board or hear the teacher, while others are distracted by glare on the windows. Around them are boundaries and barriers, most notably the walls that separate students from the corridor, other classrooms, and the outside.

“We envisioned treating our project like a new prototype for a classroom that would embody different forms and types of spaces, textures, and sensory experiences that would bolster creativity and allow more variation in the types of spaces young learners excel in,” said Lopez. “Most classrooms offer a one-size-fits-all solution.”

In a workshop during last year’s symposium, the team asked students at Central Middle School (their community partner) to trace one another in comfortable positions.

They also sketched children in different poses while they were at play at CSA Lincoln Elementary School. Another step was to ask them what they would do if they weren’t at a desk, on a chair, and inside a building. 

The team extended the lines and boundaries of the indoor classroom outside as a way to “break the box.” They put the geometries of what they had learned into undulating boundaries that would push in and out as well as create new ways to occupy the classroom by way of different nooks and crannies.

For form and elevation, they looked to the rooflines of local schools—including Richards Elementary, whose sawtooth design had already been mimicked by the students’ reposes, and the arches at Parkside Elementary. 

“The schools here are beautiful and amazing,” Lopez said. “But the classrooms lack the innovation of the exteriors. How could we bring those formal materials and sensory qualities into the interior of the classroom?” 

The reading the group did in preparing their project revealed that some educational theorists believe it is unnatural to have cells of children of the same age learning the same thing at the same time. They say the bigger benefits emerge when you integrate multigenerational communities. To that end, the team imagined scales of learning—one, three or four or much larger clusters—and multiple ages at the same time. 

The result is a grouping of plywood “platforms” in primary colors—areas for learning and play that enliven the senses and make for more efficient learning. These were clad with surface objects from the classrooms, such as custom pegboards and cork, all carefully researched by Ng. For softer surfaces they chose tufting.

“Tufting not only brings softer surfaces to touch, but it also provides spaces of mapping the areas and zones we are talking about,” said Pallares-Avitia. “And the fibers intermingle so there is no actual border, no actual line.”

Sound is also a critical component. Myers visited the schools to record the clamor of play, the chaotic socializing conversations during a passing period, class bells and recess whistles. Speakers that play this comingling of voices are mounted inside the platforms, each one dedicated to a particular type—the sounds of the middle school, the sounds of the elementary school and the natural environment—trains, parents dropping off kids at school and the like. 

The team created a curriculum and list of sensory-based activities based on additional workshops and input from teachers and students at Central Middle School.

“We’ve envisioned how they will use this space, but we’re curious about how they are going to do it,” Lopez said. “They are going to see the spaces through a whole other lens. We’re authoring the design and the space and the materials and the sensory experience; ultimately it’s up to the students to leverage how this will fit.”

“We’ve left a lot of ambiguity in the form and the materials,” he said. “The community is going to fill in that last bit of Yes And for us.”