With the implementation of new tools and styles of learning, the aging architecture of schools becomes disconnected from the students it tries to accommodate. Our project consists of a group of RISD and Classical High School students rethinking how they should use space on campus to enhance the collective learning experience. Our approach is to avoid the cycle that occurs when trying to design for the future and apply our skills to problems we can more immediately bring solutions to.
Classical High School was built during the 1950’s style of Brutalism, with rough concrete and large repetitive angular spaces. Throughout the school we encountered an overabundance of these large spaces being unused and unrelated to the scale of the student. We saw this as opportunity to transform these spaces into engaging environment that promotes learning and creativity.
We as the designers wanted to improve the school with the help of the people who utilizes this space the most. As a result, we created an afterschool program to learn what the students wanted in their learning environment. With the topics from our weekly discussion the students were fully involved in helping us design our goals for the school. Most importantly we arrived at solution together, which called upon the demonstration of creativity both the students and the designers had to offer.
Our team’s first project was to tackle the problem of traffic flow coming in and out of the hallway doors. Through tape art we created signage that was both functional and visually engaging. The results presented a playful awareness for our cause and became the start of our conversation with the school. After our first endeavor we discussed larger issues such as lack of community interaction, student space, and recycling. We embodied these three concerns with interactive furniture created out of reclaimed materials. Cardboard as our main material offered us the strength for functioning as an object for play or sitting as well as encouraged an act for more recycling. The cardboard also had the ability to wear with time, leaving a record of use and transforming its physical identity to reflect the students. The furniture not only provided a functional purpose to the space but also acted as a piece of flexible art, giving them an outlet to voice their opinions on the setup of their built environment.
Having been well received among the students of Classical high, the project was physical proof of how possible it was to empower students to become the solution to their problems. We propose to promote our project as a class that continues to teach students new ways in problem solving their immediate environment.
Our full documentation of the project is at http://learning.betterxdesign.org/
