RELOCATABLE CLASSROOM DESIGN (MODULAR)
Charleston Development Academy is a public charter school in urban Charleston, South Carolina, currently completing its fifth school year. The school is located in the midst of the City of Charleston’s largest Public Housing Community, Gadsden Green. This inner city neighborhood is on the fringe of Harmon Field and provides a platform for the school to reach out to neighbors and get parents involved in their children’s accomplishments.
The school houses children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Each grade level consists of 12-18 students, with each grade having just one classroom. This classroom is used for every function of the day, from curriculum, to eating meals, to studying music, to rainy day recess. There is no cafeteria; there is no gymnasium; there is no library; and there is no music, art, or lab room. However, faculty and students do not see this as a hindrance, but rather another challenge to embrace. The school’s philosophy: “Failure is not an option.”
With CDA, we have designed a room that can house all the functions of the day -- a TRANSFORMABLE classroom.
The only possible space for this classroom is the school’s garden, which currently engages not just students but other children in the housing complex. Our relocatable classroom design integrates these garden spaces and indeed becomes a framework for the garden itself - creating a symbiotic relationship that uses roof-harvested rainwater, climbing plants to screen west-facing windows, and architectural planters. The overall site also includes a shared community playground and nursery yard; the classroom addresses these public spaces and connects to them with a porch/performance space. The visual and performing arts are a large part of the curriculum at CDA, and the students thrive on opportunities for expression.
Students and faculty at CDA and the project design team were able to collaborate on many different levels. The design team shared in impromptu lesson in basic design principles through models and sketches of other projects. We then went through a brainstorming exercise that demonstrated every idea is valid in the design process, and that all can contribute. On our next visit to the school, we set up our lesson outside in the garden, creating a makeshift space near the proposed site of our modular classroom. After sharing the floor plans of their school and doing a lesson in scale, we had the CDA students act as the architect and draw their ideal classroom. They then worked in pairs and groups to build models of their ideas. Materials provided to the students included shoeboxes, rocks, pipe cleaners, recycled Styrofoam, tinfoil, and found objects. The final task for these young designers was to present the models to their peers, taking turns sharing ideas and discussing the spaces they had created.
The primary lesson we took away from these sessions was the need for adaptability and the ways learning opportunities can be integrated in the design. Our relocatable classroom is modular at the building scale, and certainly at the site scale, in order to be aggregated into a complete campus. However, it also goes further and becomes modular at the scale of components – a customizable array of transformable classroom building blocks. One component incorporates a compost bin that swings open and then empties to the outside. Another is a tackable display surface that opens to reveal double bookshelf storage. Pull out drawers conceal storage behind pin up boards. A continuous magnetic strip is both a cover for HVAC and an easy way to create displays.
The building modules are within the shipping limits of 12’x12’x40’. Two 12’x36’ base modules that are open to the top are crossed by 12’x24’ roof modules open to the bottom, stitching together the classroom to form a stronger structure. This also maximizes the efficiency of a single-slope roof structure spanning the double-wide base module, and allows a ceiling that slopes up to 14’ high without requiring special transportation accommodations. High clerestory windows flood the classroom with natural light, which allows maximum wall space to be given to storage and display. View windows are easily incorporated in the layout of the customized component design.
Additional modules are optional to expand the classroom further – our design for CDA shows the inclusion of a bathroom unit; a similar size module (or two or three) could provide storage, a reading nook, a teacher work area, or expanded classroom area.
Splices between building modules are carefully detailed for water tightness, installation accessibility, and architectural articulation. Specific sizing for straps and bolted connections could vary with local wind loads. The modules ship to the site with interior bracing that then becomes a part of the deck, ramp, and planter assembly (to minimize waste.)
Another area of careful examination was the building foundations. To be truly relocatable, we wanted a solution outside of pouring continuous footings; yet, we have poor soils and high wind loads to accommodate. A system of precast “grade beams” with interlocking secondary beams that tie the system together and allows for on-site leveling and adjustment is the foundation system; the building modules then arrive on site and lock into place. The type and size of connections can be engineered to local code requirements, and depending on soil conditions it could be adapted to include piers or deeper wall footings.
The floor and wall systems of the building modules are stud framed, with staggered wall studs allowing continuous recycled newspaper cellulose insulation. A rainscreen assembly for the cementitious wall panels is appropriate for the local hot-humid climate with high wind-driven rain loads. West-facing glazing is screened by a vegetative wall, which also reduces heat gain to the building. Structural agri-board roof panels offer an R-25 rating with natural and recycled materials, enclosed by a cool white metal roof. A fully sealed building with a highly reflective roof is the most effective strategy for energy use reduction in our climate. Interior materials are low-VOC, natural, and recycled, with cork/rubber flooring, wheatboard millwork panels, and fiber-based countertops. Direct/indirect lighting helps reduce glare. Acoustic ceiling panels help address reverberation time concerns.
With the benefits of large-scale production, these elements from the component scale - to the building module scale - to the campus scale can be customized to meet needs as unique as those of Charleston Development Academy or as broad as those of a large school district. Solar and wind energy could be harvested and used when the budget allows. While modular and relocatable, the architecture provides dignity, a healthy learning environment, sustainable building practices, and the ability to plug into an existing community.
This is transFORMation.
