open classroom brief

Project: Open Classroom

Format: A1/ A0
Medium: Line Drawings/ Rendering/ Photographs/ Model
Dates: Hand Out1: MO 12July,
Hand Out 2+Excursion: THU15July
Hand In 1/Crit: MO19July,
Concept Model: THU22July,
Design proposal 1:200: MO26 July,
Green Light Blog Upload1: THU29 July,
Design Development (Façade) 1:100: MO02Aug,
Green Light Blog Upload2: THU05 Aug,
Design Development/Crit: THU12, MO17Aug
Green Light Blog Upload3: THU20Aug
Hand In/ Pin Up: MO23Aug
Feedback: THU26Aug

One of the challenges facing the newly elected ANC government in 1994 was the scale and weight of the apartheid legacy…This history is a major point of departure for transformation in the field of education. New education policies have been set and implemented since 1994 with varying degrees of success, specifically in schools. The physical shape and spatial dynamics of school buildings can profoundly affect teaching, learning and the community; so new approaches to education have led to a revision of these physical structures.
Iain Low: Space and Transformation


…If only it were that simple. In the 1950s (in the Netherlands), schools were still just “schools”: classrooms along a corridor, with a gym and a teachers’ room, and a schoolyard where parents dropped of and picked up their children…The schools of the future, however, will be “community schools”: schools combined with before and after school care, a library, community centre, social services, healthcare and welfare agencies…places, where a community is formed, protected and accomodated.
Crimson Architectural Historians and Felix Rottenberg: Wimby! Hoogvliet Future, Past and Present of a New Town

The quality of education and access to it is without doubt one of the most important sectors of public services. The creation and construction of good schools is therefore an essential element of any restructuring process. The landscape of teaching and learning is changing –this project asks you to design a school building, that


a) is considered a true public building and has a certain degree of flexibility to accommodate various additional functions, thus is considered an investment in a neighbourhood’s attractiveness and quality of life
b) investigates in the design approach of the open classroom and can so adapt to changing educational viewpoints and keep up with changing sets of requirements
c) can be seen as a prototype for one of the following settings: City School, Suburb School, Campus School.


The specific sites are in Newtown, Yeoville and Zonkizizwe. The building is designated for 601-1000 learners. This is classified as large by the Department of Education. The National Minimal Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure as stipulated in the Government Gazette No. 31616 shall be applied in your design, as well as the considerations to New Approaches to School Buildings in South Africa by the Education and Community Buildings Group, CSIR. The documents are available as print out in a folder in the library and as pdf.


Work within the following layers to approach the project:

Concept -what is the idea for this project?
Context - where is it placed? How can the building contribute to the surrounding and vice versa?
Programme -how do school and community cooperate?
Form - how does it look? How is the form generated? Does the from have any influence on the context?
Façade - how is learning screened off?
Structure - does the structure allow the flexibility that is requested?
Material - what materials are used? Why?
Light - natural Light, sunlight, natural ventilation, light flow, concept
Circulation - internal and external circulation, vertical and horizontal circulation, access for whom, where, car and pedestrian access, take us on a walk through the campus!
Public/ Private - how does the building relate to the context, how does it meet the ground, is there a square, a street, are there inside and outside spaces? Day and night life? Point out thresholds.

Produce
Min 3 conceptual pictograms / models
Site plan 1:500
Design proposal plan, section, elevation 1:200
Model 1:200
Min 3 three dimensional representations
A typical learning space 1:50, plan, section, elevation, model
Typical detail: 1:5 – 1:1
Demonstrate process development

EVALUATION
Your work will be evaluated according to the following criteria
40% design concept and execution
20% creative translation research/ design
40% visual communication, completeness, representation, drawing quality, model quality
DP workshops to be announced.
STAFF
Kirsten Doermann, Thomas Moldovanos, Kylie Richards, GuyTrangoš,
Sergio Duarte, Kay Hausler
Consultation times: on appointment
Room 110, 1st floor, John Moffat Building, Tel: 011.7177632