Design Students

Marlis asked me to talk to her design students about classroom design.  When she told me that she gave her students the project of designing a school space, it started to make more sense of why she wanted me to present to her students.  A little.  

Let's back up a bit.  Marlis is one of our dearest friends.  She was my wife's Maid of Honour and hosted our little wedding at her mom's cabin.  She was the mastermind when we renovated our kitchen.  I think it was then that I told her about the design experiments I was doing in my classroom.  

Fast forward 8 years. Marlis is a design instructor at a university and tasks her students with redesigning a school in an existing warehouse space. As an added layer of complexity, interest, and realism, each of the students was asked to design a school space with one of four specific schools in mind: Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Waldorf, and a school for the deaf.  

I still didn't understand how I could help her students when she asked me to talk her students about what I was doing, seeing as I teach in a regular public school. She explained that I offer a unique perspective as s classroom teacher who thinks about design and has been experimenting with spaces and furniture.  

So I put together a presentation that was mainly based on this blog.  The main themes were:

1. My design journey 

I talked about how I came to classroom design by accident.  

2. Classroom Design in service of self-regulation 

I talked about how my intention is for the space to say what I want it to say and to do what I want it to do, and not just make things look pretty.
            

3. Design as Learning

First, I talked about the different design challenges I have given my students in the past.  This was so that Marlis's students could see how design is part of the ADST curriculum even at younger grades.

Then I talked about how I gave my grade 2 and 3 students the same challenge that Marlis gave her students.  The difference was that  my young students had to fit our current school into the urban warehouse space that Marlis assigned to her students.  My teams had 3 design tasks: an individual classroom layout, a whole floor (showing how the classrooms were distributed, the hallways, bathrooms, etc.), and an indoor play space.  One of the biggest challenges for the warehouse space was there were pillars holding up the ceiling about every 5 metres.  My students used their creativity and some put in sliding doors to transform the spaces, or they mounted TV monitors on both sides of the pillars so everyone could see.  Below is an example of a whole floor plan.  

4. COVID considerations

Here, I talked about how the pandemic totally changed the way that my classroom looked and worked.  Instead of contact and togetherness, it was distance and building a safe community.   

5. Pros and Cons of my current building

My current site is the most beautiful school I've worked at, but there are always trade-offs.

6. Design Considerations of the 4 types of schools assigned

I've had a little exposure to each of the school models that Marlis assigned (Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio and school for the deaf). Based on my (limited) experience with these school, I tried to point out some things that her students might want to consider for each school.  

7. Some of my opinions of the assigned warehouse space

I loved the site that Marlis picked.  It was a big, open, repurposed warehouse and factory with lots of windows and high ceilings. Though there is no play or green space on site, there is a park across the street.  The wood pillars about every 5 metres were a challenge, but workable.  I also remarked about how the concrete floor and high ceilings could be uncomfortable and fatiguing based on the hardness and noise reflection (which I experienced when my classroom was a gym shared by 2 classes while we waited a few weeks for our portables to arrive).  

After I presented all this, Marlis facilitated a little dialogue between the students and me.  I could tell that they were already in the thick of their projects. I also had a chance to solicit some advice about some design issues in my school.  Though I was nervous and rushed through my presentation, I thought the overall experience of talking to Marlis's students was a good one.  

Epilogue

Later, Marlis sent me one of the designs that her student had put together for a Waldorf school.  It was excellent. It showed a detailed plan of how a Waldorf school could be envisioned in the assigned warehouse space. I though that the student designer had a real sense of the Waldorf philosophy and incorporated that into their design.  As a client, I would be happy that they “got” what Waldorf is trying to achieve.  I think they nailed the palette, tones, and feel: organic, natural, non-industrial, low tech,  etc.  The design put the atrium as the central hub of the school, around which the little village of learning spaces revolved.  I thought that would bring the community together literally and symbolically.  I was really impressed.