The following school proposes to conditionally invite the public to engage with its students within a vertical prefab panel and CLT structure to create healthier relationships between the community and institution while questioning ideas of accessibility and informal affordance within public space.
A 3-Dimensional Public Core is established within the atrium through a series of hard and soft thresholds between the school hallway and public corridor to establish adjacencies between public school and public space that open and close depending on the time of the day and year, activity, and audience. Students can observe and be observed while learning, playing, and engaging with public space. The classroom unit’s spatial intimacy and frequency of use dictate the degree to which it is open to the public. Individual classrooms are given privacy but adjacent spaces offer public access beyond school hours, while areas such as the gym library and community cafeteria remain open. The Program (X) of the Playtrium is imagined as a vertical park that circulates the nonuniform atrium to allow as many opportunities for controlled engagement with the school.
The public will also have access to a roof play/ground and garden that seeps into the floors below to add another layer of private and public discourse.
