The school challenges the steel barn structure as a static, permanent, and uniform infrastructure. Through the integration of additional wood systems at multiple scales, the use of the new material breaks the mold and envelope of a traditional steel barn and creates flexible customizable spaces. The adaptable wood systems also examine the building’s use in multiple scales of time: from daily, to seasonal, and to yearly. Due to ease of assembly and disassembly, the wooden flexible spaces can be altered and designed by the community on their own, fostering a sense of agency and ownership – thus, this method of design-build assembly and maintenance explores possibilities of adaptation of the system to cater to a broad range of uses by daily inhabitants over time, rather than demolishing and rebuilding. The building performs on its own as a piece of the program, which is the act of care and maintenance.
