Intersecting Nature and Education

The curvature form of our school and the way we curate openings in them allows us to bias certain views and directions.

  • While Rammed Earth walls serve as great thermal sinks and can deflect wind in colder seasons, their materialistic opportunity to curve creates a strong guiding form that can effectively move people throughout the site. Moreover, our walls' varying thickness allows many programs to live within a space. These walls filled with usable space complement the surrounding program.

  • The curvature form of our school and the way we curate openings in them allows us to bias certain views and directions. Some openings are angled either towards South to catch sun or towards green spaces where students can access.

  • The school has a set of three open green spaces. The first one acts as a noise and visual buffer and resides between the school building and the very busy and noisy Fifth Avenue. This area is open to the public and covered. The second and third green spaces are courtyards with direct access to classrooms. Outdoor learning opportunities are a way to engage students with nature and climate physically.

  • While our sloped roofs pitched towards South perform well to catch sun and direct rain towards central collection systems or rain gardens, they are a bold physical and visual reminder of the school’s identity.n

Abstract Form Finding - The Field Condition

Before jumping into the design of a building, this exercise aims to hear and understand the precedent in its most primitive state.

Introduction to the Site - East Liberty, Pittsburgh

Located in an Urban-Industrial zone in East Liberty, Pittsburgh, our site lies adjacent to two small university buildings. Nearby is a busy street, resident neighborhood, and newly constructed commercial district. We looked at how site factors acted on the site, potentially influencing our choices.

Prototypes and Sketches - Concepts

A conversation between the physical analytical forces of the site and ideal student experiences, looking to see how one could respond to influence the other. With the newfound set of form and data, we pushed our architecture to curate immersive opportunities for middle school students to engage with nature, sustainability, and climate not only in a classroom setting, but more importantly, through the careful design of the tactile, visual, and auditory experiences.

  • The project has two main ways of catching light. The first method has openings staggered along the exterior facing south, almost like staggered teeth. The second way is to pitch the south-facing corner of every roof to draw light in during winter while casting shade in the summer.

  • Noticing that the wind comes primarily from the South and South West regardless of the season, we decided to keep the Southern opening open to allow for passive cooling in the warmer seasons. To manage in the winter, we employed a wind gate designed to open and close depending on the season.

  • With high precipitation levels in Pittsburgh, the project has effective channels of gutters running across the sloped roofs that guide the water toward harvest tanks or rain gardens.

  • This material acts as a thermal sink and provides passive heating in the colder seasons. The roofs and openings emphasize direct light access to the Rammed Earth mass, which can then be heated.

Model Iterative Thinking - Final Design

Physical models allow designers to fully engage with architecture and its scale. The pro immersive opportunities for middle school students to engage with nature, sustainability, and climate not only in a classroom setting, but more importantly, through the careful design of the tactile, visual, and auditory experiences. The culmination of this studio’s work doesn’t end with one final model but with the long process of re-thinking, re-drawing, and re-making.

Duration

Fall 2024

Role

Building Performance, Safety, Code, Structural Design

Tools

As a pair, we used rigorous model-making as a way of thinking, experiencing, and finding forms. Starting with our field model and its matrix of components, we extracted the most promising forms, trying to see our ecological middle school program within them. From there, we analyzed the influence of site forces like climate and the neighboring actor-network to see how our design could respond to that. 

The project curates immersive opportunities for middle school students to engage with nature, sustainability, and climate not only in a classroom setting, but more importantly, through the careful design of the tactile, visual, and auditory experiences.

Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, VRay, Keyshot