Educational architecture proposal in Louňovice, Czech Republic.
Lakes, beech and oak forests, and some birches, lime trees and aspens. Around 1100 people live in Louňovice, in the region of Central Bohemia, east of Prague. One or two floor houses, often built in stone, and a natural reserve, a beech forest protected since 1955, give character to this place. In this rural context, where nature is very present, an architectural competition asks for proposals for a new school attended by children and adolescents from five towns in the area.
The new building is located on a plot next to the road that connects with Prague, and south of a forest. AGi architects’ proposal starts from the premise of landscape integration. It also addresses the difficulty of organizing a large program. The other fundamental aspect that the educational architecture project draws from, is that of the possibilities of architecture to create 21st century learning environments.
View of the north facade, from the road. Find more images and drawings on our website.
So, in order to address the environmental impact, the proposal for the new Losbates school, occupying only 40% of the plot, is organized in a rectangular pattern that dissolves in the south façade. This configures a broken volume that incorporates a scale similar to that of Louňovice houses. The school breaks into smaller units that, to the southeast, connect to a exterior topography that goes down. This terraced public space serves as an exit to the upper floors of the building. Through this fragmentation, there is a visual connection between the new building and the small ones that characterize the environment.
Nature is integrated through different patios, with the ambition that the forest grows inside. A green roof unifies the volume with the environment connecting the surrounding landscape with it.
«Cultures of Thinking (CoT) not only occur in such places as classrooms and schools, but can occur anywhere a group of people come together, where thinking is valued and respected; it’s visible and actively promoted».
Ron Ritchhart, Cultures of Thinking.
On the other hand, this educational architecture proposal addresses new learning theories, which move away from traditional education, expanding the systems of knowledge transmission. The project understands the design of learning environments as part of the innovations that a new approach to education must propose. One of the issues to be addressed, in this sense, is the creation of spaces that allow different ways of sharing.
Thus, we can think of a series of spatial typologies of educational architecture that coincide with learning formats.
These approaches are transferred to the building. Access is through the north, between courtyards. The Wood Gate allows entering the school through a large atrium. This great atrium, planned as a public crack or fissure that connects all the programs of the building, generates an experience of relief and encounter for the entire educational community. Linked to the atrium, preparatory and primary school, the auditorium, the sports facilities and the cafeteria appear on the ground floor. First floor is dedicated to primary school; and second floor to secondary school and the art school.
New learning ideas materialize in specific spaces. On the ground floor, the traditional teaching spaces, the classrooms, are oriented to the south, are flexible and are grouped in clusters of two or three. Some transition spaces are located between the classrooms and the atrium, as a intermediate area or meeting place. In these inbetween spaces, informal educational can be exchanged between students and students and teachers. In addition, a space furnished in a flexible way, the Plaza, is proposed for group work: thinking critically, creatively, collaborating and communicating.
Interior view of the atrium.
Another environment specifically designed in relation to the educational architecture trends of the 21st century is the Cave, which on the ground floor is configured as a geometrically surprising and cozy space to favor reflection and concentration. On the other hand, the classes are expanded to the outside, where children have the option of growing small orchards. These external environments favor an applied, workshop knowledge, just like that produced in the laboratories and workshops located on the first floor.
If that great crack, atrium, agora, is the main element in the inside, to the outside, an opposite form is identified as the iconic element of the proposal. It is the Mountain. It is terraced and open to the community and breaks up the volume of the building relating towards the inhabited area of Louňovice.
View of the terraced outdoor space, ‘the Mountain’.
Located in a rural environment and delimited by two very different urban conditions, the forest and the village, the building is a structure that dissolves to the south. It opens to the sun and gets covered by a green carpet that minimizes the environmental impact. The design of the different spaces responds to the fundamental questions brought about by innovations in 21st century education, where the school community is understood from a collaborative point of view.
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