Transcript

Designing the World in a School | Donald Schmitt | TEDxYouth@UTS

[Applause] let's talk about education and spaces for education and transformation the transformational possibilities of those spaces in 1962 a Dutch architect named Aldo Van Eyck was working on the design of a kindergarten and orphanage and he thought about it as a house and I think he's had a very profound thing he said for a house to be real it should be like a small city but also for a city to be real it should be like a large house can we think of a school where we come to learn in those kind of broad terms can we think of a school as the world can we create the world in a school and at the same time can that mean that this the world which we know is our school can we connect those two let's let's begin by thinking in that context of scale of the world and scale of the school and the reciprocity of the two by thinking about what characteristics do we really think of a great school environment can have it needs to be active engaging interactive it needs to be collaborative it needs to be an integrated place at the same time we're thinking of all of us as students in that school learning and knowledge and how do we access that knowledge we access it through problem-based learning through team-based learning group based learning and guided inquiry we want the school to be student-centered that its focus is really between the material and the place around the student and how does a student engage with the student with the material they engage visually they engage intellectually they engage with their sight with their hearing they engage in a kind of haptic tactile way but at the same time the school needs to be flexible it needs to adapt to unknown and as as yet in the undefined opportunities and of course the world we live in it must be technological it must be based and recognized the kind of opportunities of Technology and digital access so how do we think of learning it happens everywhere not in the classroom how do we design for it happening everywhere it's very social it's very connective we gain information and understanding and knowledge and experience in so many ways it's very social it also is very private it's together with the material it should be comfortable it should be a welcoming safe and comfortable environment and of course it should be challenging so if we think of those characteristics of sight and sound and touch we think of the material engaging the course material but also our material and those of other students and that interconnection and that interactivity in that collaborative process of engaging with all the senses and all the ways of engaging information and understanding and all the material available in a sort of complex way if we really then think about the school UTS and how we seek a new transformative environment first of all we are grounded in an extraordinary tradition over a hundred years of history of academic achievement academic excellence extraordinary accomplishment at the same time that there is the the condition of architectural excellence which is embedded in this school a school building that's over 100 years old that has been the kind of heart of UTSA in a physical way for a long time so building on that history of excellence and that architectural history of this the architect of this building who designed the Royal Ontario Museum who designed the original Art Gallery of Ontario who designed convocation Hall this is one of the landmarks of the city so when thinking about the school going forward and our are continuing in the future to occupy a wing of this school the East Wing the here on street wing we're beginning with that sense of history physical history and academic and intellectual history and how do we exploit what are those characteristics and perhaps with the Huron Street entrance being always an important entrance to the school but the potential for being more important the more Prime in the sense that it is the opportunity to create a plaza an urban space at the corner at the kind of crossroads in the city perhaps a speaker's corner a space to gather before and after school a place to to kind of meet friends to work outdoors and have classes outdoors and good weather just like at the Emily Carr University that we're building in Vancouver that space of interface between the city and the school is is a kind of key issue but there's another new opportunity that's part of the world of this new school and that is the park the park at on Huron Street has always been in the background the school has never been oriented now we have the opportunity to connect to the park that it can be a Glee a green living room again a place for all the kind of activities intellectual and otherwise that you you undertake in a park and so that Park can be embedded and pulled into the school in a kind of profound new way in a really positive way and in this what will be a view from one of the corridors on the Huron wing suddenly natural light and view to the park connected to the park and accessible at the lower level that the park is a says there is the CD edge at the corner there'll be the green edge at the South sorry I can't get it to switch that I think I did I but at the same time there is the opportunity for the park in the city and to connect to the community because not only does the the school exist in the city it exists in a community of neighbors and living Lane the laneway system that runs south on Washington and down south to the university is being recast as a living Lane and that will connect the community to the school and as you move north towards a new south entrance to the school one of three entrances to the school that community connection is possible and as you enter the school a sense of welcome and transparency glass visual connection to the park and access through to the spaces to the north will be part of that circumstance so connecting heritage building on that opportunity but then building the kind of modern future sorry if okay what's the what's the possibility in the in the new space of the school is where the parking lot now is in the South corner of the Huron Street wing is a vertical space of community a set of stairs and terraces and study terraces that are suspended in space where you can connect from the lowest floors to the upper floors through those four floors filled with natural light places to gather and so part of the daily movement through the school meeting friends and colleagues teachers and and and the students you're with always encountering them because you're at the crossroads but those crossroads are simply not a stair to move you from level to level but a place of gathering a place for group study a place for social activity a great a place for learning and classes just like in this in this space that can be small and individual places to study separate from the classroom separate from the lab separate from the library but in a way that can be very social and connected in in in light and in public space that you can have those sort of connective tissues as you move from floor to floor we're in the foreground in this image there can be the space for the individual to work but in a open common area but that there's also on the kind of terraces which connect level to level places for study and gathering as groups whether socially or to do work in what is now the gymnasium in the Huron Street wing cannot be converted to the library within that in space a library which has suspended in it pods for study spot pods for gathering a nut and in that way connect the main floor of the school with the second floor of the school so that you enter at two levels and that library becomes a sort of connective space it's no longer a destination it's a place that you move through and make connection can we think of the walls in the building the existing walls in the corridor the new walls in the kind of modern spaces as surfaces surfaces for new media surfaces for projection for activity for for for video for engagement but also for things like living biofilters because the school needs truly a sustainable design dimension it needs to be low energy needs to be as net carb close to net energy zero and that carbon zero is we can make it but if we can incorporate living biofilters instead of replacing the filters to keep the air clean in the interior like you do in the furnace in your house a living bio filter becomes an active filtration system that's proven science in terms of how it makes better indoor air quality and the air quality with a living bio filter cleans 85% of the particulate and matters in in air and is it kind of vastly higher air quality than you can get in a conventional mechanical environment so we can use walls in that way can we position places for food to cook together to eat together to kind of meet at lunch or in the morning or or at the end of school or in kind of breaks around places which are social and connected that really engage all the communities that make the school come together around food and can we make classrooms more than simply four walls with windows and a door but something that is flexible that has furniture that can move that allows different configurations and setups that allows power and and service to convert labs into classrooms into into performance spaces and connect to the outdoors and open to the outdoors can we think of the classrooms really as sort of academic communities where there are clusters of space for small for small seminars and discussion for teachers to have their offices woven through the space spaces - for groups to move out into the corridor to work on a project and re-engage with the community in in the school sorry and do so in a way where there's a kind of flexibility of use that each room doesn't have a defined name but there is a kind of flexibility of interpretation of how you can use different spaces in the school of course we will have two extraordinary gymnasiums which are actually going to be tucked under the park and will be naturally lit from above but that sense of academic life like the life of music in the school the life of art in the school the art of physical athletics in the school and a great new 700 seat auditorium that supports music drama film video lectures that can be shared with the community can be shared with the university but really is fundamentally a place that's that's designed to be used and support the community of all the students in the school so if we can combine all this outreach to the city the space for green lungs in that outdoor room the space for connection to community welcoming the community the flexibility of how you move through the school the places for connection and in social activity that are embedded in the DNA in the building this all the kind of spaces for four that are equipped with flexibility to support labs and music and gymnasium and theaters can we really think of the school and can we make the school reflect the world and the world be more like UTS thank you very much you [Applause]