Portals to other worlds typically come in inconspicuous packages: closets, cupboards, overgrown gates, or train station lockers. The key is making the ordinary become extraordinary, and that is how Studio Weave approached the Belvue School’s new woodlands classrooms project.
Belvue School, a secondary school in Northolt, England for boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 19 with moderate to severe learning difficulties, enlisted the help of Studio Weave to design the unique classroom facility that sits adjacent to a woodland. The facility is separate from the main school building and incorporates the woodland into the design.
Courtesy of Belvue School.
The classrooms needed to provide two distinct types of learning environments: a calm, informal teaching space, and a separate space for a student-run school café. The boundary between the playground and the woods creates a threshold of sorts that symbolizes the entrance to another world. The design team referenced the gate to the secret garden and the cupboard to Narnia and the woodland classrooms were designed to act as a gatehouse between our world and one beyond.
Story writing workshops with the students were used in the design process to create a collective narrative for the woodland and to identify how the gatehouse could interact with it.
Courtesy of Belvue School.
The new facility features amenities like the “Cosy Lounge,” a space designed to be used for teaching and engaging with the woodland. It offers a connection to wildlife that many students don’t otherwise have access to. Another feature, the “Sociable Kitchen,” includes a café with a food preparation area and dining for small groups of staff and students.
See Also: Child-specific mental health center features design elements to support healing
The building’s concave roofs create a more intimate scale upon entering the classrooms that opens up as one moves towards the center. The curved soffit enables light from the roof light to spill across the entire surface and naturally light the room. The stack effect created by the roof allows for the spaces to be entirely naturally ventilated.
Courtesy of Belvue School.
Courtesy of Belvue School.
Related Stories
| Mar 7, 2014
Thom Mayne's high-tech Emerson College LA campus opens in Hollywood [slideshow]
The $85 million, 10-story vertical campus takes the shape of a massive, shimmering aircraft hangar, housing a sculptural, glass-and-aluminum base building.
| Mar 7, 2014
Chicago's 7 most threatened buildings: Guyon Hotel, Jeffrey Theater make the list
The 2014 edition of Preservation Chicago's annual Chicago's 7 list includes an L station house, public school, theater, manufacturing district, power house, and hotel.
| Mar 4, 2014
If there’s no ‘STEM crisis,’ why build more STEM schools?
Before you get your shorts in a knot, I have nothing against science, technology, engineering, or even mathematics; to the contrary, I love all four “STEM” disciplines (I’m lying about the math). But I question whether we need to be building K-12 schools that overly emphasize or are totally devoted to STEM.
| Feb 26, 2014
Adaptive reuse project brings school into historic paper mill
The project features nontraditional classrooms for collaborative learning, an arts and music wing, and a technologically sophisticated global resource center.
| Feb 24, 2014
First look: UC San Diego opens net-zero biological research lab
The facility is intended to be "the most sustainable laboratory in the world," and incorporates natural ventilation, passive cooling, high-efficiency plumbing, and sustainably harvested wood.
| Feb 14, 2014
Must see: Developer stacks shipping containers atop grain silos to create student housing tower
Mill Junction will house up to 370 students and is supported by 50-year-old grain silos.
| Feb 14, 2014
Crowdsourced Placemaking: How people will help shape architecture
The rise of mobile devices and social media, coupled with the use of advanced survey tools and interactive mapping apps, has created a powerful conduit through which Building Teams can capture real-time data on the public. For the first time, the masses can have a real say in how the built environment around them is formed—that is, if Building Teams are willing to listen.
| Feb 13, 2014
University officials sound off on net zero energy buildings
As part of its ongoing ZNE buildings research project, Sasaki Associates, in collaboration with Buro Happold, surveyed some 500 campus designers and representatives on the top challenges and opportunities for achieving net-zero energy performance on university and college campuses.
| Feb 5, 2014
Extreme conversion: Atlanta turns high-rise office building into high school
Formerly occupied by IBM, the 11-story Lakeside building is the new home for North Atlanta High School.
| Feb 4, 2014
World's fifth 'living building' certified at Smith College [slideshow]
The Bechtel Environmental Classroom utilizes solar power, composting toilets, and an energy recovery system, among other sustainable strategies, to meet the rigorous performance requirements of the Living Building Challenge.
