Mariana Boctor: designing the NextGen Schools, just like Home
Auteur : Kris | 07-10-2010
With or without realizing it, we all try to improve our interior décor to facilitate the shared space at home. Instead of creating an individualist interior, we try to accommodate the needs of all in the family. The kids need their space, parents theirs, kitchen for mom or dad and the office often for both.
However there is no rule of thumb in a household where everyone needs to express themselves, you do need to find a certain harmony. Cold colors like black, blue and green awaken the family energy and can be used in conjunction with warmer colors to soften the atmosphere.
Lighting, sound and furnishings add to the harmony you are trying to achieve. But what happens when the kids go to school and find themselves in closed, constrained environments with little natural light and user-friendly furnishings?
I was lucky to meet Mariana Boctor in Los Angeles, who is a known residential architect with enormous creativity, and real 'kid-spirited' herself. She is designing next generation schools worldwide, that look and feel just like home.
From 'prison-like' interior design to non-conform zones to boost creativity.
"My company's design philosophy (Fielding Nair International) is to design schools for the creative age. We are no longer preparing today's youth for factory or office jobs, and now need to learning environments that support creative thinking in science, technology and the arts. The emphasis is not on conformity, instead the interior design acknowledges that we are all different and we all learn differently. You have to trust that children are born with a natural curiosity and a desire to learn. So when you create a conducive learning environment, not an institutional "prison", they really will participate more and learn.
What do the next generation schools look like?
"Basically, we try to make schools feel like a home by breaking down a large school into small learning communities. The communities could have themes such as math & science or they could consist of grouping of a few grades. Each learning community has its own kitchen, set of bathrooms, cubbies or lockers for storage and a Commons which is like a living room. That is the zone that has a lot of furniture groupings that allow multiple learning activities to happen simultaneously. The furniture is laid out in a way to create distinct zones and there is a mix of soft seating, tables that can be re-arranged, wet and messy zones, spaces for reflection, etc. The furniture is all light weight as it is flexible and easy to move."
"Our schools look very 'non-institutional' and more home-like: interiors with large spaces that resemble modern open-office plans in which students are self-directed. There will be more and more crossing of disciplines. For example, we are currently working on an international school in Brussels, which includes a Design Technology Lab in the arts building. We plan to design in laser cutters, cad cam machines, CNC milling machines and 3d printers. Both art and business students will also have access to that department to make sculptures or prototypes."
Have any studies shown that the school environment has produced more creative students?
It has been proven that an important factor is the connection from the indoors to outdoors, where students score higher on tests in rooms with larger windows and natural daylight. Like residential design, we design schools with vistas to capture views of trees in the distance and use natural daylight. Natural daylight makes people feel more creative and energized, just like at home.
Who are your architectural heros or mentors?
Several! I don't believe in having a style but rather an approach which is inventive and responds to clients' needs and the site context. I like anyone who invents, those designers that don't copy from the past but create themselves.
I love Ray & Charles Eames' inventive furniture and interior design and how they pushed the use of technology. Samuel Mockbee ran the Rural Studio for the University of Auburn where students' designs are incredibly inventive and poetic. His program really taught them to be inventive and to work with clients needs and dreams on tight budgets.
Andrée Putman has an amazing way of distilling a design down to just what it needs to be and that is really hard to do. All her projects are very different, which I think must reflect a good collaboration she must have with each client.
Jean Nouvel is a master of transparency and plays with glass. I find his façade at the the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, stunning, covered in 240 mashrabiyas. As an abstract form of Islamic art, I find the lens pattern that opens/closes with the light automatically, an amazing success.
Do you have any quick tips for designing a creative-conducive environment for kids?
Natural daylight and furniture zones for different learning activities and flexibility.
Flexibility is key – everything is evolving and schools need to change with the times. Walls should be able to disappear with glass garage doors, folding doors or sliding doors. Furniture and storage should be lightweight or on caster to make it easy to re-arrange constantly.
I prefer to read the newspaper or go visit art shows that inspire me to take a break form the computer, but I skim daily these two:
www.designboom.com
www.archdaily.com
This cocotte is definitely making great interior design change for the next generation. It would be hard to find a kid that wouldn't want to go to school with such a creative environment.
Thanks Mariana!
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