Together, we reimagine | students enjoy time sharing ideas in the M Moser Assocuates office | inspiring one another!
The importance of infusing joy into our learning environments and lives at all ages is paramount. For students, teachers, administrators, operators, architects and all stakeholders, the first step is to work together—to be involved and engaged. The sense of empowerment and excitement that comes from creating one’s own environment is palpable and leads to an essential sense of belonging—the joy of community (and to some fabulous ideas)!
JOY THROUGH ENGAGEMENT The delight that stems from finding one’s voice can lead even our youngest to thrive with wonder and acceptance. Like any healthy discourse, every idea serves as a critical steppingstone to the next insight. Some ideas may present ahead of their time like this one: ‘Let’s make the roofs all clear energy rechargers so we can see the sky and power the school with the sun’—excellent, creative direction. We are pursuing research with flexible, transparent graphene solar panel solutions and training as a firm in bespoke integrated Daylighting Design analysis to scientifically maximize circadian lighting for optimal health and learning outcomes. In the meantime, in every school and space we craft, we make sure: the sky is visible through building form, clerestory and skylight, all learning spaces are filled with natural light, and solar panel arrays are incorporated to provide power and teach about renewables.
practicality. For a Middle-school design we embraced this idea and found ways to make school walls inside and outside safely climbable. In doing so we further integrated the design with curriculum and created pure joy in design and anticipation. Kids couldn’t wait to play in, and on, their school. This process of creativity pushing beyond limits and actively engaging students of all ages, is an exciting part of reimagining school design for us as architects. More rewarding still is the pride, wonder and excitement on their faces when we show how ideas are implemented and delivered, and the eruption of joyful applause at the sheer delight of their collaborative innovation. Countless endearing stories of engagement impact the architecture from structural and acoustic details, construction, furniture selection and environmental responsibility. Inclusive loud spaces; whole school-wide lunch hour; harvesting roof gardens; micro-movement furniture incorporation to support focus; and writable walls and desks to enhance collaboration, learning and support zero waste initiatives. We get to work together with collective action and decision-making to share and implement net zero directions, health promoting prioritizations and inclusive, restorative solutions for school environments. The process of reimagining is one of continuous innovation and implementation.
Another student idea, ‘let’s make every wall inside and out climbable.’ This may inspire queries about safety, usability and
Daylight infused | versatile, multi-purpose | dynamic learning environments for investigation and experimentation - Concordia JUNE 2021 | PAGE 15
