Description
Gentofte has one of the most progressive and widely published school building programmes in Europe and has physically transformed 12 schools to support new child-centred educational practices. Fundamental to the programme is the belief that the innovative and considered design of school buildings can enrich learning.
Within the programme, three existing buildings at Ordrup School in Charlottenlund have been rationalized and extended by CEBRA Architects and Søren Robert Lund to create one school building. It is on the inside, however, where the architects have worked with visual artists Bosch and Fjord, that this school has really been transformed. Whilst traditional classrooms still remain, a series of 15 new settings for learning have been woven into the school building. Based on three key ideas within the school’s personalized learning strategy – ‘peace and absorption’, ‘discussion and cooperation’ and ‘security and presence’ – the new interventions play a part in supporting learning and teaching rather than merely providing a space in which it occurs.
Whilst the interventions, such as sunken ‘hot pots’ for small group discussion, may look more familiar to an indoor playground than a school environment, the settings have been carefully considered to meet the needs of different age groups and individuals. For the youngest children, the desire for quiet time has been accommodated with upholstered ‘reading tubes’ which provide individual cocoons in which children can curl up with a book on their own or in pairs. For older children, once merely functional corridors have been given new life and purpose with the insertion of ‘concentration booths’ and moveable ‘carpet islands’. Importantly, these insertions are not just tables and chairs that have been put in a disused corner, but are stimulating additions with bold graphics and striking lighting to give them a common language. These are places that children want to go to and learn to socialize at the right times; many are placed in corridors or other spaces which might be neglected otherwise.
Drawings
Photos
Exterior view
Interior view showing concentration booths and moveable carpetislands to aid in the creation of a more personalized learning
environment
Originally published in: Prue Chiles (ed.), Leo Care, Howard Evans, Anna Holder, Claire Kemp, Building Schools: Key Issues for Contemporary Design, Birkhäuser, 2015.