little architecture

Participatory design project - Phase 3

Design strategy inspired by participatory design workshops focused on tracing various narratives regarding collective experience at school and the users’ visions for the future of the school.

@3rd Lyceum of Ilion, Athens, Greece

Thesis project. Researcher: Ellie Petridi Supervisor: Giorgos Mitroulias / Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly

Participatory design project - Phase 2

Students’ study models for a participatory design workshop focused on tracing various narratives regarding the users’ visions for the future of the school.

@3rd Lyceum of Ilion, Athens, Greece

Thesis project. Researcher: Ellie Petridi Supervisor: Giorgos Mitroulias / Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly

Participatory design project - Phase 1

Model parts provided by the architects for a participatory design workshop focused on tracing various narratives regarding the users’ visions for the future of the school.

@3rd Lyceum of Ilion, Athens, Greece

Thesis project. Researcher: Ellie Petridi Supervisor: Giorgos Mitroulias / Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly

Students’ collages for a participatory design workshop focused on tracing various narratives regarding the collective experience at school.

@3rd Lyceum of Ilion, Athens, Greece.

Thesis project. Researcher: Ellie Petridi Supervisor: Giorgos Mitroulias / Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly

Aldo Van Eyck // Nagele School

Aldo van Eyck’s Nagele School is located in the Netherlands. Nagele is a town in the Dutch province of Flevoland, built in the early post-war years (between 1947-1949). Aldo van Eyck was part of the planning team, with a limited role. However, he was personally in charge of the design of the schools of the new town. The school was built in 1954.

Despite its simplicity, this work marks Van Eyck's synthetic approach. His design method aims at capturing the elements of the building in such a way that identity is not lost in the process of repetition, but rather is reinforced by the form of the whole.

The classrooms are not lined up in a straight line but rather articulate on a semi-circular way around a central courtyard, thus ensuring mutual access to the outside. The resulting exterior corners offer a wide view, while the interior corners become high-rise skylights.

Inward flow is developed in five levels. The entrance from the central schoolyard to the interior of the school is marked by two porticos (the in-between of inside and outside). From the corridor, the classrooms are accessed through a tall skylight – closet space, painted in a different colour for each classroom, enhancing children's sensory orientation.

An important conceptual point is the design of the classroom windows. Aldo van Eyck bypassed strict city planning regulations, which prohibited direct access from the classrooms to the school surroundings, by designing benches at the apron of windows, potentially turning them into doors.

In addition to spreading light into the inner core of the building, skylight – closets also give children a feeling of 'home'. This sense is also boosted by the semi-autonomy of the classrooms and their direct access to the outside.

Aldo van Eyck insists on creating places through architecture. 

I am wondering, what is the broader picture frame of reality that comes with coming and going, as this is a living experience not only for the one experiencing it but also for those who meet or leave it behind. A door is a place made for an occasion. A door is a place created for an act that is repeated millions of times in a lifetime.

sources:

Hertzberger, H., van Roijen-Wortmann, Ad., Strauven, F.  (1982). Aldo Van Eyck. Amsterdam: Stichting Wonen / Van Loghum Slaterus

Stauven, F. (1998). Aldo van Eyck: The shape of relativity. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura Press

Roth, Al. (1966). The New Schoolhouse/ Das Neue Schullhaus/ La Nouvelle Ecole. Zürich: Girsberger

Hertzberger, H. (1998). Lessons for students in Architecture. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers

 image sources:

plan //

circA RQ. Aldo van Eyck. [Online article] Available in: https://circarq.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/aldo-van-eyck/

photo of classroom //

Elara Fritzenwalden. Ti-tus Brandsmaschool. Nagele, Flevola-nd, Netherlands; 1954-57. [Website] Available in: http://elarafritzenwalden. tumblr.com/post/163498391200/ti-tus-brandsmaschool-nagele-flevoland

diagram//

from the sketch ‘Play Brubeck’ by Peter Smithson

It was published in Team 10 Primer with the following caption:

“Ideogram of net of human relations. P.D.S. A constellation with different values of different parts in an immensely complicated web crossing and recrossing. Brubeck! a pattern can emerge”