This content describes the reimagining of an educational space for young children at the 'Iolani School, designed to foster a love of learning by integrating play, nature, and a sense of home into the architecture.
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what would a school look like if it was
designed by a
5-year-old I bet it would look something like
this so Tim what did you set out to do
here Yani is one of the oldest schools
in America we were founded in 1863 by
the royal family uh we're one of the
largest schools but we also want to
maintain a really small school Community
feel so we set out to make an education
space for our Takei our youngest
students that was a true reflection of
the heart of yolani
school Mari you were the architect on
this project yes quite the brief I have
had easier projects to design let me
tell you this one is very special so
Mike when you think of a school this is
what we think of all the buildings in a
row and they're sort of looking out at
this expensive lawn but if you're 5 or 6
years old that's pretty daunting so we
took that straight line and we bent it
around the playground and we actually
put the classrooms in the little nooks
and play becomes one of the key
components to learning this is a very
children wow look at you
go do you like playing here yeah yeah
what do you like about it climbing on
the logs behind you because it's
balancing balancing you're right and
balancing what do you like I like the
water fountain and I like the
logs you know the beauty of natural
playground is it's both physical and
mentally engaging so you don't know
what's going to happen every day you've
got to get your friends together you got
to come up with a story of what you're
going to do it's kind of wonderful life
experience yeah Mel there was a cultural
consideration here as well yeah so the
traditional Hawaiian word for a village
is a cal and in the C Hal every building
had a specific purpose for the family
Hal a for example is the cloud house
every house is associated with a feature
in the natural environment okay so H MAA
MAA is the word for mountains and so
similarly the children can look into the
background and see our mountains and
then they can also see those features
displayed on the grill in the front of their
their
H so Taylor two of your students created
this work yes Ashley and Ellie from the
class of 2018 um they're both interested
in architecture they spent the year
designing fabricating these panels as
well as the trees in our first grade
classrooms okay so they graduated a
while ago the question is are they
working in design now I'm happy to say
they are um both of them are out there
doing architecture and design work fantastic
Tim this is a lovely little space here
yes you know we have two separate
classrooms but this is such a connector
between the two when we were talking
about building the space we talked about
relationships and how relationships are
the most important thing in education
between the teacher the students between
the students also between the students
and where they come to learn we wanted
to create something that was playful
Whimsical happy felt like a friend felt
like family you know and we can see it
right here at this age it's all about
creating a passion for learning so the
more we can reinforce with the space and
instill a love of learning and reading
and writing the better we are as a
school one of the wonderful things that
the Architects accomplished for us was
to create multiple learning spaces for
each classroom we got the classroom this
is the messy space right we do Project
based learning we call it the messy
Space Project based learning science art
birth days there's a full kitchen in
here and then it goes right out onto our
backyard it's really wonder ful what the
Architects accomplished for us Mari I
can see that you really did have a
5-year-old in mind when you designed all
this well of course Mike it's the first
time that many of them are in a formal
learning environment and they're
transitioning from their home so we
actually created something that feels
more like a house part of that is
creating a front Lanai okay like a patio
a patio and a side lenai and a backyard
and this is home language it's organic
and budget yes I've got to say this
looks like there was no expense SP okay
so it worked I don't know if you ever
noticed but the most expensive part of
the project the classrooms are actually
straight walls did you ever feel that
okay I didn't really I mean I've got an
overwhelming feeling of curves that is
why we created this midior there's
exterior and there's interior and
there's midior we live in the tropics
this becomes the third learning space
but most importantly no matter where
you're coming from and entering the
building there is not a single straight
curved making play Central to The
Learning Experience of a small child
creating mid teriors having the older
students design and fabricate some of
the elements these are just some of the
clever secrets to the success of this exceptional
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