0:02 what would a school look like if it was
0:03 designed by a
0:07 5-year-old I bet it would look something like
0:14 this so Tim what did you set out to do
0:17 here Yani is one of the oldest schools
0:19 in America we were founded in 1863 by
0:21 the royal family uh we're one of the
0:23 largest schools but we also want to
0:26 maintain a really small school Community
0:29 feel so we set out to make an education
0:30 space for our Takei our youngest
0:33 students that was a true reflection of
0:35 the heart of yolani
0:38 school Mari you were the architect on
0:41 this project yes quite the brief I have
0:43 had easier projects to design let me
0:46 tell you this one is very special so
0:48 Mike when you think of a school this is
0:51 what we think of all the buildings in a
0:53 row and they're sort of looking out at
0:56 this expensive lawn but if you're 5 or 6
1:00 years old that's pretty daunting so we
1:03 took that straight line and we bent it
1:05 around the playground and we actually
1:09 put the classrooms in the little nooks
1:12 and play becomes one of the key
1:14 components to learning this is a very
1:23 children wow look at you
1:27 go do you like playing here yeah yeah
1:29 what do you like about it climbing on
1:33 the logs behind you because it's
1:35 balancing balancing you're right and
1:41 balancing what do you like I like the
1:45 water fountain and I like the
1:47 logs you know the beauty of natural
1:49 playground is it's both physical and
1:51 mentally engaging so you don't know
1:52 what's going to happen every day you've
1:54 got to get your friends together you got
1:55 to come up with a story of what you're
1:58 going to do it's kind of wonderful life
2:01 experience yeah Mel there was a cultural
2:04 consideration here as well yeah so the
2:07 traditional Hawaiian word for a village
2:11 is a cal and in the C Hal every building
2:13 had a specific purpose for the family
2:16 Hal a for example is the cloud house
2:18 every house is associated with a feature
2:22 in the natural environment okay so H MAA
2:24 MAA is the word for mountains and so
2:26 similarly the children can look into the
2:28 background and see our mountains and
2:30 then they can also see those features
2:31 displayed on the grill in the front of their
2:33 their
2:37 H so Taylor two of your students created
2:39 this work yes Ashley and Ellie from the
2:41 class of 2018 um they're both interested
2:43 in architecture they spent the year
2:45 designing fabricating these panels as
2:46 well as the trees in our first grade
2:49 classrooms okay so they graduated a
2:51 while ago the question is are they
2:53 working in design now I'm happy to say
2:54 they are um both of them are out there
2:56 doing architecture and design work fantastic
3:02 Tim this is a lovely little space here
3:04 yes you know we have two separate
3:07 classrooms but this is such a connector
3:08 between the two when we were talking
3:10 about building the space we talked about
3:11 relationships and how relationships are
3:13 the most important thing in education
3:15 between the teacher the students between
3:17 the students also between the students
3:19 and where they come to learn we wanted
3:21 to create something that was playful
3:24 Whimsical happy felt like a friend felt
3:26 like family you know and we can see it
3:29 right here at this age it's all about
3:31 creating a passion for learning so the
3:34 more we can reinforce with the space and
3:37 instill a love of learning and reading
3:38 and writing the better we are as a
3:41 school one of the wonderful things that
3:43 the Architects accomplished for us was
3:45 to create multiple learning spaces for
3:47 each classroom we got the classroom this
3:49 is the messy space right we do Project
3:50 based learning we call it the messy
3:53 Space Project based learning science art
3:55 birth days there's a full kitchen in
3:58 here and then it goes right out onto our
4:00 backyard it's really wonder ful what the
4:02 Architects accomplished for us Mari I
4:05 can see that you really did have a
4:07 5-year-old in mind when you designed all
4:09 this well of course Mike it's the first
4:11 time that many of them are in a formal
4:13 learning environment and they're
4:16 transitioning from their home so we
4:18 actually created something that feels
4:20 more like a house part of that is
4:23 creating a front Lanai okay like a patio
4:27 a patio and a side lenai and a backyard
4:30 and this is home language it's organic
4:33 and budget yes I've got to say this
4:36 looks like there was no expense SP okay
4:39 so it worked I don't know if you ever
4:42 noticed but the most expensive part of
4:45 the project the classrooms are actually
4:48 straight walls did you ever feel that
4:49 okay I didn't really I mean I've got an
4:52 overwhelming feeling of curves that is
4:55 why we created this midior there's
4:58 exterior and there's interior and
5:01 there's midior we live in the tropics
5:03 this becomes the third learning space
5:06 but most importantly no matter where
5:08 you're coming from and entering the
5:11 building there is not a single straight
5:24 curved making play Central to The
5:27 Learning Experience of a small child
5:30 creating mid teriors having the older
5:33 students design and fabricate some of
5:36 the elements these are just some of the
5:39 clever secrets to the success of this exceptional
5:47 project if you liked this video make
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