Category: design

Exploratory Labs: Paving the Way for Experiential Learning

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Exploratory Labs: Paving the Way for Experiential Learning

In support of Weymouth’s mission to engage and empower students through interdisciplinary, project-based learning, the educational program for the new Chapman Middle School is centered around unique “exploratories”—introductory classes to elective tracks that focus on modern, STEAM-driven paths in career technical education.

Located at the threshold between the school’s academic wings and central hub for student activity, the exploratory labs bridge the transition from shared public space to academic zones. The labs are housed within three distinct tower-like, top-lit structures, or pods, that utilize their unique and expressive architectural forms to represent the flexible and collaborative nature of the interior program spaces. Each positioned at the entrance to one of the three academic wings extending off the cafeteria, the exploratory labs shape the organic layout of this central space. Distinct cladding materials define a unique identity for each space: a metal pod, a wood pod, and a glass pod.

Culinary Lab

Chapman Middle School’s culinary lab occupies the first floor of the metal pod and provides a unique opportunity for students to incorporate cooking, cultural awareness, and nutrition in their curriculum at the middle school level. The spacious layout of the lab positions a teaching room for lecture-based learning adjacent to cooking stations for hands-on lessons.

Notable features:

  • Flexible classroom furniture for lecture-based lessons on culinary practices, world food cultures and healthy nutrition
  • Universally designed cooking stations used for hands-on lessons include 4-burner stoves, convection ovens, char broilers and microwaves
  • Mobile teaching demonstration station with cooktop induction units
  • Large openings to convenient transportation of materials
  • Solid surface counters and washable walls and ceilings for simplified maintenance
Expeditionary Learning Lab

Located directly above the culinary lab, the expeditionary learning lab provides a flexible learning space geared towards self-directed, collaborative and project-based activities. Varied seating and table types can be re-arranged to outfit the space for a wide range of lessons from presentations, to class discussions, to small group projects.

Notable features:

  • Designated presentation space and teaching wall with large LCD monitor
  • Small group collaboration spaces with individual touch screen monitors
  • Flexible and varied furniture for a variety of hands-on activities including research, writing, reading, math and science
Theater Arts Classroom

To accommodate Weymouth’s robust theater programs, the first floor of the wood pod provides teaching space outside of the auditorium and a black box theater for students to study, rehearse and put on small-scale performances. This flexible space is not only a valuable resource for the emerging middle school theater program, but also for the high school theater program and local drama groups. Co-locating theater arts and the broadcasting lab within the same pod enables the programs to share a control center.

Notable features:

  • An overhead tension wire grid – a fall-safe technical level space where students learn the behind-the-scenes ins and outs of theatrical lighting and rigging
  • Motorized blackout shades block any light penetrating the space for Blackbox performances and let light in during lessons and rehearsals
  • Moveable furniture in the performance room can be used for audiences, lectures or removed entirely
Broadcast Lab

The broadcast lab overlooks the theater arts space below and offers students state-of-the-art equipment and spaces to explore the technical aspects of video and audio production. The lab will also be utilized for student organizations and a large after-school program.

Notable features:

  • State-of-the-art broadcasting equipment including a soundproof control center, recording studio with green screen and mounted LED studio light fixtures
  • Windows from the control center to both the adjacent recording studio and to the theater arts space below to allow both programs to utilize the high-tech control and recording equipment
  • Ability to broadcast throughout the school or town-wide
Media Center

Chapman Middle School’s new media center, which resides on the first level of the glass pod, introduces contemporary design elements typically seen in higher education spaces without compromising the function of a traditional school library. A double-height open plan layout combined with tall openings in the frosted resin cladding establish a visual connection between the media center and the Town Square, while a variety of seating types and breakout spaces make the space fully accessible.

Notable features:

  • Flexible and varied seating conducive to a wide variety of learning styles
  • Designated spaces for casual study, small group learning, and large group meetings
  • Operable glass wall enables the meeting room to open up into the flexible learning space for larger assemblies
  • Circulation desk centrally located to monitor media center activity
  • Located near the main entrance for after-hours community use
  • Skylights and tall openings introduce daylight into this space at the heart of the school
Makerspace

Overlooking the media center below, the makerspace lab encourages collaborative, hands-on learning as students begin to explore the engineering, design and fabrication process. Centered around student discovery, the flexible makerspace accommodates a wide range of large-scale projects and fosters teamwork among students.

Notable features:

  • Robotics focused equipment
  • Flexible work benches with durable tabletops for a wide variety of projects
  • Spray paint booth, vent booth for soldering, 3D printers, a plotter and laser cutter
  • A built-in storage wall for student projects, raw materials, parts, and kits

Stories of Sustainability

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Stories of Sustainability

For over 50 years, responsible energy use and conservation has been guiding the design process at HMFH. Today, our commitment to climate action is stronger than ever. From LEED, to CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools), to net-zero energy, we help our clients make smart decisions about how to build an energy-efficient, healthy building that contributes to the wellness of its occupants.

Learn more about our ongoing efforts to design sustainable, resilient learning environments—including the new net-positive energy Fales Elementary School, the innovative Tri-Gen system at Saugus Middle High School, and the net-zero ready dairy barn and living learning lab used as teaching tools at Bristol County Agricultural High School.

Video created by Clyde Media and produced in collaboration with the Boston Society for Architecture.

Child-Centric Design

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Child-Centric Design

“When I went to school, my classrooms were so boring. Because of that, in the back of my mind I’m always gathering information and thinking: how can I design this school to make it feel like a place I want to be, like a place a child would want to be?”

Melissa Greene | Senior Associate, HMFH Architects

We call that kind of thinking child-centric design because it focuses on the student’s needs and interests, and it’s critically important in the design of environments for children. As designers of schools, we’re always thinking about children and how they move, think and play. We want to make sure students’ physical environments are emotionally engaging, supportive of their learning and their creativity. That critical concept travels through all our design decisions. This means we spend time understanding the students’ daily activities within the school or classroom and anticipating how the spaces might support those activities and we talk with educators and  students to get their input and to make sure our choices support their goals.

For instance, we think a lot about designing to the scale of the child. Windows, cubbies, lockers and seating areas are carefully designed and scaled so that students know the spaces are specially created for them. Particularly for younger children, we build in whimsy and fun through playful use of color, form, and pattern; and the unusual juxtaposition of design elements sparks a student’s curiosity and inspires creativity.

At HMFH, designing child-centric spaces also means keeping up to date with neurological research on learning and understanding the implications of that research on the spaces we design. We are seeing clear themes in that research that reinforce our current design ideas but also point to new ways of thinking about the design of learning places.  For instance, research is telling us that students learn more readily when emotionally engaged in the subject matter. We know that stress reduces the ability to learn because the thinking lobes of the brain’s prefrontal cortex shut down when we are stressed. Conversely, creativity is fostered when students feel safe, supported and free to explore their interests. We know that neural connections are strengthened, reinforcing learning, when students are exposed to the same ideas through different types of learning activities. We also know that physical activity reduces stress and has a positive impact on a child’s cognitive performance. So what does this all mean for how we design schools?

At the Thompson Elementary School we designed the school to be a joyful and supportive learning environment. To minimize any stress associated with students’ first school experience, we made sure it was a welcoming place for their families. The design draws the families into a colorful and light-filled lobby space and then provides a clear path to special transition spaces outside of classrooms where students can spend time with their family members before or after school. This is a place where the students know their whole families are welcome and supported.

For older kids, we include break-out zones for  activities like individual study, collaborative projects, social conversations, or crafts, so that students have space to develop their own interests, and to feel creative within a larger school setting. Such project spaces are now a regular component of our school designs. We want to design to the scale of their ideas.

No one likes to sit still for long; physical activity is important and has a positive impact on learning. We are building in opportunities for movement at all scales, from wonderful new types of seating allowing students to wiggle and squirm without disturbing others, to spaces for project-based learning that allow for movement while building stuff, to creating connections from the out-of-doors to learning spaces so students can move in and out easily. Even providing different types learning spaces allows student to take a break and reengage by simply moving from one place to another.

All of these techniques are child-centric. Whether providing a small child with a small nook to curl up in to read a book, or carving out a small group area off of a corridor for teenagers to perform a skit they have written, every design decision should help support the student socially and emotionally as well as cognitively.

“At the Bristol County Agricultural High School, students asked for connections to outdoor areas, and a community space that really flows between the outdoors and indoors. That connection to nature was important, but they also valued the option for flexibility and to shape their space over time. Those elements were key to creating a comfortable and welcoming place for them.”

Bobby Williams | Associate Principal, HMFH Architects

At HMFH we design spaces that will resonate with the students and help them understand that they are important and that learning is important, and that their school has been designed for them. Spaces have the power to re-awaken thinking, provide comfort and support academic growth. That potential is at the core of why child-centric design is so powerful.