At New York’s Trinity School, art educator Bruce Edelstein has spent the last 18 years exploring the creativity of kids with The Grade Three Chair Project. Edelstein leads third graders at the private prep school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side through a process of designing and building their very own chair designs over a school semester. Weekly, hour-long workshops teach the seven to 10-year-old students to come up with creative concepts, sketch them out, and build scale models using paper before getting to the really fun part: construction.

In 2021, the kids came up with some of their most remarkable designs yet. The autumn semester program wasn’t just for third graders last year, but incorporated fourth graders as well, since school was disrupted due to the pandemic in 2020. In a recent interview, Edelstein explained how he adapted the program for the pandemic. Shifting to online learning for the design process was a unique challenge.

“We started by talking about the same ideas, of looking around you seeing that someone created all these things, whether it’s a faucet in your bathroom or a light fixture, that the whole idea of design is something we live in all the time, that they can participate in,” Edelstein says. “I didn’t get as involved with the question of could you actually make it. When we’re making it in wood, there are certain things you have to learn about how to connect the wood, whether it’s glueing and nailing, or using triangles to reinforce things like the leg against the seat.”

The kids got to make their designs a reality when in-person learning recommenced. Clearly skilled at prompting the kind of abstract thinking that leads to exciting designs, Edelstein asked the kids questions about their themes. He encouraged one student who wanted her chair to evoke ballet to think about what drew her to ballet in the first place, taking some of the ideas or shapes that were important to her, and using them in the chair’s form. The result is striking. The student imagined how she would stand in ballet and translated it to the chair, with an arm arched overhead and one leg being in a plié.

Some students focused on utility and pragmatism over artistic flair, combining chairs with other furniture like bookshelves, desks, or storage hooks. Others produced designs that look like the expensive works of renowned contemporary artists. It’s fascinating to see how they ignore the archetypal “chair” shape and simply think about how they want the chair to feel, or to serve them in particular. One unpainted piece twists and turns the basic shapes of the chair to create a one-armed seat with a circular side table. Another is shaped like an easel, another a wheelchair. Some have horns, fangs, and even the open jaws of an alligator as the seat.

“Allowing personal nuances to come out in your work is really important,” Edelstein notes. “And that’s what you see with these kids. They’re very much in touch with their feelings at this point in their lives. They’re not holding themselves back. They’re not editing themselves. They’re not wondering if it’s silly or not. I think as an adult, you look at them and you realize, maybe we can let go a little bit.”

The post What Happens When Kids Design Furniture? A Wave of Inspiring Creativity first appeared on Dornob.

That’s right, Society6 has not one, not two, but five curated 2021 Back to School Must-Have Collections to choose from: bedding kits, posters, tapestries, on-the-go essentials, and tech accessories. Whether you’re off to college or eagerly awaiting the first day of high school, you’ll find everything you need to put the finishing touches on your living space, gussy up your locker, and strut through the hallways in style. Available items include sheets, blankets, pillow cases, shower curtains, art prints, phone cases, laptop sleeves, Apple Watch bands, travel mugs, stickers, notebooks, and apparel.

Society6 also identified four major back-to-school decor trends for this upcoming semester. They include warped and checked prints, “blending the groovy patterns of the 60s and 70s with soothing color palettes”; playful and organic themes featuring bright colors and designs inspired by nature; retro 60s flair “for the flower child in us all”; and “neon dreams,” a vaguely surreal Los Angeles-inspired style. Among the coolest stuff we spotted are a “groovy garden in blue” duvet cover, a fun Rodeo Drive poster featuring upside-down cars in a pastel sky, a Keith Haring laptop sleeve, and all kinds of cute terrazzo print backpacks.

If you’re not sure where to start or could use some help figuring out how to blend your own style with your roommate’s, the retailer offers a guide to decorating with roommates that’s full of helpful advice. For instance, you’re going to want to make your desk a warm and inviting place where you can focus, so adding some small art prints with inspirational quotes or inspiring views could be a big help. Add personality to big walls with posters just by tacking them up with putty or pins, but try not to hog all the space. And if you end up with a roomie whose style clashes with yours, embrace it. It’ll just make your stuff stand out even more.

Don’t forget the all-important study nook. The guide explains that “since studying is a pivotal part of the college experience, it’s helpful to create a space that comforts and inspires you. Start with a plush throw — crafted from our super-soft signature Sherpa fleece! Perhaps you want a geometric floral design, colorful checkered squares, or a simple abstract design. Then, add an abundance of rectangular and throw pillows that complement the design/color of your throw blanket. As an added bonus, tie in your study nook together with a rug that fits the energy of the room.”

Did we mention that all Society6 designs are submitted by the artists themselves? Not only do you get access to virtually any style you can think of, but your purchase directly supports independent artists. And if you somehow don’t find exactly what you’re looking for after browsing the site, you can always become a Society6 designer yourself! It’s super easy to upload your own designs and end up with stuff that’s completely and totally you.

The post Make Your Back to School Style Totally Unique with Society6’s 2021 Shopping Guide first appeared on Dornob.

The architects identified three major needs in the city of Pune, which itself is one of the fastest-growing cities in all of Southeast Asia. With a burgeoning population, a thriving IT industry, and increasing demand for education, high quality schools are a top priority. Though it’s quite compact in size compared to other major Indian cities, with decent access to public transit, few areas are walkable, and there are no cycling tracks to speak of. Like many industrialized cities around the world, Pune also struggles with poor air quality.

NUDES’ design addresses all of these common urban issues. Forest School can accommodate a large number of students and help boost Pune’s reputation for both innovation and high quality of life. A double-height auditorium occupies the lower two floors, while the rest are dedicated entirely to classroom space. The rooftop cycling track, which features two bridges for crossing between the towers, offers a fun place to ride a bike with unforgettable views.

The infinity symbol on the roof may be this project’s standout feature, but those stepped balconies covered in plants are definitely eye-catching, and they’re functional, too. NUDES envisions them as one big “green living skin” that can help remove pollutants from the air through phytoremediation.

“The design explores the relation between nature and pedagogy in dense urban settlements built on the foundations of ‘Grow,’ ‘Learn,’ ‘Reuse,’ ‘Plant’ and ‘Play,’” explain the architects. “Sited in Pune approximately three hours by road from Mumbai, the city has witnessed dramatic urban growth in the last decade. The project harbors two ‘green’ cylindrical volumes stitched by a rooftop ‘infinity’ loop track.”

“Each cylindrical volume represents the stage of phased construction with planned programmatic activities. The project explores the dynamics and logistics of a vibrant space for student-centric interaction and learning. The ‘green’ skin can be serviced and maintained by a peripheral service track that is accessible from both landing and mid-landing levels on every floor by horticulturists.”

Forest School is just the latest unusual educational design from NUDES. The firm previously designed a conceptual school in Malawi with sinuous curving walls made of stacked straw bales in response to an architectural competition by Archstorming on behalf of an NGO called Active Africa. The brief called for the use of local materials and construction systems, a focus on sustainability, and a modular solution that can be built in phases. Straw Bale School features a modular “ladder” component to form a structural system that’s fluid and easily expanded.

NUDES is led by architect Nuru Karim, who received his Masters in Architecture and Urbanism from the Architectural Association London in 2006 and has previously worked for Zaha Hadid Architects. He explains that “NUDES operates within the realm of cross-disciplinary cultures of art, architecture, and computational design powered by digital ‘making’ tools addressing larger social, cultural, and environmental networks.”

The post Forest School: Twin Vegetated Towers Topped by a Looping Bike Track first appeared on Dornob.

While there may not be any actual science-fictiony teleportation involved here, the concept of melding technology and design to further third-world education is very forward-thinking. Called “Solar Cow,” the initiative has been making formal learning possible for children in the most poverty-stricken regions of Africa since 2018.

Developed by Korean designer Sung Un Chang and her solar firm Yolk, the aim of the program is to decrease child labor rates around the globe by incentivizing poor parents to send their kids to school. According to data from the United Nations education body UNESCO, roughly 262 million children worldwide between the ages of 6 and 17 do not attend school. That works out to one in every five children on the planet.

After looking into the issue, Chang found that most of those children are kept home to help with chores and support the family income. In places like rural Kenya and Tanzania, for example, parents need their children’s help to tend cattle during the day.

“The kids could not come to school because of the cows, and now they can come to school because of a cow — but it’s a solar cow,” she says.

First installed in Pokot, Kenya, where between 40 and 60 percent of residents never complete a single level of education, the Solar Cow is a charging station artfully crafted in bovine shape. Each student attending the school is given a 2,900-mA power Solar Milk battery that plugs into the station’s udder slots and extracts power from the sun. Students then retrieve the fully-charged batteries (holding about $1 worth of electricity) at the end of the instruction day. The charger is then brought home, where it can be used to charge 2G cell phones (adults often have to travel long distances to charge their devices at expensive electronics shops) and also have enough power left to be used as an LED flashlight, providing up to six hours of light each night for the family. As 15 percent of the average Kenyan family’s budget goes to energy costs, these batteries can free up resources, reducing the need for child labor.

Chang realized getting parents on board was the key. “All of this is about how we persuade parents to send their kids to school,” she explains, noting that creating a “tangible” benefit of education was of paramount importance here. “If the value is similar or more, then they’re willing to send their children to school rather than the workplace.”

The idea worked well enough that two more Solar Cows have since been installed: another in Kenya and one in Tanzania. This latest campaign is aimed at putting more in the Zanzibar and Kigoma regions of Tanzania, some of the poorest and least educated parts of the world.

Yolk plans to make the program sustainable by requiring each family to pay $1 a month to allow their kids to charge the batteries at school. That money will make sure the parents have “skin in the game” while also providing funds for system maintenance and the replacement of Solar Milk batteries every two to three years. Additionally, they will generate salaries for local solar technicians to operate and maintain the cows.

Here’s how the new Kickstarter campaign works: Backers can pledge $28 to buy a solar/USB battery that doubles as a cute flashlight. Each purchase will also buy a Solar Milk charger for one child in Africa. Those who choose the Give+data option will get a unique code that corresponds to one of those African chargers. Backers can then log on to Solar Cow’s data site to track how often that battery gets plugged into a Solar Cow, and by extension, how often that specific child attends school. The tracking feature helps provide accountability, allowing backers to see the good their charitable dollars are doing.

At the time of writing this article, the campaign is more than 228 percent funded with about a month left to go.

Chang, whose previous Solar Paper campaign raised more than $1 million, hopes that the success of the Solar Cow initiative will encourage more designers to team up with other industries to solve the world’s problems. She notes that “the synergy of diverse fields such as science, politics, and anthropology when confronted with the intuition and creative perspectives of designers will be very surprising.”

The post These Solar-Powered Flashlights Will Teleport African Children to School first appeared on Dornob.

Amid the pandemic, so many teachers and students started using the video game Minecraft as a virtual learning space that Microsoft created an official Minecraft: Education Collection marketplace. The game allows multiple players to come together in a virtual space, which they can build together into anything they want using the digital equivalent of LEGO bricks. The downloadable content in the marketplace lets them refine the content of the worlds they build even further, adding things like “Marine Biologist Role Play,” explorations through “The Human Body,” and a model of the “International Space Station.”

Suddenly, this relatively simple game with a retro style modeled on old 8-bit games has become highly relevant to everyday education in the United States. Though it was used in schools long before anyone heard of COVID-19, its popularity has exploded in the virus’ wake, with a whopping 63 million pieces of content having been dowloaded from the Minecraft: Education Collection marketplace since March. Since its release in 2011, Minecraft has amassed an incredible 126 million active players around the world, a number that undoubtedly continues to grow as the fall school season ramps up. More specifically, Minecraft sales are expected to jump at least 25 percent by the end of 2020.

Minecraft owes part of its educational popularity to the fact that it’s a virtual blank canvas, allowing users to build whatever their imaginations can come up with, including models of their own schools. But what this moment also reveals is how looking at schooling through a different lens could actually encourage students to be more engaged and active as they learn. Why shouldn’t learning be fun?

Luckily, Microsoft already spent years creating Minecraft lesson plans in all kinds of subjects, including computer science, math, writing, and even art. Teachers can choose from the library of lesson plans or create their own specific assignments. The education version of the game functions the same way as the regular version, just with different objectives in mind. Students as young as six years old can use it to learn basic concepts, while high school students use it to learn how to code or see how complex mathematical problems play out in three-dimensional space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcEIlD4VHUM

Here’s a rough idea of how it works, from Microsoft:

“Spatial thinking and pixel art in Minecraft create an excellent opportunity for students to work on mathematics and visual arts objectives in an engaging environment. Additionally, pixel art is a medium that’s already engaging to students and one that allows educators to take their first steps with the game without being the expert. Students open up a Minecraft world to use as their canvas. Their pixel art creations range from portraits to landscapes to patterns and language. Students take care to transfer their plans to the immersive space.”

“For this pixel-art lesson, students turn in not only screenshots from their Minecraft creation but also their grid diagram from their plans. The educator also includes questions about scale and ratio to push student thinking. After the first year using Minecraft: Education Edition, educators can adapt, edit, and learn from the successes and missteps along their way. Each new year brings with it the opportunity to deepen their practice and refine their students’ learning experiences with Minecraft.”

Of course, there are a few downsides to watch for. Like its direct competitor, Roblox, Minecraft: Education Edition is an open social platform, so teachers and parents have to take an active role in preventing potential predators from accessing their children’s digital worlds. Plus, there’s the fact that students’ ability to access computers and Wi-Fi at home is highly unequal, a big problem in today’s environment of remote learning. But as long as those ideas can be addressed, leveraging gaming for educational purposes could be expanded long after the current pandemic is over.

The post Minecraft Education is Making School a Lot More Fun This Fall first appeared on Dornob.

A new book called “Interiors of Isolation” aims to find out. Conceived and edited by two candidates for Masters of Architecture degrees at the University of Toronto, the project calls on fellow students to create plans, drawings, and written statements on their spaces of confinement.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD3vc43JnE_/

Jana R. Nitschke and Valerie Marshall won funding for the book through the University of Toronto’s COVID-19 Student Engagement Award, which recognizes unique proposals that contribute to building and fostering a global community during the pandemic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CC8sleOsNAB/

“As students dedicated to exploring the relationship between people and the places they inhabit, we were profoundly impacted by the shift to staying at home which the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated,” say Nitschke and Marshall. “This shift has forced us to contemplate now more than ever, how we use the spaces we call home, and how we adapt, and adapt to, these spaces under unique circumstances.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDCA6lwJk1Y/

The duo is featuring submissions on Instagram @interiorsofisolation, including some of the best written statements. Successful applicants will be featured in the book, set to be released in September 2020, and the top submission will receive $100 on top of that. The entries include colorful paintings, detailed sketches, complex floor plans, and humorous interpretations of the students’ surroundings.

New York-based Sheena, @sheemeetscity, titled her own cheerful pastel drawing “The art of staying in.”

Designer @j_archo is seeing things in the power outlets, explaining that “Since the quarantine began, I have not left my property line in months! I spend almost 85 percent of the time in my bedroom in my parent’s suburban home. You will mainly find me at my desk browsing the web on my laptop or on my bed scrolling through my phone, but I always try to make some time to exercise my creativity.”

Nitschke’s own submission reflects feelings of frustration and determination. She writes that “We are experiencing a time of places full of disorder, confusion, and chaos. John Milton describes in Paradise Lost, the Pandæmonium as the capital of hell for Satan and his peers. COVID-19 has become the invisible devil that needs to be fought. However, fear and isolation turn this pandemic into our own personal Pandæmonium. We need to break free from our mental cage to keep our sanity to get through this time, together.”

The entries aren’t always focused on the students’ own homes, either. Instagram user @RomanRevival, for instance, chose to highlight a situation he found more concerning than his own. He notes that “for some, a tent is what you take as you afford the luxury of fleeing the city on your way to a camping site in rural British Columbia during the COVID-19 outbreak. For others, it’s a home, and there is nowhere to run. For homeless people in neighborhoods such as East Hastings in Vancouver, neither isolation nor the means to afford an escape as a ticket to survival are an option.”

The post “Interiors of Isolation” Contest Asks Students to Reflect on Their Quarantine Spaces first appeared on Dornob.

It’s a loss for Wright’s legacy, for the school’s 30 current students, and for the world of architecture, particularly considering how interesting Taliesin student creations tend to be. Incorporating key elements like sustainability, natural materials, and harmony with the surrounding landscape, these temporary structures — particularly those in the Sonoran Desert at Taliesin West — are anything but typical. Here are a few of the students’ standout structures.

Simon de Aguero created this unusual wide-open desert home almost entirely from found scraps and local materials, with a core structure built out of rammed earth. The core design is an abstracted tribute to the way boulders jut out of the earth in the desert, with a stretched vinyl shade hovering like clouds overhead. And since the climate in question precludes the need for full walls, windows, or doors, the design really enables a refreshing level of interaction with nature. The ability to build a fire beneath the bed platform is a particularly cool feature.

“Little Shelters” is a collaborative student project built with a $2,000 budget using as many on-site resources as possible. Daniel Chapman, Mark-Thomas Cordova, Jaime Inostroza, Dylan Kessler, Pablo Moncayo, Natasha Vemulkonda, and Pierre Verbruggen spent 12 weeks constructing two shared shelters and a gathering space that could be used and maintained by future students, as well.

Student Jaime Inostroza also created the Atalaya Shelter, which is rooted in a desire to deeply understand the landscape itself. The design sprang into his mind when he first encountered the perfect site for it. He explains: “It was like secret place hidden in the wash, covered by the shadows of the trees and looking out at the wash and the desert. The entrance to the site is shaped by the Alameda of Palos Verdes. This creates the aperture to the site, and at sunset the site becomes a distiller of the light. The mountains are now with purple in color. The landscape is an opera of colors.”

“From that observation of the site, my principle was to develop an entrance procession that would let me dwell within the horizon of the Alameda of the Palos Verdes. Because of that the name of the project is ‘Atalaya,’ which means crow’s nest. It is the highest point from the boat where you can see the horizon across the ocean. I used the existing concrete pad like a plinth that holds this structure and continued the procession with a combination wall-stair. The shelter will be covered with fabric panels that will amplify the colors of the desert.”

Taliesin West also inspired architects and designers who weren’t students there, including Kate Brown, who created the sculptural Etazin Chair specifically for the school. Made of steel, the circular eight-foot lounger features an inner ring that can spin to face any direction the user desires. It’s on permanent installation at the school, placed among the student shelters in the desert.

You can read more about what it was like for students to live and work at Taliesin West, in their own words, at ArchDaily.

The post Standout Projects from Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

His latest project is the “Rainbow Embassy,” a new installation located in downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas. Created in collaboration with global creative house Justkids as part of the The Unexpected, an effort to revitalize dilapidated places in Arkansas with art installations, the project beautifies the exterior of a derelict house from top to bottom.

Sitting in a prominent location adjacent to a junior high school, the house must have looked a little depressing in its run-down state. Okuda says he took inspiration from the kids, imagining what they might like to see each day on their way to and from school. He then proceeded to paint all the exterior walls and half of the roof, as well as an on-site storage shed. Today, instead of peeling white paint and rotting boards, there are bright multicolored stripes, stars, geometric patterns, and two oversized animal faces.

It’s not the first time Okuda has participated in The Unexpected project, and as he noted in a statement that he “loved coming back to Fort Smith. It’s a very peaceful place to create, and it was the perfect balance after having worked in Manhattan and just before heading into the madness of Miami Art Week. This project gave me the possibility to expand on my previous work, adding more architectonic dimension and completing my vision of mythical animals.”

Knowing that his works don’t exist within a vacuum, Okuda also takes all-important context into account before working on a structure. It’s important to him that each piece fits into its surroundings in a way that feels harmonious, even if it’s the brightest thing around.

“Taking into account the fact that the work would be immersed in a community, next to a school and residences, the idea of mythical animals as a family unit interested me,” Okuda told Artnet. “The structure also let me in this direction, as I wanted to integrate the small shed in a playful way.”

French-American curator Charlotte Dutoit of Justkids says Okuda’s work is “nothing short of a dream come true… Okuda’s high spirited and immersive works are a true gift of joy to the community.”

Previously, Okuda San Miguel pulled off another jaw-dropping transformation with “Kaos Temple,” an abandoned 100-year-old church in Spain. Working with professional skateboarders, who installed a half-pipe inside, Okuda turned the disused church into one of the world’s coolest indoor skate parks, adorning nearly every surface inside with his signature visuals.

Check out more of Okuda’s work, from massive murals to additional makeovers of abandoned spaces, on his website OkudaSanMiguel.com or on Instagram.

The post Okuda San Miguel Transforms Neglected Arkansas Building Into a Colorful “Rainbow Embassy” first appeared on Dornob.

Even the earliest building blueprints included considerations for what was happening in the world at the time. For example, forts like Brimstone Hill Fortress on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts were intentionally placed on higher ground so as to provide their occupants with optimal views of approaching invaders. Even in the medieval age of castles, monarchs included lookout towers, moats, and other seemingly impenetrable lines of defense to serve specific purposes. Later, the idea of urban safety influenced designs for municipal buildings and residential housing alike. Today we have a different kind of enemy to protect against: individuals who perpetrate mass shootings or other types of terror attacks.

As a result of these attacks, we’re already seeing huge changes in urban planning. This encompasses infrastructure to mitigate attacks on high-rise buildings from car and other streetside bombs. It also entails putting barriers up around buildings and monuments. However, these steps do little to protect against the damage one might cause once they’re inside those buildings.

The statistics are alarming to say the least. As of December 1st, 2019, there have been 385 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA). That’s an average of more than one mass shooting per day. Even worse, 29 of these incidents resulted in mass murders, which begs the question, “What can we do about it?” The answer might just be in architectural protection.

This idea integrates more than typical safety precautions that protect against crime, such as placing bars on the windows or installing deadbolts. In fact, it requires an entirely new way of thinking about architecture. That’s because terror attacks and shootings (and even mass stabbings) happen in a second. There’s no time to rely on a police response. Studies of mass shootings in recent years calculate the average time between an attacker entering the building and the end of the shooting is less than ten minutes. Crisis architecture means installing systems that work to save lives by offering protection the moment a crisis begins.

Although there have been attacks in workplaces, churches, and even movie theaters before, the dozens of school shootings in just the past decade make for the best example of how crisis architecture could prevent tragedies in the future. Learning from past attacks, schools recognize the need to be able to lock classrooms from the inside, easily lockdown an entire campus, and use cameras to spot attackers before they even enter the building. Unfortunately, measures like these have mostly been met with uncertainty by school districts for several reasons, including issues with student privacy, lack of viable information about what works, and high costs.

Crisis architecture is the idea that systems can be standardized and integrated from the blueprint stage rather than by looking towards temporary solutions for individual situations. This allows all the systems within the building to work together in a discreet and fluid way as a functional part of the overall design.

Specifically, War on the Rocks identifies eight key functionalities that would maximize physical defenses for public buildings.

1. Enable Creation of Distance: This basically means improving traffic flow within the building by incorporating more corridors and stairways to handle mass migrations.
2. Safe Exit from Multiple Points: The design should provide multiple avenues for safely getting out of the building in the case of an attack.
3. Incorporate Angles to Limit a Shooter’s Line of Sight: Build in natural and appealing blockades that limit endless site in long hallways or from a doorway. This gives victims places to seek shelter and limits an attacker’s ability to target people.
4. Provide Adequate Cover and Concealment: This includes the incorporation of bullet-proof features, as well as wall and furniture placement for better concealment.
5. Enable Rapid Hardening of a Facility: This covers systems such as deadbolts, window coverings, and ballistic doors that automatically engage at the sound of an alarm.
6. Implement “Human-Centered Design” Concepts: Work with the basic human fight-or-flight response to predict how people will act during a crisis.
7. Training and Design Need to be Mutually Supporting: This means coordinating crisis training with the infrastructure in ways that make it possible to either stay in one’s current location or quickly and safely escape.
8. Integrate Systems to Increase the Situational Awareness of First Responders: Installation of systems that give first responders the information they need.

So the question remains, given the desired level of security and all the associated costs, is crisis architecture the way of the future?

The post Is “Crisis Architecture” the Way of the Future? first appeared on Dornob.

A new hotel in Washington’s scenic Columbia River Gorge is a great example of a successful conversion blending a historically significant building with contemporary elements. For Society Hotel Bingen, Waechter Architecture took a beautiful 1930s wooden schoolhouse and used it as inspiration for the rustic modern look and feel of the entire hotel.

Lead architect Ben Waechter wanted to preserve the unique character of the schoolhouse, extending it to the rest of the 20,000-square-foot complex. Today, the wooden schoolhouse serves as a guest room with two hostel-style 24-bunk units and 10 private accommodations. Outside, an additional 30 detached cabins are clad in custom Radiata pine to mimic its appearance.

The cabins are arranged in a ring shape, all facing an inner courtyard, to create a buffer between the hotel and the residences that surround it. In the center stands a cedar-clad spa building with a sauna, hot tub, saltwater soaking pools, and cold-plunge pools. Its layout echoes that of the larger site, with smaller volumes surrounding a pool set beneath an open skylight.

Details throughout the Society Hotel Bingen pay tribute to the original building’s purpose, including long wooden tables illuminated by library lamps, natural slate chalkboards, schoolhouse radiators, and a lounge lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

Located beside the Hood River about an hour from Portland, the hotel offers a “refined off-the-beaten path experience for travelers and getaway-seekers alike,” with each cabin boasting its own kitchenette, private seating area, hammock, and picnic table. The hotel is also in the process of restoring the school’s original gymnasium as an event, activity, and resettable meeting room space.

The Waechter team explains that their design “confronts conflicting contextual drivers, responding with a singular and iconic organization,” adding: “Located along the scenic Columbia River, the project’s site is near the waterfront, yet separated from it by a series of industrial facilities. In addition, it is in a residential area, requiring a sensitivity to the scale and privacy of its neighbors. Attempting to maximize the relationship of the hotel to its natural context while mitigating the industrial aspects of its surroundings, our concept became one of ‘Edited Panorama,’ using the massing of the new hotel to produce a series of distinct outward views.”

“While the project involves an adaptive reuse of an existing school, the primary site of [our] design intervention is a ring of cabins, sharing a single roof [and] defining a courtyard through which the town and landscape become framed. Within this ring, a community building provides additional shared spa amenities for the hotel’s visitors. Defined by four large piers, this central structure offers four key perspectives out through the courtyard and ring.”

The Society Hotel Bingen has a sister hotel in Portland’s historic Old Town Chinatown, simply called the Society Hotel. It, too, features reclaimed architecture, taking shape within a 19th-century cast-iron building that once housed sailors.

The post 1930s Washington Schoolhouse Transformed into a Modern Hotel first appeared on Dornob.

Climate control is an expensive component in relation to the infrastructure of classrooms, art studios, and exhibition halls. Most of these institutions spend a pretty penny maintaining the temperature within their confines as a way to protect the pieces and provide comfort for the artists. But one vintage warehouse in Los Angeles has implemented a sustainable way to protect the art and lower the carbon footprint, all while aiming for a prestigious LEED certification.

Once a 21,200-square-foot industrial wallpaper factory, the building now houses the Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studio, a UCLA-based gallery and art center where students study art, architecture, and design. In September, the now 48,000-square-foot campus held a grand opening to reveal all the renovations that had been made to the space.

Designed by Los Angeles-based architecture firm Johnston Marklee and led by architect Sharon Johnston, the updated campus is now open for classes beginning with fall term 2019. It boasts 42 different studios and labs where students can focus on computer-aided graphics, ceramics, photography, and more. The upstairs houses a studio apartment loft for the live-in artist’s residence. The designers planned the area to allow for both personal work space and public spaces where art can be shared and evaluated by others.

With sustainability in mind, the architects also designed the campus to be LEED Gold certified — a certification that recognizes materials and projects aimed at energy savings, water efficiency, carbon emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, stewardship of resources, and sensitivity to their impacts.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally-recognized independent green building verification organization. A gold certification means that the building’s design has earned high marks for efficient use of resources and a healthier environment for residents.

In the case of UCLA’s Margo Leavin Graduate Art Studios, that meant using passive means instead of energy-consumptive technology. To achieve this goal, “innovative building systems and elemental materials [were] distilled towards a holistic and efficient structure rather than adding layers of sustainable technology.”

Starting with the exterior walls, the architects replaced the original materials with concrete, finishing them with a special technique that eliminates the need for waterproofing and insulation, and leaves a very small construction footprint, to boot. On the inside, workshops are basically open-air courtyards that allow for natural airflow under the protection of the structure. Relying on the temperate weather of southern California minimizes the need for expensive and consumptive heating and cooling systems.

The campus project was funded by alumni Margo Leavin in 2016. Her $20 million gift provided the means to not only develop a program in her vision, but also to place it on a campus that encompasses a view of both sustainable schooling and art production.

Leavin said in a recent statement: “I’m grateful that my career in the Los Angeles art world has afforded me the opportunity to support those at the very heart of this community: artists. The students, alumni, and faculty from the art department at UCLA shape the future of the arts in Los Angeles and beyond. It would be my wish that others who are passionate about the future of the arts — especially other women who have enjoyed professional success — will join me in harnessing their resources to benefit those who are still developing their creative practices. We need to remember that without artists, there would be no art world.”

The post UCLA’s New Graduate Art Studio Stresses the Importance of Sustainable Schools first appeared on Dornob.

Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Kientruc O is a young firm led by both an architect and an industrial designer, with a mission to create architecture “that facilitates and embraces a coherent symbiosis between humans and the environment.” TTC Elite Saigon Kindergarten, TTC Elite Ben Tre Kindergarten, and Chuon Chuon Kim 2 Kindergarten all illustrate this philosophy.

Each building’s appeal to children is obvious upon first glance. The newest school, TTC Elite Saigon, is a fusion of childlike and modernist elements that never feels patronizing. Its monolithic, rounded white mass is punctuated by windows in all sorts of shapes and sizes, each one framed in a vivid color. Enormous pink, orange, and fuchsia blobs seem to float randomly across the facade.

Located close to the city’s railway station, the kindergarten is built upon an existing foundation inherited from the previous building, which gave the architects their starting point but clearly didn’t limit them. The firm says they wanted to provoke a sense of curiosity from the kids as they approach it each day.

They explain: “The windows are apertures that peer the view from inside to outside, stimulating emotion, imagination, and curiosity, establishing a direct relationship between the kids playing inside and the living, ever-changing external environment. Through the openings, light runs along the colored windowsill, highlighting and washing over the interior space with its dyed color, reciting an enchanted and fairytale-like atmosphere.”

TTC Elite Ben Tre, completed in 2017, aims for a peaceful atmosphere emphasizing the mild, pleasant tropical climate and interaction with nature. The architects implemented principles from traditional Vietnamese architectural language, including an open plan, but the coolest part is the rounded, grassy roof that creates an elevated playground.

“In its presence, the hill is the cornerstone that helped found the architectural identity of the school. It was conceived as a place that juggles the senses and tickles the curiosity inside each kid, leaving them wondering and anticipating of what excitement is awaiting them beyond the hill.”

Chuon Chuon Kim 2 Kindergarten, located in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2, looks only slightly more conventional than the others thanks to its brick facade. But there’s nothing ordinary about it, particularly when it comes to the protruding, telescope-like volumes on top and the window openings shaped like archetypal gabled houses.

“Like a giant LEGO building, the kindergarten is constructed entirely in bare brick forming patterns and openings that are playful to the eyes, conveying a unique aesthetic value and promoting natural ventilation. Classrooms and utility rooms are organized around a playful core. Each floor is arranged in an alternating pattern to enhance vertical interaction, encourage children to be more receptive to their surroundings, and stimulate their inner creativity.”

Don’t they make you wish all schools were so thoughtfully designed?

Of course, the firm didn’t necessarily set out to be a designer of kindergartens. Their other work includes homes, offices, and restaurants that are no less creative than their school designs. See it all at KientrucO.com.

The post 3 Imaginative Kindergarten Designs by Vietnamese Studio Kientruc O first appeared on Dornob.

With the new school year on the horizon, students are slowly starting to dust off their laptops and anticipate new challenges. But aside from more powerful, faster, and lighter portable PCs out there, there are some other really cool new gadgets that make learning easier and more fun.

Livescribe 2GB Echo Smartpen

Think your head will explode trying to catch every word of a lecture? With this nifty tool, you can rest easy knowing you won’t miss a thing. The Echo Smartpen records everything you hear and write and automatically saves it to your computer. It also comes complete with software for Mac or Windows, a 50-page Starter Notebook, two ink cartridges, and a micro USB cable to transfer data and keep your pen charged. The pen is so compact (6.8 inches long) it fits in your pocket, so you’ll have no problem taking it around and recharging in between classes.

Astrohaus Freewrite

If you enjoy taking notes but hate the bulk of a tablet, Freewrite is the tool for you. It’s a word processor that connects with the Cloud, so whatever you type is automatically saved. Whether you’re taking notes in Psych 101 or composing iambic pentameter for poetry class, this tool allows you to write on with the confidence that nothing will be lost. The Freewrite’s advanced e-ink screen is clear even on sunny days, too, so you can relax on the beach while you compose if you so please. The battery life lasts for over a week with regular use, so there’s no need to constantly recharge either.

ThirdEye Gen X1 Smart Glasses

Many lecture halls are massive, so if you’re not in the front few rows, it’s difficult to see formulas on the board or other visual aids used by educators. Slip on a pair of these Smart Glasses, and you’re guaranteed to have the best view in the room. These spectacles transform your view to one comparable to viewing a 90-inch screen from a distance of 10 feet, with a whopping 13 megapixels making sure that everything is clear as crystal. If necessary, the X1’s photochromatic lenses can also be replaced with prescription ones.

Garmin vívosmart 4

No matter how many gadgets and tools you bring to a classroom, you always have to be of sound mind and body to maximize learning. vívosmart helps keep you on track. Besides offering standard info like daily steps and exercise, notifying you of medication and supplement schedules, and tracking the number of calories you’ve burned, the device also keeps track of your sleep quality, stress levels, and pulse oxygenation. Before you head out the door for an all-night session, the compact vívosmart can tell you if it might be better to chill and relax at home.

TI-84 Plus CE

Of course, there’s more to education than writing and listening, especially if your passion is math, science, or engineering. The Plus CE graphing calculator displays connections between data, equations, and graphs in full color and includes graph lines for easy reading. The 2019 model is also 30-percent thinner and lighter than past versions, and is ideal for Use for Pre-Algebra, Algebra I and II, Trigonometry, Statistics, Business & Finance, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Precalculus, College Math, and Linear Algebra. Last but certainly not least, the TI-84 is also approved for IB exams, AP exams that permit graphing calculators, and the PSAT, SAT, and ACT college entrance exams.

The post 5 Electronics Every Student Needs for Back to School 2019 first appeared on Dornob.

The post Shell-Like Roof System Helps Save Water first appeared on Dornob.

The architects describe the new Glasir Tórshavn College succinctly as being “located on the undulating fjords of Faroe Islands, with views to the capital Tórshavn, the sea, and verdant fells. Glasir seeks to harvest the [combined] efficiencies of [the] Faroe Islands Gymnasium, Tórshavn Technical College, and the Business College of Faroe Islands into one building for over 1,750 students, teachers, and staff.”

Conceptually, the college aims to retain the identity and autonomy of each of its three educational arms while providing spaces that overlap and encourage interaction, multi-disciplinary learning, and the building of communities. This is achieved by stacking each of the schools on top of each other in concentric circles, with additional spaces for administration and recreation interspersed between the layers. Rather than be envisioned as a typical school environment, the college is thought of more as an incubator for ideas, much like modern tech campuses.

Externally, the building appears both sculptural and modern. Glazing is the order of the day, whether it’s the circular volume that protrudes upwards from the undulating landscape or the rectilinear wings that shoot out from its base into the surroundings. In fact, all of the college’s facades are glazed, with structural trusses being used to help to define the silhouette. The building’s external terraced arrangement is echoed internally, allowing for a cross-pollination of students from different disciplines and years to occur naturally.

BIG says of the campus: “Cascading across several levels, the stepped topography merges the multistory building into a single entity. At the top levels, the high school and business school cantilever towards the mountain range and moorland landscapes, creating a building that opens towards the city in all directions. The outer backdrop to the stunning Faroese landscape surrounding the education center is always visible, from the courtyard and classrooms to the gymnasium and library.”

Students and teachers alike benefit from the incredible and expansive views out towards the ocean and back across the landscape, all courtesy of the glazing and the orientation afforded by both the central cylinder and its protruding wings. The dramatic entrance via a bridge that crosses over the length of the sloping site gives all that enter a taste of what’s to come, with each wing demarcated by a different-colored glass for easy navigating.

The post BIG Completes New College Campus on Faroe Islands first appeared on Dornob.

The Nová Ruda school was originally built to accommodate the town’s growing population, comprising part of a proposed residential development close to a secondary art school. By working the kindergarten into the development, the planners hope that the area will soon blossom into an energetic community within a community.

From the onset of the project, principal architect Petr Stolín knew the school would have to have a small footprint. Indeed, the completed Nová Ruda only takes up 9,849 square feet, so to make it seem larger and brighter, Stolín opted to split the mass of the building down the middle to create an inner courtyard. He then decided to wrap the entire thing up in a transparent cloak. From the outside, only the solid forms of the classrooms and facilities can be seen, allowing students and staff to walk around the premises in relative privacy. Play and rest spaces are located on the lower levels, with two 25-desk classrooms, a 30-seat dining area, and rooftop terraces above. Both classrooms have skylights and interior windows overlooking the playgrounds.

By working in elements like the fiberglass façade, large windows, and lights of various colors, Stolín has truly played up the role of light at Nová Ruda. On top of that, the windows’ orientation makes for unexpected relationships between spaces, giving children and staff quirky views to both the courtyard and the world around them. These elements of fun in the kindergarten’s architecture are great for appealing to the children’s sense of wonder and adventure , but more importantly, they provide them with a refreshing learning experience.

Stolín did not want to design a typical school with an adjacent yard contained in a fence — though it’s not like he had the space to do so anyways. Instead, he flipped the concept of standard school design by putting the play areas at the center and then surrounding them with the learning spaces. Since recess is likely to be the best part of the day for most schoolchildren, the kindergarten’s architecture reads like a physical representation of how we use their desire for play as a way to teach them about themselves and getting along with one another.

The opening of a new school is always a milestone achievement for a community because it marks the beginning of a promising future. After all, each child who is educated there will grow to provide value to that community. The inverse of this is also true when a community closes a school, because it’s a sign that the present has been prioritized over the future. That’s why building educational facilities where children can learn in encouraging environments should always be celebrated.

The post At Nová Ruda Kindergarten, Learning and Play Become One first appeared on Dornob.