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As architects, designers, planners and consultants, we partner with our clients on some 3,000 projects every year. These projects can be as small as a wine label or as large as a new urban district. With 2,000+ professionals networked across more than 30 locations, we serve our clients as trusted advisors, combining localized expertise with global perspective wherever new opportunities arise. Our work reflects an enduring commitment to sustainability and the belief that design is one of the most powerful strategic tools for securing lasting competitive advantage.
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The world has a huge homework assignment. Educating all the globe’s children, the World Bank estimates, will require construction of 10 million new classrooms in more than 100 countries by 2015. Add to this millions of existing classrooms that require repair and refurbishment, and the world faces its largest construction project to date.
In response, Architecture for Humanity hosted the “2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom” competition, inviting designers to collaborate with students and teachers in envisioning the classroom of the future. Teams from Gensler’s New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles offices responded to the challenge, and the two submissions featured here will appear in the competition’s traveling exhibition.
Gensler’s New York team partnered with the Future Leaders Institute (FLI), a public charter school in Harlem, New York, to create a sustainable, student-centric learning environment in response to the competition mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools to develop solutions that serve the school in its community.
Dubbed the “Blurred Classroom,” Gensler’s concept takes the traditional school building, an industrial package of efficiently organized boxes, and deconstructs the four-walled box — blurring the lines of convention — into a series of flexible, overlapping spaces.
“Taking into account a variety of learning and teaching styles, FLI’s existing culture, and the larger social needs of these particular students, we worked to design a dynamic environment that helps kids learn,” said Ralph Walker, Gensler team leader.
During the competition process, After Ed TV documented the Blurred Classroom team’s work. A Web-based video channel produced by EdLab at Teachers College, Columbia University, After Ed TV aims to promote diverse and innovative thinking about educational advancement in learning.
In its “School ReDesign” series, After Ed TV explores the physical spaces of New York City schools, examining how these buildings need to be reconceived and rebuilt to meet the needs of an ever-growing student population. For this season’s series, After Ed TV documented Gensler’s collaborative process of redesigning an FLI classroom with input from the school’s faculty and students.
Selected as an Open Architecture Challenge finalist, the Blurred Classroom represents one of more than 400 entry submissions from more than 1,000 design teams in 65 countries. The selection panel, composed of a team of 60 interdisciplinary jurors, rated designs on feasibility, sustainability, innovation in learning and overall design quality.
The Open Architecture Challenge selected 50 submission entries for its traveling competition exhibition. One of these entries is the creation of a Gensler Los Angeles team. It approached the modular classroom concept as a response to the question: Why are learning and play separate events in a child’s school day?
The team’s solution, “Blow Up Your School,” creates a setting in which children can learn, work and play in one integrated, interactive environment. The modular classroom provides a learning environment that not only supports teaching but affords students a classroom experience that accommodates their needs regardless of the subjects and activities they engage.
Story
Lisa Beazley, Barb McCarthy, Leah Ray—Gensler Firmwide Communications
Images*
The Blurred Classroom, Project Team: page 2
Blow Up Your School, Project Team: pages 1, 4
*For detailed information, please roll over imagery on individual story pages.
Video Production
After Ed TV: page 3
Gensler Competition Team Contacts
Richard Hammond (Gensler—Los Angeles): richard_hammond@gensler.com
Audrey Handelman (Gensler—Los Angeles): audrey_handelman@gensler.com
Ralph Walker (Gensler—New York): ralph_walker@gensler.com