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The High-Street School: Beyond the School Gates

Part 2 Project 2024
Jakob Young
University of Strathclyde | UK
The discourse surrounding contemporary education confronts a fundamental dilemma: reconciling the avant-garde ideas of the de-schoolers with the pragmatic expectations for our children. Historically, schools were perceived as pivotal assets within communities. However, present trends suggest a shift to more extensively equipped yet simultaneously impractically isolated institutions, solely serving one age group for limited durations of the day, week, or year. This brief advocates for a transformative approach to secondary school design, challenging the notion of segregated institutions confined by gates, playgrounds, and walls. Instead, it envisions educational spaces as a communal asset integrated within the urban landscape. Enter the concept of a 'high-street' school where learning goes beyond the traditional classroom. The educational philosophy is rooted in a humanistic and child-centred pedagogy inspired by Colin Ward's metaphor of nurturing children as flowers. Extrapolating this metaphor into a methodology, the project is structured around nine chapters, from 'Seed Production' to 'Cycle Repeat,' the project aims to empower students to take control of their learning journey.

The project aims to cultivate an educational ecosystem that responds to the evolving needs of its community. The project proposes a new manifesto, showing examples of student consultation, conceptual designs for modular educational pavilions, the 'caretakers' factory' and proposing a 'High-Street School Bus' to facilitate student transportation within the neighbourhood.


Tutor(s)


2024
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