Space as the Third teacher: An alternative classroom typology promoting creative learning and play Part 1 Project 2015 Boon Yik Chung Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) | UK This project takes a philosophical and theoretical path in searching for an alternative classroom typology for a Montessori school in Florida.Montessori children learn from playing with auto-didactic toys, designed to facilitate individual discovery and stimulate creativity.Expanded from Froebel Gifts, the Montessori’s toys are minimalist and ambiguous objects, representing abstract ideas and inviting open-ended play. Pioneering 20th-century artists e.g. Mondrian attested to the influence of the toys in their pursuit of ‘the Abstract’.‘The wood blocks are in my fingers to this day’-Frank Lloyd WrightResearch into these toys reveals the weakness of contemporary classroom typology, which draws sharp unhelpful physical and psychological boundaries between spaces, play and learning.‘Play is the work of a child’-Maria MontessoriThis proposal imbues the architecture with the same notion of ambiguity and open-endedness found in the toys.The classroom becomes a loosely defined space created by a collection of ‘architectural suggestions’ surrounding a core in which a learning group is based. Spaces are to be interpreted and negotiated; they are incomplete without the presence of the users.‘ Children develop through interactions, first with … lives-parents and teachers, then with their peers and ultimately with the environment.’‘Space is the third teacher.’-Loris Malaguzzi Tutor(s)Mr Rhys Cannon