Play_Ground

 Play_Ground

— learning through play

Academic Project | 2007, Comprehensive Design Studio

Team | Dennis Rijkhoff, Cara McKibben

Advisor | Betsy Williamson

This project is based on the notion that play is the beginning of education. To create the maximum amount of opportunity for play, typical school program has been expanded to include an indoor and outdoor topography which marks areas in-between the class-rooms for informal student interaction.

Distinct spaces are created through a slight changes in elevation. Ramps and steps mark the artificial nature man-made recreational areas of the site. The building massing maintains an institutional sized front and a child sized backyard.

Because the nature of play changes as one grows older, program is placed in a hierarchical order with the nursery and kindergarten placed on the open ground floor and seventh and eighth in a contained unit above.