One Step Closer To the Dream

For today’s children, memorizing information is not as important as being able to find and use it, collaborating with others to go beyond the limits of your individual capabilities. A school can encourage communication, interaction, and collective creativity. From project to project, we explore the typology of schools, searching for new possibilities within it. That is why atrium spaces with amphitheaters, as well as spaces for informal communication, have become a key element of our new approach.

Another important theme is the “city” image: the atrium resembles a town square, specialized classrooms look like office centers, traditional classrooms resemble residential quarters, the auditorium and sports halls serve as public centers, while the corridors and staircases transform into thoroughfares and passageways. Even behavioral models within the school are structured in analogy with the social standards of an urban community.

We want to go further, turning schools into centers of public life in their neighborhoods. In Troitsk, we have partially achieved this, but further work is needed on typology and existing standards.

Each functional block presented its own challenges. For example, we spent a long time refining the kitchen block in terms of technology. We had a prototype, but during the project, the regulations changed, and we had to redesign everything.

The significant elevation differences on the site allowed us to separate different functions and blocks by height. For instance, younger children and older students enter the school at the same location but on different levels, which also made it possible to incorporate an amphitheater into the slope.

The terrain both posed challenges and suggested solutions. All academic blocks are three stories high, but at their junction, the elevation change resulted in four stories. The sports block, which by regulations should not exceed two stories, ended up on what would be the third level relative to the younger students’ section. Relocating it was not an option, as all functions had already been distributed within the volume. After reanalyzing the building layout, we realized that part of the first floor of the younger students’ block, including the cloakroom, as well as part of the public block with the swimming pool, could be interpreted as a basement level. Additionally, the double-height auditorium beneath the sports hall could be considered a single level. As a result, the sports halls were positioned on the second floor. We managed to comply with the regulations while maintaining the logical flow of the school’s layout, thanks to the flexibility of the initial structure.

For educational institutions, it is crucial to consider how interior design affects the psychological well-being of the students and teachers. In budget-conscious projects, there is also the challenge of balancing aesthetics, cost-efficiency, and durability of materials. Additionally, we always strive to find solutions that serve an extra function – such as aiding navigation.

In this case, we proposed a unifying approach: a geometric pattern of intersecting stripes and shapes, whose variability allowed us to design both the spacious halls and corridors, as well as smaller classrooms, in a cohesive way. We selected color combinations for each school block, favoring uplifting and energetic shades while carefully maintaining visual balance between accent and background colors, especially in the classrooms.

Another advantage of this school’s custom pattern was the ease of application during construction. Its large-scale design and straight lines made it possible for the builders to apply the graphics to the walls without requiring specialized skills or the involvement of artists.

The school’s teaching staff played an active role in the project’s development. At our initiative, the design was expanded to include a prep room next to the computer science classrooms for storing equipment, an observatory, and a platform for stargazing. At later stages, we organized faculty offices by floor and numbered the classrooms. Besides the teachers, our students also took part in shaping their future school. During a summer workshop, they proposed ideas for navigation, the layout of the hand washing area near the cafeteria, and information zones. Some of these collective ideas were incorporated into the project, while others were not, but the shared engagement and investment in quality brought everyone together.

This sense of involvement is still evident now that the school has opened. From our perspective, the most successful design solutions include high ceilings, abundant natural light, atrium spaces, spacious classrooms and hallways, a large swimming pool, a well-designed library and media center, carefully chosen color schemes, and, of course, modern equipment and facilities. However, there have been some criticisms. Some classrooms have noticeable echo, certain windows were poorly installed and let in cold air, and the hallway walls are easily stained and difficult to clean. The medical office is inconveniently located, and the small auditorium has not lived up to expectations: its telescopic seating takes up too much space, the lighting is insufficient, and the acoustics are poor. As a result, there is no suitable venue for balls, discos, or other events. We actively analyze our user experience and share feedback with designers and education specialists to improve our school’s comfort and functionality, as well as to refine future projects.