Small Moves Can Have Large Effects

We imagined a relaxed school environment, supportive of small school philosophy - a place where teachers, parents, and students could teach and learn most effectively. Our focus was each child's experience. The design of the school should include and celebrate all aspects of learning from the playground to the classroom. The context would validate both the built and natural environment and support social interaction at the peer, school community, and wider community level.

Over time the form of the building evolved into a kind of ripple. The ripple began as a folding roof form responding to a conceptual intent to link rather than compartmentalize. One can follow the plywood ceilings that line the roof for the length of the buildings along folds that highlight light and shadow and mark programmed spaces. The roof became a metaphor for the potential for making change by attending to the needs of each child.