Liminal Voids
Studio: Core II
Year: Spring 2022
Critic: Karla Rothstein
Size: 29,000 SF
Educational, Community, Model-Making
Education is a transitory period in one’s lifetime, where a
K-8 school occupies nine years of one’s life. During this time, the student
becomes a transient being in a school, only occupying the space from 6 to 7
hours of the day. With the occupants always at flux, what if the school
embraces the transitional nature of formal education? If school is simply a
vessel that you occupy from one stage of life to the next, it could become a
liminal void that blurs the thresholds of time and space. Liminality can be
associated with ambiguous or unsettling feelings, but they also offer
opportunities to become places of introspection and reflection.
The school’s location in the Lower East Side compounds the
transitory nature, as the neighborhood has been prone to rapid transformation.
Along with the everchanging built environment, the Lower East Side has been
home to many different immigrant communities throughout history. In 2019, 34.4%
of residents were born outside of the country, higher than any other
neighborhood in New York. The cultural makeup of the area is always changing
and have prompted various organizations to be created in order to support their
needs. The school should become a place where the different cultural heritages
of the community will be permanently embraced and celebrated, even if the
ethnical makeup of the community changes over time. The library will rotate
through books of different languages and highlight authors from varying
backgrounds. The classrooms will be open for these organizations to host ESL
courses, hold cultural festivities, and provide other spatial support to celebrate
one’s heritage and traditions. Despite the transitory nature of people, the
school will be a permanent anchor for the community to shape and form to their
needs.
Interstitial spaces like the hallway begin to blur with the destination
of the classrooms. By use of permeable surfaces made with arrayed cord, the
classrooms lose the typically solid boundary between room and hall. In the
earliest stages of education - grades K, 1, and 2 - there will be no dictated
classroom for the students. They will have the flexibility to go between three
different spaces for their different needs. As they progress through grades 3
through 8, they are presented with non-rectangular rooms which disperse
hierarchy by not having a defined front/back of classroom. This allows for
collaborative and non-hierarchical education, fostering methods such as
Phenomenon-based learning where there is no specific subject nor preset
learning objective, but is learner-centered and led by student inquiry and
problem solving. Without a preset learning objective, the students learn to
embrace the liminal ambiguity and follow their instinctive research interests.
The threshold marking the end of the school day becomes
undefined as well through the various spaces and amenities that are offered to
the students outside of school hours as well as the rest of the community. The
central space through the first three floors will remain open throughout the
day as well as on weekends, offering access to the library/theater, music room,
art room, cafeteria, and green space.