Basically, the gist of the article was to talk about how functional, educated color and lighting design are essential components of a school environment, and have a powerful impact on students' productivity. So while I was researching the article, I came across all sorts of wonderful case studies and visuals. But as a for-profit corporation, SW must follow stricter rules about image usage, which means more hoops to jump through if you want to borrow photos from a site. So now, I'm swimming in cool images that I couldn't use for the article.
Along with this, I've been in a holding pattern with a elementary school client who has yet to determine the priority for fixing up their campus interiors. I was so excited to have the opportunity to improve the students' learning environments that I hit the ground running before any final decisions had been made. Just figured I would get a 'head start'. Now, the project has been shelved indefinitely, due to a reshuffling of budgetary concerns. And since I have education on the brain, I thought sharing some photos might help me get some "closure", so to speak.
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Here's an itsy bitsy before shot of a 1960's school building, a "nasty-looking teaching block" (in the architect's own words), at Longford Community School in London.
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Here's a shot of the building after renovation. For those of you who love technical details, the low down: for the face lift, custom-color stained Finnish softwood laminated ‘fins’ that support both the first floor structure and the roof were used. I just love the brightly colored- gradation of panels. Can you imagine how sad this might have looked in cool, gray concrete?
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The architect goes further, defining his approach in terms of color design:"We like to define spaces and volumes using different finishes or materials often creating contrasts with unexpected or subtle use of colour. The practice is particularly interested in transformable and flexible spaces that can adapt and change to suit different ways of living, working or enjoying."Do you have a school in your area that really impressed you, colorwise? It seems to rare to find a educaitonal facility where color was seriously considered, especially inside.