Nature: The World's Best Classroom

It’s an open secret that architects love outdoor space, even though we spend the majority of our time thinking about buildings and the spaces within them.

We celebrate the notion that It’s Not Just About the Buildings, that architecture’s connection to its site can add to the depth and richness of an architectural experience. Our belief in the value of a symbiotic relationship between architecture and its site includes learning environments, where students and teachers alike benefit immeasurably from visual and physical access to the outdoors. Unstructured play in a natural environment is an excellent antidote to the inescapable onslaught of electronic screens and virtual worlds. Here are some of the design strategies we use as architects to weave nature’s presence throughout a school day.

Immersion: Window walls that can slide entirely open blur the boundaries of the classroom by engaging the exterior environment and enabling the view to take center stage even when the weather isn't ideal. Bonus points if a nature play area with all-natural, zero-plastic elements is right outside!

Experiential Zones: Controlled natural interventions, such as rooftop gardens, landscaped play zones, and courtyards with planting beds, can serve nature’s role when the site is urban or has limited availability or access to natural site features. Lessons involving gardening are multi-subject treasure boxes, covering science, art, math, and life skills such as patience, perseverance and dedication.

Visual Access: If you’ve got it, flaunt it: nature’s beauty is hard to top as an element of “interior” design. While a spectacular view is undoubtably priceless, the tranquility and sense of “what’s beyond” is perhaps just as valuable in combatting overstimulation and high stress levels of today’s students’ complex worlds. Architecture can frame and focus views to take advantage of the site’s best features.

Nature’s splendor, serenity and its ability to be an unending source of the joy of discovery make it an ideal educational partner. Stay tuned for more adventures in architecture!