LAVA`s school relocatable is a learning space for the future. The classroom for 21st century learning is sustainable, integrates with the landscape, connects with the school environment, and is suitable for prefabrication and mass customisation.
Relocatables are the decades old solution to changing demographics, remote community needs, and natural disasters. Unsightly, they are perceived as cheap and unpleasant spaces.
This idea is upturned with spaces that are sustainable, practical, costeffective whilst making learning fun and exciting.
Sustainable design includes prefabrication, eco-materials, symmetrical repeatable geometry, and small lightweight easily transportable modular elements. The modular façade system is manually operable, flexible for light and shade, enclosed space or open space, bringing the outside in or the inside out. Mass customisation is low cost, low carbon, with off-site prefabrication allowing responsive assembly, and adapts to varied climates, unusual configurations and topographies.
The ‘three axis’ geometry design allows interlocking of various configurations to adapt to changing class sizes, learning clusters and future learning methods.
This cellular space for learning strengthens the connection between mankind, nature and technology.
The design received a ‘Jury Special Mention’ in the Australian Future Proofing School competition and was on show in December 2011 at the Wunderlich Gallery, University of Melbourne. http://www.msdincubator.com/gallery/
PRACTICE CREDITS LAVA - Chris Bosse, Tobias Wallisser, Alexander Rieck LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) was founded in 2007. The directors, Chris Bosse, Tobias Wallisser and Alexander Rieck, have designed projects such as the city centre plan for the CO²-neutral Masdar City, the Michael Schumacher Tower in Abu Dhabi, Future-Hotel-Prototype in Duisburg and a new university master plan in Saudi Arabia. Chris Bosse, whilst associate architect at PTW Architects, was a key designer of the Watercube at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Tobias Wallisser is Professor for Innovative Construction and Spatial Concepts at the State Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart. As an associate architect at UNStudio, Amsterdam, he was responsible for the planning of the Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz Museum. Both of these projects set new standards in the field of computer-based drafting. Alexander Rieck has been working form the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart for over ten years and coordinates a range of inter-institutional architectural activities, including the research project Future of Construction.
Cheap, dull, unattractive and unpleasant spaces – that’s the reputation of school ‘relocatables’. They’re the decades old, utilitarian solution to changing school demographics, remote community needs and disasters such as fires, floods and cyclones.
But a new plan by the Laboratory For Visionary Architecture [LAVA] turns these unpleasant spaces into smart buildings, the design an education in itself. In sustainability, social interaction, nature and adaptive technology.
Chris Bosse, Asia Pacific director of LAVA says: ‘we wanted to turn this idea upside down and create spaces that are sustainable, practical, costeffective whilst fun and exciting to be in’.
The sustainable design includes a modular façade system that is manually operable, flexible for light and shade, enclosed space or open space, bringing the outside in or the inside out. Using eco-materials it is low cost, low carbon, with off-site prefabrication allowing responsive assembly, with small lightweight, easily transportable modular elements.
This cellular ‘space for learning’ strengthens the connection between mankind, nature and technology. ‘Three-axis’ geometry allows the interlocking of each module to form large groups with smaller learning clusters. This results in the building itself learning how to adapt to future methods of learning and future modes of operation.
The future classroom adapts to multiple sites, unusual configurations and different climates and topographies through a simple telescopic system of posts integrating the classroom into the landscape.
The concept received a commendation in the Australian Future Proofing School competition to future proof relocatable learning spaces. The aim of the ideas competition was to produce effective spaces for 21st century learning that are sustainable, integrate with the landscape and connect with the school environment, suitable for prefabrication and mass customisation. http://www.msdincubator.com/gallery/
