An Instructional Neighborhood
Mini City [Walk-In Textbook] TM
Overview of Mini City
Large groups of classrooms connected by halls is the dominate approach to school, indoor facilities in America at this time. It has often been noted this architecture is based on the factory model and evolved to serve a teacher-desk-subject-textbook-graded-lecture curriculum. The large size and form of these institutions evolved over the past one hundred years due to consolidation, the growth of cities, and economy of scale. There is no simple way of summing up the philosophical base or educational theory that this system is based on; however, teacher and textbook as source of knowledge with student as empty vessel would be a start.
"Ecology" was not a word when this system of separate grades and separate subjects evolved. Sustainability was not a world wide issue nor was 'neural research' a sophisticated field. The times call for a new structure, there has been research over the past one hundred years exploring alternatives in education. While much has been written and theorized on alternative curriculum the axiom of classroom as location has not been examined. Mini City has been under development for the past seventeen years, it is an alternative context for the next generation curriculum and represents extensions into the community at large.
The School Design and Planning Laboratory (SDPL) is working to develop the best structures and spaces for an educational environment based on learning as a 'constructivist' activity. An environment which models and reinforces sustainable design is viewed as critical for our culture, and schools may be the gateway architecture in this line of thinking. The Mini City Walk-In Textbook represents one part of the way the SDPL envisions an indoor or outdoor learning environment. The collection of structures which support a project-based learning environment more closely resembles a campus of specialized buildings and Walk-In Textbooks than generic classrooms that have desks, chairs, lectures, and 'one subject at a time.' The next image reveals an aerial view of the model, with layout and wire frame.
Aerial View
Mini-City is a place for third and fourth grade level students to learn about the community. The educational philosophy involves a non-factory model, "constructivist view," for learning. Mini City features a thematic, integrated program that takes the teacher and students out of the 'factory model' and into a place where the teacher is the coach and the students are the "workers."