Challenging the Traditional Classroom typology

Adam Rice

Thesis

Proposal: Inclusive Primary School
Location: Connolly House, North Strand Rd, Dublin 1

It is important, as a society that we design and care for the younger and more vulnerable members so that we can ensure progressive communities to develop. This project stems from an interest in how education is treated in Ireland today, my project acts as a response to an unchanged classroom typology where there has been little progression in the evolution of the classroom. In my thesis writing, I have set out to examine the architecture of educational buildings in the North East Inner City of Dublin and begin to identify an architecture that supports a more informal and accessible education more suited to the 21st Century. We need to ask ourselves, what does a 21st Century School in the North East Inner City of Dublin look like “We need to help schools towards improving the way they teach and work towards a better engaging young people, children and communities” (Singer, 2016)

Over time a separation has grown within the education system excluding many students from normal school life due to various behavioural and learning difficulties. This has a ripple effect socially and is reinforced with physical separation. I have set out to discover an architecture that supports a more integrated and informal approach to learning.

By investigating the traditional and examining precedent studies on how to create space that has varying degrees of control and allows independence. I hope that this project provides some positive direction in the building of schools in Ireland. The site, being presented as a Dublin back land area actually has the potential to act as a hub for a new educational campus. I hope that my project aids in encouraging the future sustainable development of the North East Inner City of Dublin, one that engages with its context and provides opportunities for the future.