[Applause]
let’s talk about education and spaces
for education and transformation the
transformational possibilities of those
spaces in 1962 a Dutch architect named
Aldo Van Eyck was working on the design
of a kindergarten and orphanage and he
thought about it as a house and I think
he’s had a very profound thing he said
for a house to be real it should be like
a small city but also for a city to be
real it should be like a large house can
we think of a school where we come to
learn in those kind of broad terms can
we think of a school as the world can we
create the world in a school and at the
same time can that mean that this the
world which we know is our school can we
connect those two let’s let’s begin by
thinking in that context of scale of the
world and scale of the school and the
reciprocity of the two by thinking about
what characteristics do we really think
of a great school environment can have
it needs to be active engaging
interactive it needs to be collaborative
it needs to be an integrated place at
the same time we’re thinking of all of
us as students in that school learning
and knowledge and how do we access that
knowledge we access it through
problem-based learning through
team-based learning group based learning
and guided inquiry we want the school to
be student-centered that its focus is
really between the material and the
place around the student and how does a
student engage with the student with the
material
they engage visually they engage
intellectually they engage with their
sight with their hearing they engage in
a kind of haptic tactile way but at the
same time the school needs to be
flexible it needs to adapt to unknown
and as as yet in the undefined
opportunities and of course the world we
live in it must be technological it must
be based and recognized the kind of
opportunities of Technology and digital
access so how do we think of learning it
happens everywhere not in the classroom
how do we design for it happening
everywhere it’s very social
it’s very connective we gain information
and understanding and knowledge and
experience in so many ways it’s very
social it also is very private it’s
together with the material it should be
comfortable it should be a welcoming
safe and comfortable environment and of
course it should be challenging so if we
think of those characteristics of sight
and sound and touch we think of the
material engaging the course material
but also our material and those of other
students and that interconnection and
that interactivity in that collaborative
process of engaging with all the senses
and all the ways of engaging information
and understanding and all the material
available in a sort of complex way if we
really then think about the school UTS
and how we seek a new transformative
environment first of all we are grounded
in an extraordinary tradition over a
hundred years of history of academic
achievement academic excellence
extraordinary accomplishment at the same
time that there is the the condition of
architectural excellence which is
embedded in this school a school
building that’s over 100
years old that has been the kind of
heart of UTSA in a physical way for a
long time so building on that history of
excellence and that architectural
history of this the architect of this
building who designed the Royal Ontario
Museum who designed the original Art
Gallery of Ontario who designed
convocation Hall this is one of the
landmarks of the city so when thinking
about the school going forward and our
are continuing in the future to occupy a
wing of this school the East Wing the
here on street wing we’re beginning with
that sense of history physical history
and academic and intellectual history
and how do we exploit what are those
characteristics and perhaps with the
Huron Street entrance being always an
important entrance to the school but the
potential for being more important the
more Prime in the sense that it is the
opportunity to create a plaza an urban
space at the corner at the kind of
crossroads in the city
perhaps a speaker’s corner a space to
gather before and after school a place
to to kind of meet friends to work
outdoors and have classes outdoors and
good weather just like at the Emily Carr
University that we’re building in
Vancouver that space of interface
between the city and the school is is a
kind of key issue but there’s another
new opportunity that’s part of the world
of this new school and that is the park
the park at on Huron Street has always
been in the background the school has
never been oriented now we have the
opportunity to connect to the park that
it can be a Glee a green living room
again a place for all the kind of
activities intellectual and otherwise
that you you undertake in a park and so
that Park can be embedded and pulled
into the school in a kind of profound
new way in a really positive way and in
this what will be a view from one of the
corridors on the Huron wing suddenly
natural light and view to the park
connected to the park and accessible at
the lower level that the park is a
says there is the CD edge at the corner
there’ll be the green edge at the South
sorry I can’t get it to switch that I
think I did I but at the same time there
is the opportunity for the park in the
city and to connect to the community
because not only does the the school
exist in the city it exists in a
community of neighbors and living Lane
the laneway system that runs south on
Washington and down south to the
university is being recast as a living
Lane and that will connect the community
to the school and as you move north
towards a new south entrance to the
school one of three entrances to the
school that community connection is
possible and as you enter the school a
sense of welcome and transparency glass
visual connection to the park and access
through to the spaces to the north will
be part of that circumstance so
connecting heritage building on that
opportunity but then building the kind
of modern future sorry if
okay what’s the what’s the possibility
in the in the new space of the school is
where the parking lot now is in the
South corner of the Huron Street wing is
a vertical space of community a set of
stairs and terraces and study terraces
that are suspended in space where you
can connect from the lowest floors to
the upper floors through those four
floors filled with natural light places
to gather and so part of the daily
movement through the school meeting
friends and colleagues teachers and and
and the students you’re with always
encountering them because you’re at the
crossroads but those crossroads are
simply not a stair to move you from
level to level but a place of gathering
a place for group study a place for
social activity a great a place for
learning and classes just like in this
in this space that can be small and
individual places to study separate from
the classroom separate from the lab
separate from the library
but in a way that can be very social and
connected in in in light and in public
space that you can have those sort of
connective tissues as you move from
floor to floor we’re in the foreground
in this image there can be the space for
the individual to work but in a open
common area but that there’s also on the
kind of terraces which connect level to
level places for study and gathering as
groups whether socially or to do work in
what is now the gymnasium in the Huron
Street wing cannot be converted to the
library within that in space a library
which has suspended in it pods for study
spot pods for gathering a nut and in
that way connect the main floor of the
school with the second floor of the
school so that you enter at two levels
and that library becomes a sort of
connective space it’s no longer a
destination it’s a place that you move
through and make connection can we think
of the walls in the
building the existing walls in the
corridor the new walls in the kind of
modern spaces as surfaces surfaces for
new media surfaces for projection for
activity for for for video for
engagement but also for things like
living biofilters because the school
needs truly a sustainable design
dimension it needs to be low energy
needs to be as net carb close to net
energy zero and that carbon zero is we
can make it but if we can incorporate
living biofilters instead of replacing
the filters to keep the air clean in the
interior like you do in the furnace in
your house a living bio filter becomes
an active filtration system that’s
proven science in terms of how it makes
better indoor air quality and the air
quality with a living bio filter cleans
85% of the particulate and matters in in
air and is it kind of vastly higher air
quality than you can get in a
conventional mechanical environment so
we can use walls in that way can we
position places for food to cook
together to eat together to kind of meet
at lunch or in the morning or or at the
end of school or in kind of breaks
around places which are social and
connected that really engage all the
communities that make the school come
together around food and can we make
classrooms more than simply four walls
with windows and a door but something
that is flexible that has furniture that
can move that allows different
configurations and setups that allows
power and and service to convert labs
into classrooms into into performance
spaces and connect to the outdoors and
open to the outdoors can we think of the
classrooms really as sort of academic
communities where there are clusters of
space for small for small seminars and
discussion
for teachers to have their offices woven
through the space spaces – for groups to
move out into the corridor to work on a
project and re-engage with the community
in in the school sorry and do so in a
way where there’s a kind of flexibility
of use that each room doesn’t have a
defined name but there is a kind of
flexibility of interpretation of how you
can use different spaces in the school
of course we will have two extraordinary
gymnasiums which are actually going to
be tucked under the park and will be
naturally lit from above but that sense
of academic life like the life of music
in the school the life of art in the
school the art of physical athletics in
the school and a great new 700 seat
auditorium that supports music drama
film video lectures that can be shared
with the community can be shared with
the university but really is
fundamentally a place that’s that’s
designed to be used and support the
community of all the students in the
school so if we can combine all this
outreach to the city the space for green
lungs in that outdoor room the space for
connection to community welcoming the
community the flexibility of how you
move through the school the places for
connection and in social activity that
are embedded in the DNA in the building
this all the kind of spaces for four
that are equipped with flexibility to
support labs and music and gymnasium and
theaters can we really think of the
school and can we make the school
reflect the world and the world be more
like UTS thank you very much
you
[Applause]
let’s talk about education and spaces
for education and transformation the
transformational possibilities of those
spaces in 1962 a Dutch architect named
Aldo Van Eyck was working on the design
of a kindergarten and orphanage and he
thought about it as a house and I think
he’s had a very profound thing he said
for a house to be real it should be like
a small city but also for a city to be
real it should be like a large house can
we think of a school where we come to
learn in those kind of broad terms can
we think of a school as the world can we
create the world in a school and at the
same time can that mean that this the
world which we know is our school can we
connect those two let’s let’s begin by
thinking in that context of scale of the
world and scale of the school and the
reciprocity of the two by thinking about
what characteristics do we really think
of a great school environment can have
it needs to be active engaging
interactive it needs to be collaborative
it needs to be an integrated place at
the same time we’re thinking of all of
us as students in that school learning
and knowledge and how do we access that
knowledge we access it through
problem-based learning through
team-based learning group based learning
and guided inquiry we want the school to
be student-centered that its focus is
really between the material and the
place around the student and how does a
student engage with the student with the
material
they engage visually they engage
intellectually they engage with their
sight with their hearing they engage in
a kind of haptic tactile way but at the
same time the school needs to be
flexible it needs to adapt to unknown
and as as yet in the undefined
opportunities and of course the world we
live in it must be technological it must
be based and recognized the kind of
opportunities of Technology and digital
access so how do we think of learning it
happens everywhere not in the classroom
how do we design for it happening
everywhere it’s very social
it’s very connective we gain information
and understanding and knowledge and
experience in so many ways it’s very
social it also is very private it’s
together with the material it should be
comfortable it should be a welcoming
safe and comfortable environment and of
course it should be challenging so if we
think of those characteristics of sight
and sound and touch we think of the
material engaging the course material
but also our material and those of other
students and that interconnection and
that interactivity in that collaborative
process of engaging with all the senses
and all the ways of engaging information
and understanding and all the material
available in a sort of complex way if we
really then think about the school UTS
and how we seek a new transformative
environment first of all we are grounded
in an extraordinary tradition over a
hundred years of history of academic
achievement academic excellence
extraordinary accomplishment at the same
time that there is the the condition of
architectural excellence which is
embedded in this school a school
building that’s over 100
years old that has been the kind of
heart of UTSA in a physical way for a
long time so building on that history of
excellence and that architectural
history of this the architect of this
building who designed the Royal Ontario
Museum who designed the original Art
Gallery of Ontario who designed
convocation Hall this is one of the
landmarks of the city so when thinking
about the school going forward and our
are continuing in the future to occupy a
wing of this school the East Wing the
here on street wing we’re beginning with
that sense of history physical history
and academic and intellectual history
and how do we exploit what are those
characteristics and perhaps with the
Huron Street entrance being always an
important entrance to the school but the
potential for being more important the
more Prime in the sense that it is the
opportunity to create a plaza an urban
space at the corner at the kind of
crossroads in the city
perhaps a speaker’s corner a space to
gather before and after school a place
to to kind of meet friends to work
outdoors and have classes outdoors and
good weather just like at the Emily Carr
University that we’re building in
Vancouver that space of interface
between the city and the school is is a
kind of key issue but there’s another
new opportunity that’s part of the world
of this new school and that is the park
the park at on Huron Street has always
been in the background the school has
never been oriented now we have the
opportunity to connect to the park that
it can be a Glee a green living room
again a place for all the kind of
activities intellectual and otherwise
that you you undertake in a park and so
that Park can be embedded and pulled
into the school in a kind of profound
new way in a really positive way and in
this what will be a view from one of the
corridors on the Huron wing suddenly
natural light and view to the park
connected to the park and accessible at
the lower level that the park is a
says there is the CD edge at the corner
there’ll be the green edge at the South
sorry I can’t get it to switch that I
think I did I but at the same time there
is the opportunity for the park in the
city and to connect to the community
because not only does the the school
exist in the city it exists in a
community of neighbors and living Lane
the laneway system that runs south on
Washington and down south to the
university is being recast as a living
Lane and that will connect the community
to the school and as you move north
towards a new south entrance to the
school one of three entrances to the
school that community connection is
possible and as you enter the school a
sense of welcome and transparency glass
visual connection to the park and access
through to the spaces to the north will
be part of that circumstance so
connecting heritage building on that
opportunity but then building the kind
of modern future sorry if
okay what’s the what’s the possibility
in the in the new space of the school is
where the parking lot now is in the
South corner of the Huron Street wing is
a vertical space of community a set of
stairs and terraces and study terraces
that are suspended in space where you
can connect from the lowest floors to
the upper floors through those four
floors filled with natural light places
to gather and so part of the daily
movement through the school meeting
friends and colleagues teachers and and
and the students you’re with always
encountering them because you’re at the
crossroads but those crossroads are
simply not a stair to move you from
level to level but a place of gathering
a place for group study a place for
social activity a great a place for
learning and classes just like in this
in this space that can be small and
individual places to study separate from
the classroom separate from the lab
separate from the library
but in a way that can be very social and
connected in in in light and in public
space that you can have those sort of
connective tissues as you move from
floor to floor we’re in the foreground
in this image there can be the space for
the individual to work but in a open
common area but that there’s also on the
kind of terraces which connect level to
level places for study and gathering as
groups whether socially or to do work in
what is now the gymnasium in the Huron
Street wing cannot be converted to the
library within that in space a library
which has suspended in it pods for study
spot pods for gathering a nut and in
that way connect the main floor of the
school with the second floor of the
school so that you enter at two levels
and that library becomes a sort of
connective space it’s no longer a
destination it’s a place that you move
through and make connection can we think
of the walls in the
building the existing walls in the
corridor the new walls in the kind of
modern spaces as surfaces surfaces for
new media surfaces for projection for
activity for for for video for
engagement but also for things like
living biofilters because the school
needs truly a sustainable design
dimension it needs to be low energy
needs to be as net carb close to net
energy zero and that carbon zero is we
can make it but if we can incorporate
living biofilters instead of replacing
the filters to keep the air clean in the
interior like you do in the furnace in
your house a living bio filter becomes
an active filtration system that’s
proven science in terms of how it makes
better indoor air quality and the air
quality with a living bio filter cleans
85% of the particulate and matters in in
air and is it kind of vastly higher air
quality than you can get in a
conventional mechanical environment so
we can use walls in that way can we
position places for food to cook
together to eat together to kind of meet
at lunch or in the morning or or at the
end of school or in kind of breaks
around places which are social and
connected that really engage all the
communities that make the school come
together around food and can we make
classrooms more than simply four walls
with windows and a door but something
that is flexible that has furniture that
can move that allows different
configurations and setups that allows
power and and service to convert labs
into classrooms into into performance
spaces and connect to the outdoors and
open to the outdoors can we think of the
classrooms really as sort of academic
communities where there are clusters of
space for small for small seminars and
discussion
for teachers to have their offices woven
through the space spaces – for groups to
move out into the corridor to work on a
project and re-engage with the community
in in the school sorry and do so in a
way where there’s a kind of flexibility
of use that each room doesn’t have a
defined name but there is a kind of
flexibility of interpretation of how you
can use different spaces in the school
of course we will have two extraordinary
gymnasiums which are actually going to
be tucked under the park and will be
naturally lit from above but that sense
of academic life like the life of music
in the school the life of art in the
school the art of physical athletics in
the school and a great new 700 seat
auditorium that supports music drama
film video lectures that can be shared
with the community can be shared with
the university but really is
fundamentally a place that’s that’s
designed to be used and support the
community of all the students in the
school so if we can combine all this
outreach to the city the space for green
lungs in that outdoor room the space for
connection to community welcoming the
community the flexibility of how you
move through the school the places for
connection and in social activity that
are embedded in the DNA in the building
this all the kind of spaces for four
that are equipped with flexibility to
support labs and music and gymnasium and
theaters can we really think of the
school and can we make the school
reflect the world and the world be more
like UTS thank you very much
you
[Applause]
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