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Architects: Medusagroup
- Area: 4198 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Juliusz, Jędrzej Sokołowscy
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Manufacturers: Forbo Flooring Systems, Gerflor, Hanse Grand, Knauf, „SKLEJKA-PISZ” PAGET
Text description provided by the architects. Changes in the public education system in Poland have not kept up with the modern changes in the lives and activities of young people. Generation of the so-called millenials, which entered the high school age, forced a thorough reformulation of the approach to education. It also forced a review of the principles of shaping school buildings.
Akademeia High School in Warsaw is the place where everyone works in the system of oval tables, the teachers do not have a teacher's room, and they remain permanently part of a compact, educational ecosystem. This was the basis of the overall idea of creating a lifestyle atmosphere, encouraging to stay in school after hours of classes.
A huge tribune is organising the space in center of the schoolyard. An universal element, a meeting place that inspires students and teachers to atypical WF classes, geography, biology or literature.
A canteen closer to a fashionable restaurant than a traditional school diner. This was a way of understanding the modern day room. The main difference is that this place is open not only at lunchtime, but it works continuously changing its functions, from the canteen, to the cafes with the reading room and the live art-desk. This is a place where you can work with literature, meet with a psychologist, wait for parents and at the same time sit at a laptop and do homework, preparing the elders. We wanted pupils in small groups to learn the culinary art from the kitchen, get to know the flavors and make inspiring, culinary travels - geography with gastronomy in one. That is why we decided to extend this program to the roof space, where the garden will be located. I think that there may be activities related to biology, but also physics, astronomy or geography. All this will probably mean that students will want to get to this roof. There you will be able to produce hives during the summer season, you can grow basil, rosemary, thyme, herbs used later in the school canteen. Increasingly, urban planning speaks of the use of these roof spaces and the introduction of additional greenery to the city.
Hall is nothing like school corridors, rather a scaled, wooden hollow. We do not wanted the bench or seat to be associated only with the chair. We want young people to sit on what they like to sit in the city public spaces or big city malls. It is known that in the classroom they are sitting on chairs, but there is also a tribune where you can lie down and sunbathe during breaks, do some push-ups in PE classes or do jumps while training a sprint. This was what we were looking for when designing this place - ambiguous, multifunctional and inspiring places.
The intention was alsow to obtain the highest level of certification in the LEED certification system, which is a unique approach to educational construction in our country.
