Harcourt Terrace Primary School

THE URBAN CHILD

The urban child is somewhat different from the rural child.

Apartment living is becoming increasingly the norm, in the typical Irish city centre. The child is less perplexed by issues of external building scale. The norm is for daily life within the taller city residential blocks. The contemporary child is a digital native within their city. The school is consequently a city scaled response for city kids.

The projected population of the school is in the order of 700 pupils. The year groupings for the school are organised into three classes per year group with a shared common resource base.

Each year group becomes a small neighbourhood in itself. We have centred each year group around a communal shared resource space that will be become more formally planned as the child grows.

Our approach to the school has been to focus on “play” as the core organising principle for the school’s design. This has been balanced with the need to provide adjacent physical recreational space in conjunction with the classes.

Increasingly issues with childhood obesity in Ireland are placing physical education at the centre of childhood development. It follows that ensuring that the external play spaces are fundamental drivers for the schools design and are embedded in our thinking.

PLAN

The more publicly accessible functions of the school wrap around the base of the school. This approach provides glimpses into the school’s inner workings such as the library space. The play decks animate the street from the elevated cycle path. The playground provides a screened public secure space for the city.

THE SECTION

The school’s section is organised around a number of enclosed play terraces. These gradually step through the lower floors of the school. The play spaces overlook the canal; the passing barges, the trees, the cycle and jogging path. By facing the canal the school’s southern facade has become a strong urban statement on the linear tree lined route. The terraced play spaces will help animate this public edge with the sounds of the children at play. The upper terraces are protected “sunny” external rooms that are teaching and play spaces. They overlook the tree tops and provide elevated teaching spaces. The main hall for the school is sunken. It is a shared space that can be utilised directly by the community for out of hour’s activities.

CLASSES

The school classes are designed to be highly flexible class bases. The floors are designed in the city tradition of working spaces. The city is importantly part of the urban child’s community. Distant views across the city are an important shared experience for the child.