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    PLY+ and MPR Arquitectos convert historic Detroit building into colourful school

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    PLY+ and MPR Arquitectos have transformed a building at a former Catholic college into the School at Marygrove Elementary, filling it with colours and shapes that help spark “experimentation and exploration” among children.

    Located in northwest Detroit, the building is part of the School at Marygrove, a new educational institution that will eventually serve students in kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12). The curriculum has a special focus on engineering and social justice.
    PLY+ and MPR Arquitectos converted a Catholic college in Detroit into an elementary schoolThe school occupies the site of a former religious college, Marygrove College, that closed in 2019. The campus – which is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places – is now owned and managed by a nonprofit organization, the Marygrove Conservancy.
    Several buildings on the 53-acre (21-hectare) campus are being converted into facilities for the School at Marygrove.
    The school is on a historic campusThis project involved transforming a brick-faced, concrete building that first opened in 1941 into a public elementary school for children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

    The design was led by PLY+, a studio based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and MPR Arquitectos, which is based in Ann Arbor and Murcia, Spain.
    It was led by firms run by Michigan architecture professorsBoth firms are led by professors at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan.
    The architects aimed to preserve original features in the 65,000-square-foot (6,039-square-metre) building while integrating a host of new elements.
    Features of the original architecture were maintainedThe goal was to “establish a foundational, collaborative educational environment” while preserving the historic components.
    The building’s exterior was kept intact, the only change being the addition of an accessible entrance.
    Plywood millwork was addedWithin the building, the team modified rooms and added new finishes and plywood millwork. The decor was carefully selected, and special details – such as visually dynamic ceiling baffles – were incorporated.
    The building’s original layout was mostly retained, as the double-loaded corridor layout was deemed historically significant and kept in place.
    The brick of the original building was kept exposed for some of the interiorsThe corridor received new storage nooks with spots for bags, coats and shoes. In the classrooms, the team inserted counters, sinks, benches, chalkboards and storage space.
    “Custom millwork elements provide design flexibility without impinging on historic elements,” the team said.
    Colourful patterns adorn the walls and floorsThe project also called for the creation of maker spaces, reading rooms, a media centre and a restorative justice centre. An existing gymnasium was renovated.
    Throughout the facility, the team used a mix of soft and bold colours, ranging from bright peach to pale yellow-green.

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    The palette was informed by historic hues and the desire to introduce colours that signal “the new use of the building and the new model of pedagogy being fostered”, the team said.
    “Colour and form play an important role in establishing unique identities for individual classrooms and signal the vibrancy and joy of collaborative learning,” the team added.
    The design is meant to encourage exploration for the childrenOverall, the design is meant to speak to its young users.
    “The design engages children’s sense of curiosity and encourages experimentation and exploration,” the team said.
    The project was a collaboration between Detroit Public Schools Community District, which operates the school, and the University of Michigan’s School of Education.
    Other school projects include an athletic centre at an Oregon school that features trellises laced with climbing vines and a boarding school in southern California that has buildings with jagged rooflines.
    The photography is by Jason Keen.
    Project credits:
    Architect: PLY+ and MPR ArquitectosPly+ team: Craig Borum, Jen Maigret, Andrew Wolking, Yusi Zha, Olaia Chivite Amigo, Yibo Jiao, Masataka YoshikawaMPR Arquitectos team: Ana Morcillo-Pallares, Jon RuleArchitect of record: Integrated Design SolutionsClient: Marygrove ConservancyCollaborators: Detroit Public Schools, University of Michigan School of Education

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      Branch Studio Architects designs student welfare space for Melbourne college

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      Branch Studio Architects has created a dusty-pink student welfare centre at an all-boys school in Melbourne to provide a space for discussing mental health.

      Marcellin College principal Marco Di Cesare saw a need to offer a space where students could come together and seek help for mental health issues, particularly after Australia’s state of Victoria experienced some of the strictest lockdowns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
      The creation of the student welfare centre involved renovating an “undercroft” spaceThe faculty therefore decided to renovate a 387-square-metre space for this purpose inside the existing Placidus Building on campus, instead of knocking it down.
      “Marco came to us with a brief for a refurbishment to a lower-ground space within an existing building, which – under previous management – was flagged for demolition,” said Brad Wray, co-founder of Branch Studio Architects and the project’s design architect.
      The majority of the centre is occupied by a common space for studentsThe space had previously been used as a series of nondescript classrooms and staff offices, with a lack of natural light.

      “Given the poor amenity and general dark ‘undercroft’ feeling of the existing space, it was a space that not many staff or students particularly liked to use and saw any real value in,” said Wray. “Let alone, the potential of the space becoming a place for student welfare.”
      Multiple spaces for studying and relaxing are incorporated throughout the common areaThe brief called for a lighter, brighter area in which students could relax, study, contemplate and converse with one another, as well as provide offices for faculty members who specialise in student welfare and private rooms for one-on-one discussions.
      The smaller rooms were pushed to the edge of the floor plan, leaving a spacious common area to occupy the bulk of the centre’s footprint.
      Lightly textured, dusty-pink plaster was chosen as a unifying materialThis open space is partially divided by sculptural geometric partitions and fixed furniture elements into a series of seating areas, workspaces and hang-out niches.
      “We wanted to create an environment which embodied a sense of a ‘home away from home’, where students could feel more comfortable through direct visual associations with their own homes,” Wray said.
      A space for reflection is modelled on a chapelFor instance, a kitchen island – where many students might speak casually with family and friends – was integrated to encourage similar instances.
      Lightly textured, dusty-pink plaster was chosen to highlight the architectural interventions, while a burgundy hue was selected for seat-cushion upholstery and cabinetry in the kitchen area.
      Branch Studio Architects chose to translate elements from The Hermitage”Given Marcellin College is an all-boys school, there was a keen interest from early on in pushing the boundaries of gender-based colour stereotypes,” said Wray.
      The team also used the college’s associations with Marist Catholic history to inform the design.
      Sculptural furniture pieces are based on features found at the Marist pilgrimage siteEstablished in the 1950s, Marcellin College is named after Saint Marcellin Champagnat, who built The Hermitage community on a property near Lyons, France, in 1824.
      Wray and his team translated multiple references from this pilgrimage site into architectural elements through the welfare centre.

      Branch Studio uses plywood and perforated metal for Arts Epicentre

      Most prominent is the enclosed reflection space in the middle of the common room, which is modelled on the original chapel that sat on The Hermitage site.
      Landscape features, archways, a cabinet, a fireplace and a relic found at the site in France were reinterpreted as minimalist curved walls and sculptural furniture pieces that appear to be carved from the welfare centre’s interior.
      Tiered seating is based on the amphitheatre built into the landscape at The Hermitage”We are under no illusions architecture will solve student mental health, but we hope it facilitates a positive experience – a calm and relaxing place to open up a dialogue between students and staff,” said Wray.
      The Placidus Student Welfare Space is shortlisted in the health and wellbeing interior category for this year’s Dezeen Awards, along with a children’s clinic in Seattle, a high-end dental practice in Toronto and two more projects. See the full interiors shortlist here.
      The minimalist interior is intended to help the students focus and contemplateFounded in 2012 by Wray and Nicholas Russo, Branch Studio Architects has seen previous Dezeen Awards success – having won interior project of the year in 2019 for a school administration office in Melbourne.
      The firm’s portfolio of completed education projects in Australia also includes an arts centre at another college in Victoria, a weathering steel bridge for a secondary school and a wooden extension to a school library.
      The photography is by Peter Clarke.
      Project credits:
      Branch Studio Architects team: Brad Wray, design architect; Nicholas Russo, project realisation; Jax Lam, project architect; Arun Lakshmanan, graduate architectBuilder: MDC Building GroupBuilding surveyor: Michel Group Building SurveyorsStructural engineer: OPS EngineersServices engineer: BRT Consulting

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      Sulkin Askenazi arranges yellow school interiors around wooden tree

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      Splashes of bright yellow, round openings and a giant timber tree are among the playful touches Mexican design studio Sulkin Askenazi has included in Ikigai Sisu, a school in the Dominican Republic.

      Sulkin Askenazi arranged the elementary school around a central wooden tree in the lobby, which provides a playful feature for the children to sit on when learning indoors.
      Sulkin Askenazi has added yellow hues inside Ikigai SisuCalled Ikigai Sisu, the 500-square-metre school opened in September 2021 and is located in the town of Punta Cana on the eastern coast of Dominican Republic.
      Sulkin Askenazi was informed by Finnish schools, where shared recreational areas are given par with traditional learning spaces such as classrooms. The school is designed to encourage learning through play and exploration.
      Rooms are arranged around an artificial tree in the lobby”The origin of the project is aligned with the Finnish educational model, where recreational spaces play an important role in the development of children by providing a stimulating and inclusive place that fosters ties, curiosity and interaction,” said Jack Sulkin, co-founder of Sulkin Askenazi.

      “We wanted to design a school where the entire space felt connected and flexible and not too divided or fractioned into isolated spaces,” he told Dezeen.
      An area for physical education is at the back of the buildingAt the heart of Ikigai Sisu is a trunk made from locally sourced white oak slats that children can sit on. Also in the lobby is a reception desk, a climbing wall and soft stools clad in yellow and grey fabric.
      Classrooms with wooden tables and chairs line the front of the building while at the back there is a soft play area for physical exercise lessons. A kitchen can also be found in one of the main classrooms.
      Classrooms are coloured in the same yellow schemeSulkin wanted the colour yellow, which is the school’s colour, to act as a sensory stimulus. Yellow tiles are found in the bathrooms while sunny hued paint continues the colour theme in the classrooms.
      The yellow is countered with grey accents which appear on soft furnishings such as rugs, pouffes and activity mats.

      Walls with integrated furniture and yellow nooks encourage play in Madrid school

      “We wanted the project to have a more vibrant monochrome look and feel; an aesthetic that alludes to the school’s philosophy,” Sulkin explained.
      “The vibrancy of yellow, applied to our ever-flowing spaces through the school design, unquestionably triggers imagination and the ever changing minds of young children who roam the space.”
      Cubby holes and rounded openings are dotted throughoutAccording to Sulkin, the other “main character” in the school is the use of wood.
      “The project has two main characters, the first one is the colour yellow, and the second is the low thick wooden ribbon that organically flows throughout the project,” Sulkin explained.
      “We tried to instil a free-flowing, interactive, energy invigorating space with Ikigai,” he added.
      The bathroom is clad in bright yellow tilesDotted throughout the low slung school are little wooden cubby holes set at different heights and cushioned nooks that allow children to hide and peek through.
      This same wood forms an array of shelving units to display learning material and cabinets for storage.
      Bright colours are a popular feature in contemporary educational architecture around the world.
      Dezeen rounded up 10 colourful kindergartens that encourage kids to crawl, jump and learn including a pastel coloured learning centre in Melbourne by Danielle Brustaman and a hot pink kindergarten in China by Crossboundaries
      Photography is by Thiago da Cunha.

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      Enrique Jerez and Blanca Leal transform mid-century garage into music school

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      Located in a former garage space at the base of a residential block, this school for music in the Spanish city of Burgos makes a feature of the building’s existing concrete structure.Local architect Enrique Jerez and interior designer Blanca Leal were commissioned to create the Yoglar school by a client, who wanted to create a “home” for early music and piano education.

      Classrooms in the open-plan extension are demarcated through orange vinyl flooring
      The original trapezoidal plot in which the school is located was built in 1947 along with the adjacent residential building.
      The garage faces the street while an extension with a mezzanine, which was added in 1952 to increase storage space, is located at the back. Supported by pillars, this features a barrel-vaulted concrete ceiling and covers the building’s original courtyard.

      The reception features built-in birch furniture

      Instead of dismantling this “disorganised” structure, the architects decided to leave the irregular, concrete shell almost untouched.
      As such, the 205-square-metre school is divided into two areas. The original, trapezoidal garage space is home to an entrance hall, reception desk and toilets alongside a manager’s office and the school’s largest classroom.

      The extension is nicknamed “the forest” and houses a menagerie of plants
      The former courtyard area is now nicknamed “the forest” and houses two irregularly-shaped classrooms. One of these is enclosed within a house-shaped volume, which was sound-proofed with the help of three-centimetre-thick cork panels.
      The second classroom is located within the larger open-plan space and is delineated by its orange vinyl flooring.
      A spiral staircase made from blackened steel leads up to the mezzanine level, which has retained its original function as a storage space.

      The spiral staircase is made from blackened steel
      Natural light is funnelled into the school through two sets of glass doors at the back of the space that open onto a small patio.
      The floors, walls and ceilings throughout are finished in polished concrete to bring a cohesive feel to the different spaces while enhancing the acoustics.
      The designers also added built-in birch furniture to bring some warmth to the otherwise cool concrete space.

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      “Our aim was to design a place both unique and functional, which could foster children’s creativity while achieving clear results in their music development from zero to 12 years,” said Jerez and Leal.

      The floors and walls are finished in polished concrete
      In the Czech Republic, architecture studios FUUZE and Public Atelier recently converted a series of old church buildings into a modern primary school with the help of brightly coloured interventions.
      The project involved building new classrooms and restoring the decaying roof trusses of the original church complex back to its former glory.
      Images are courtesy of Javier Bravo.

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      Sarit Shani Hay designs Tel Aviv elementary school to encourage “joyful experiential learning”

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      Israeli designer Sarit Shani Hay has designed wooden built-in furniture to promote collaboration, play and rest in an elementary school in Tel Aviv. The local designer created the interiors for a public school near the city’s Sarona neighbourhood that caters to children with disabilities and learning difficulties. Hay said her aim was to celebrate the diversity of […] More