New York City now has its first WeGrow school. Bjarke Ingels Group and WeWork teamed up to design the 10,000 square-foot private elementary school, which is located in WeWork's Chelsea headquarters. The school will teach kids ages 3 to 9 a more “conscious approach to education,” BIG says. Envisioned as an open, nature-themed learning environment, WeGrow is “playful and transparent, yet home-like and structured”.
The school comprises of four classrooms, flexible workshops, community space, a multi-purpose studio, art studio, music room, and other nature-themed playscapes that encourage interactive learning, creativity, and collaboration. Carefully designed furniture, ambient lighting, and other details help create an optimal learning space.
Acoustic felt “clouds” on the ceiling were designed to resemble various patterns found in nature — like fingerprints, coral, and the moon — and are illuminated by Ketra bulbs that change color and intensity according to the time of day. The entire school is lit by the Gople Lamp and Alphabet of Light lighting systems, which were designed by BIG Ideas and manufactured by Artemide.
Modular classrooms promote movement and collaboration, while mushroom shelves and a "magic meadow" of soft “pebbles” provide a calm, study space. Reading “hives” form an immersive library. The three different shelving levels for each age group occasionally curve to form various “activity pockets” where students can gather.
Teachers, parents, and students share the lobby, a felt nook that forms from the smooth cut-out in the walls and serves as a work, meeting, and waiting area. The school's vertical garden — which has tiles made by Laufen in Switzerland — features various plants like lavender, sweet violets, chocolate mint, and more.
"With this first location in New York City, we have created a space to facilitate and accommodate WeGrow's transformative approach to learning because as life evolves, so should the framework in which we live in,” says Bjarke Ingels, who is not only BIG's founding partner and creative director, but also WeWork's chief architect. “Children realize they have agency and when design is less prescriptive and more intuitive — we don't have to tell kids how to use the space and every interpretation of how they use the space is good.”
This is a step-in the wrong direction. Disruption-for-profit should leave education and healthcare alone. I can't wait to see the first WeIncarcerate.
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can some splain to me why architects want to work for companies like we work and thomas heatherwick that are not led by architects?
Saudi monet.
Honestly, it's just a new form of patronage with a seemingly more direct relationship with cash as compared to working with developers AND the appearance of less risk.
Design in exchange for a paycheck seems like one obvious reason.
This is a step-in the wrong direction. Disruption-for-profit should leave education and healthcare alone. I can't wait to see the first WeIncarcerate.
I'm expecting WeDie.
Are these designs meant to inculcate a new generation of minimalist hipster kids? Absolutely monochromatic and boring
For once, we can agree.
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