Hachoresh Elementary School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

Project Narrative

This is a school for a small touristic town with an amazing sight of the sea. The school site is located between two residential hills in a small ravine leading to the sea.
This was one side of the equation that led to the design solution of this school. The other side was the pedagogical demends which are basically two:

- A creation of 3 autonomous age group clusters each provided with a private entrance and a private outdoor learning and playing place.
- The cluster itself should be designed according to the principle of the “open space” with classes partially interconected and enjoying the support of a communal multipurpose resource space.

The outcome scheme is a design of a small mediteranean village climbing the slope of the site.
The scheme is a complex of small autonomous units organized along the main axis which is directed towards the sea and consists of 4 main outdoor spaces :
- An entrance plaza defined by the administration and library wings.
- An amphitheater , leading from the entrance to the main “piazza”, exploiting the slope.
- The “Town Square” - A communal plaza surrounded by classroom clusters with one side open to the sea.
- The small “Junior Patio” leading to the youngest students section.

Educator Narrative

Educator Narrative

Our new school building should follow our expectations in two directions. It should create an enviroment that will express the special atmosphere of our small and beautiful town, and on the other hand, should help us to achieve the change we are trying to lead towards openess and flexible teaching methods.
Adapting to the local enviroment should meet these preferences:
1. Small is better than big.
2. The Sea is our main source of inspiration.
3. Nature should be part of our school.
4. We prefer, if necessary, some drops of rain than
close ourselves from nature.

The design will support the pedagogical change if
it meets the following criteria:
1. We would like to divide the school into three
age groups. Each age group will have a distinct “home”
with its private entrance, private internal spaces
and private court for play and outdoor study.
2. We do not want the conventional closed classrooms
studying in the conventional frontal system.
We rather prefer the “open space” approach for its
openness and ability to enable all sorts of groupings.
3. Yet, we think that openness should be controlled
so that the pupils will not loose their concentration
under an overwhelming avalanche of impressions.
4. Every cluster should have a common multipurpose
resource space, for individual and non formal studies.