Horizon Middle School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

WHAT EXEMPLARY IDEAS DOES THE DESIGN CONTAIN THAT ENHANCE LEARNING?
Students First
- Encourage our philosophy of learning to drive the design — the school must adapt to a number of learning philosophies on an ongoing basis.
- Support multiple learning methods and styles — the school will conform to the needs of all the students.
- Create a comfortable environment conducive to learning
- Continually revisit the middle school concept and transition issues; the school will stay current and become a learning organization itself.
- Acknowledge that schooling is the beginning of lifelong learning. The goal of the school is to create lifelong learners of all its students, producing the need for a wide variety of learning events and environments.
- Allow for students’ needs to socialize in a variety of settings and times: in commons areas, at lunch break, before and after school hours.

Crossroads of Exploration
- Fitting into the School District, the new middle school will provide a transition from elementary school to high school, with the goal that there is equity of programs at each middle school and offerings to each middle school student.
- Provide appropriate space, time and budget to teachers for planning and preparation; they will be able to create team teaching and shared learning opportunities.
- Create real-life learning opportunities with a technology-rich environment.
- Create the opportunity for shared learning experiences for math, social studies, language and science. Then, further the exploratory experience of middle school by offering mini-courses and kitchen, fine arts, music, playground, gym, and library spaces.

A Community-Oriented School
- Encourage partnerships with the community.
- Encourage community service of each student.
- Align the process of school governance with the democratic group-decision-making process of a city, and provide space for these activities.
- Create a welcoming entry, and make it easy for community members to navigate inside the school.

A Flexible and Adaptable Learning Environment
- Organize into an ‘extended family unit’ as family, house and neighborhood.
- Organizing ‘families’ into clusters that include a variety of areas, large and small, with exploratory spaces, specialized learning areas, and unassigned spaces for scheduling flexibility and mini-courses.
- Create multiple settings for learning activities (music, practical arts, fine arts, performing arts, physical education, library, technology resource, stage/performance/forum).

WHAT INNOVATIONS IN THE PLANNING, PROGRAMMING AND DESIGN PROCESS SUPPORTED THE REALIZATION OF THOSE EXEMPLARY IDEAS?
Students First
- Organized as ‘Schools within a School’, the middle school allows for the benefits of a smaller school environment within a larger community of learners.
- The Learning Clusters are organized around a shared common space that encourages hands-on project learning inside and outside the school.
- The larger central Forum supports school-wide functions including dining and performance as well as community activities.
- Each Learning Cluster has a Teacher work area to encourage communication and interaction.
- The school is comprised of a wide variety of educational spaces of differing sizes and infrastructure support systems supporting today’s curriculum, while remaining adaptable for the future.
- Students can socialize in the learning Clusters as well as in the Forum in formal and informal settings.
- Students are provided with full service kitchen facilities as well as a snack bar. Students can eat in a variety of settings inside the facility and outside.

Crossroads of Exploration
- Students can explore a wide variety of subjects in various ways. Emphasis is placed on supporting all learning styles by providing appropriate learning environments, whether they are classrooms, studios, labs or seminar type spaces.
- Teacher-to-Teacher interaction is supported by a central teacher lounge as well as teacher work areas in each learning cluster.
- The school is rich with technology and connectivity. Emphasis is placed on having technology guides with the students at all times.
- Shared learning experiences abound for math, social studies, language and science. Further exploratory experiences are offered with mini-courses and fine arts, music, playground, gym, and library spaces.

A Community-Oriented School
- This rural school is sited adjacent to an existing elementary school allowing for shared site amenities such as parking and playfields.
- The community was founded on a timber-based economy. The space frame that is used to span the forum and library is a custom design, using ‘peeler cores’ of douglas fir logs. These by-products of the plywood industry give the spatial environment a rich geometry as well as being an innovative use of a ‘throw-away’ material. The use of peeler cores in this way has never been done before, and the United States Forest Service helped in providing structural testing of the logs. It is hoped that this will be seen as a cost-effective long span solution for future projects.
- The school is a real touchstone for the community. Because of its layout, the school is planned to be used as a conference center in the summers. This was seen as a real benefit to the community since there are no existing venues currently in the area.

A Flexible and Adaptable Learning Environment
- There was a real emphasis on creating a place with a sense of a hierarchy of scale appropriate to function. This was done to promote the analogy that this school is a community. This community is made up of a diverse population and a variety of activities, and it should be appreciated as a home away from home, but not an institution.
- The greatest way to support long term use is to promote long term appreciation. Care has been given to create an educational environment that is not boring, but one that is provocative, while easy to ‘read’ and use.
- The school is composed of tilt-up concrete exterior and some interior walls that will last the test of time. The long span structures are timber space frames and glu lam beams that have a cost benefit in addition to being perceived as a comfortable and warm environment conducive to learning. There are even real trees used for columns.
- The school meets the State Energy Code and utilizes a by-product of the plywood industry as a long span structural component. This innovation is seen as a major statement of the community, as its position is supporting a sustainable community.