Lummi K-12 School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

WHAT EXEMPLARY IDEAS DOES THE DESIGN CONTAIN THAT ENHANCE LEARNING?
Children Come First
- A school that welcomes children in to be nurtured as part of a learning community; create a safe and healthy environment for learning.
- The students must be the central focus about everything that happens in the school. With that said it should be the driving force for future decisions. The culture of the children served would be incorporated. What would be most convenient for adults and what the elders or other tribal members want should come in second and be incorporated with what is serving the children.
- Supporting multiple learning methods and styles, the school will conform to the needs of all the students.
- Create a comfortable environment conducive to learning.
- 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.
- Provide a variety of food service delivery styles: choice/environment/furniture, food presentation/serving and dining locations.

Reclaim Our Heritage
- A connection to our ancestors, it has to be a home away from home, a safe and nurturing area that allows pride and heightens self-esteem.
- A place that Native American children feel belongs to them and is specially designed for them. It would not look like any other school, but would function as well or better.
- Create real-life learning opportunities with a technology-rich environment.

A Community-Oriented School
- A community/tribal focal point of learning.
- Form or mold the unity between community.
- Encourage community service of each student.
- Show generations to come that we thought of them in this design
- Create a welcoming entry, and make it easy for community members to navigate inside the school.
- School honors community and family.
- A place for change in the future.

A Flexible and Adaptable Learning Environment
- Organize into an ‘extended family unit’ as family, house, neighborhood and community.
- 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?
Children Come First
- Organized as ‘Schools within a School’, this K-12 school allows for the benefits of a smaller school environment within a larger community of learners.
- The Learning Longhouses are organized around a shared common space that encourages hands-on project learning inside and outside the school.
- The larger central Unity Space supports school-wide functions including dining and performance as well as community activities.
- The school is comprised of a wide variety of educational spaces of differing sizes and infrastructure support systems supporting today’s curriculum and adaptable for the future.
- Students can socialize in the Learning Longhouses as well as in Unity Space in formal and informal settings.

Reclaim Our Heritage
- Central to the concept of the school is the idea of a Potlatch Building. Historically, these longhouses housed a number of families who helped each to learn and live. The Learning Longhouses are analogous to this idea.
- This school is designed so that the students will feel at home and free to learn and excel. Central in the school is a Cedar Grove reminding all students and staff the special relationship they have with the environment. The central Unity Space is a longhouse, and there are many sites for student carved housepoles within the school. This element is seen as a way to realize a place for life-long learning and experience sharing.
- The 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 with a central teacher lounge.
- 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, traditional carving, teen parenting, music, playground, gym, and library spaces.

A Community-Oriented School
- This school is sited within a forest adjacent to the point of the peninsula, adjacent to the Community Center, which is a traditional cedar longhouse.
- The Indian Nation is a proud community with a rich heritage. Their existing school was an emergency shelter of portable buildings.
- 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.
- The school meets the State Energy Code.