New City School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

Assignment
Design an MI library within an existing “gymnasium” space in an architecturally significant school building. There are no libraries in existence designed to serve the eight intelligences. Since the project is un-built, this submittal focuses on the process of creating something completely new and on the design result. Construction will be complete in 2006.
Discovery Process
1. Building analysis — The building is an excellent learning environment with simple spaces, high ceilings, operable windows, and large amounts of daylight. Further, it is built of tactile materials: wood, brick, stone, and plaster.
2. MI and architecture can be viewed in at least two ways. One: arrange separate places for teaching to the intelligences within the building (separated). And two: understand architecture experientially as spatial, mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, inter and intra-personal, etc (integrated). Both views are important. The separated view can be seen in almost any school with a math corner, a fish tank, etc. The integrated view holds the greatest potential.
3. An MI library is more than a place for information storage. It should be a place where information can be transformed into knowledge through problem solving, using all of the intelligences.
4. Conduct parent, student, and faculty focus groups to identify those things that are the most valuable.
5. Observe classes.
6. Project Objectives:
Symbolic
The library must be the physical and symbolic representation of:
Excellence. The heart of the school. Diversity, Mission & Values. Unified.
Emotion & Feeling
Evoke a sense of:
Joy & Creativity. Love of learning. Journey, Exploration, Adventure. Curiosity, Invention, & Awe. Peacefulness, Solitude, Safety. Energy, Resourcefulness Possibility. Transformation. Ownership & Belonging.
A Teaching Place
The architecture must teach through its:
Expression of construction. Care for the environment. Relationship to the intelligences. Respect for the original building.
Function
Balance & preserve the original function of a library with the expanded functions that will support MI. A resource for the teachers. Be flexible and adaptable. Be accessible to all. Allow access to its resources through a variety of intelligences. Be acoustically appropriate. Balance cost and schedule with value to the future.
Comfort
For children, teachers and parents. Environmentally through lighting, air conditioning, and acoustics.
7. Analyze Architectural Precedents. This exercise helped identify how to turn symbolic and emotional objectives into architecture.
Design Process
Five design options were evaluated by the 18 person review committee. There was unanimous agreement on the one that best supported the objectives. The Discovery Process facilitated consensus.
Design
Multiple levels and generative, organic form create the place. Views unfold on entering. The generative spiral can be traced throughout the space. Multiple levels, stairs, and seating risers appeal to the bodily-kinesthetic and allow alternative seating. Books and display surround the entire space. There are places for wet exploration, project pin-up, a little theater for presentations, see-through display cases for projects and collections. A working tent can be cranked down by the students to enclose the little theater. Also, there is variety in the size of spaces, from small, curl-up reading nooks to open areas for small groups, and war/seminar rooms for projects. The building’s original structure is exposed. The design is “constructive” with exposed steel for the mezzanine and environmentally friendly materials such as linoleum, wood, and tectum acoustic panels.

Educator Narrative

Our school is a multiple intelligences school. The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) was created by Harvard professor Howard Gardner in his book, Frames Of Mind. Gardner says that there are 8different ways to learn, 8 different ways to solve problems, 8 different ways to be smart. The intelligences are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, naturalist, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.

We have been implementing MI since 1988. It has affected how we design curriculum, how we instruct our students, how we assess their progress, how we communicate with their parents and how we work as colleagues. We still focus on the scholastic intelligences (reading, writing, and computing); it is imperative that our students do well on traditional measures. But that is only the beginning. We enable student to learn through other intelligences and offer other ways for students to show what they know.

Our 5th grade brings in MI as they study the Civil War. Sample questions which embrace MI include: What can be learned by looking at Matthew Brady’s photographs? Who is missing from portraits? What can we learn by how people dress and the backgrounds in which they are posed? What was popular music during this time? How do the rhythms and lyrics of the North differ from those of the South? How did the geography and fauna of the north and south differ and how did this contribute to the issue of slavery and the outcome of the war?

We use MI to focus on “genuine understanding”: students use what they have learned in new and novel situations. Our students keep individual portfolios and we often have culminating exhibits and performances, times when students show their knowledge to an unknown audience (other students or parents).

Our library was typically linguistic, a room filled with books. This worked well for some learners but not for all. Our challenge was to create a library that would remain linguistic but would allow teachers to use MI in reaching their kids. Our new library will be linguistic, with hundreds of feet of book shelves and displays which entice children to read. But it will also contain: display cases to address the naturalist intelligence; a wet art area and spaces for easels and prints to support the spatial intelligence; small motor games for the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence; puzzles and mazes for the logical-mathematical intelligence; tables, study areas, and seating which facilitate the intra- and interpersonal intelligences; and a soundproof room in which the musical intelligence can be pursued. Our library will enable every student to learn and do research, regardless of her intelligence profile. And yet because it is a library, students will be immersed in words, literature, and books.