The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown

The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, GardenThe Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, GardenThe Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Interior Photography, TableThe Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, WoodThe Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - More Images+ 9

  • Clients: Not applicable – self-initiated
  • Collaborators: Three Four Five Joinery, Barnardo’s Works
  • Sponsors: The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), St Gobain
  • City: Glasgow
  • Country: United Kingdom
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The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, Garden
© Ross Campbell

Text description provided by the architects. O’DonnellBrown has designed and built a prototype for an outdoor Community Classroom: an adaptable, demountable learning environment for schools and community groups, which employs a functional, rhythmic geometry and design. The entirely self-initiated project has been developed in parallel with the practice’s ongoing community and educational projects, as a resource to explore connections between people, places and learning.

The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, Wood, Garden
© Ross Campbell

The classroom is intended to promote and support creative and independent learning in a healthy, versatile and fun environment. It has been designed in line with the Curriculum for Excellence and the National Improvement Framework, to facilitate inclusive learning and mental well-being.

The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Image 9 of 14
Exploded Axonometric

The design approach was driven by an aspiration to produce an accessible, simple and demountable kit of parts which at its core was architecturally engaging, yet distilled to its purest functional form. Standard structural timber section sizes provide a skeletal frame, forming the basis for plywood modules to be placed and reconfigured to suit a diverse variety of activities and inhabitants. The kit comes complete with an easy-to-follow manual and modules may provide seating, shelving, worktops or even presentation surfaces, all while engaging and empowering its hosts in the creative process of constructing and defining their own environment.

The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, Wood
© Ross Campbell
The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Interior Photography, Table
© Ross Campbell

Driven by a shared commitment to community engagement and learner-led activity, O’DonnellBrown worked closely with the national children’s charity Barnardo’s Works to identify young people to build the prototype with. Other sponsors and stakeholders, including the RIAS and Saint-Gobain, have also been integral to the project, sharing the architects’ vision and aspirations. Support has been provided in the form of materials, such as the timber for the structural framework, and structural engineering input.

The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, Garden
© Ross Campbell

The Community Classroom has hosted a number of community-based workshops and events, including a craft workshop programmed by Nan McKay Hall, a local community hall.O’DonnellBrown is working proactively to encourage future take-up of the system by a diverse range of occupants, increasing its reach throughout schools and communities to improve provision for sectors integral to our collective well-being.

The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown - Exterior Photography, Garden
© Ross Campbell

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Project location

Address:Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "The Community Classroom / O'DonnellBrown" 03 Apr 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/936845/the-community-classroom-odonnellbrown> ISSN 0719-8884

© Ross Campbell

格拉斯哥社区教室设计原型 / O'DonnellBrown

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