BSD+design

Today started our CFSP initiative into designing a new facility for the Beverly School for the Deaf in Beverly, MASS.  OUR project is working to uncover the mechanics of how deaf space works within the scale of the community, the student, and the architectural details.  This project marks a critical point in understanding the process for a design methodology that can connect research with reality to garner a new architectural vocabulary that addresses a once deprived community with intelligent design.   Interestingly enough, the BSD community occupies a site that not only overlooks the community, but could inevitably becoming a significant place within that community due to its succulant views of the harbor and ocean area.  The dynamics of the site in tandem with the complexities of the design offer up an initiative that will stretch the creative boundaries of design.

Last Friday Jon and I headed up to the Beverly campus to sit in on a meeting that intended to uncover the concerns and hopes of the faculty members at the school in regard to their new building.  It is interesting to begin to hear the voices of the instructors, who I would argue, have the first hand experience of how a school for the deaf works.  This insight into the atmospheric qualities required to uphold a successful teaching environment stemmed on two main ideas ::  VISIBILITY + CONTROL ::  It is apparent that within the current setting of a classroom, most instructors darken the space to make the space more conducive to learning.  One of the biggest issues with communication in an ASL setting is visibility of the instructor and control of lighting.  The downside to this is that most classrooms rely on fluorescent tube lighting that creates a buzzing noise which in turn pre occupies the average deaf student.  This buzzing, both heard and felt as vibration, contradicts the productivity of the learning experience.  Along with this, the idea of control and adaptability is the other main issue.  In an ASL classroom, the instructor relies on multiple zones to address everything from group activities to one on one instruction.  Dissimilar to the average elementary or middle school classroom, the setting needs to be able to respond to the ever changing strategies of an instructor, while still providing clear visibility and total control.

Yesterday, Andy and myself had another productive visit to the BSD campus. The purpose of this weeks visit was two fold: first, to observe classroom settings and see how students and faculty use the existing facility; secondly, to meet and discuss all the programmatic pieces – their sizes, sequence and assembly. While not the most glamorous part of the process, programming for this project a crucial component because of the high degree of specialized functions and spaces the BSD will require. Understanding what these spaces are - how they work, how they're accessed, how they overlap, will go a long way to fuel the generation of the design.
Our observations of the daily life of the school were an opportunity to make our programming exercises more tangible – pulling it out off the realm of the spreadsheet into reality. Discussions with teachers ranged from the intricacies of the classroom fixtures and furniture, to how to align swings in physical treatment rooms, and even to something as mundane as how lunch is handled. This visit gave us a better appreciation of how learning environments for students with special needs function. It also gave us a better understanding and appreciation of the job of the BSD faculty. Despite their demanding job, many were able to make time to discuss their needs and goals for the project with us. Having the faculty engaged in the process should prove to be extremely beneficial as the design for the future of the BSD develops

As Andy’s diagram above succinctly puts it, much of our recent work has involved investigating the design of the site of the new BSD building. From soaring hillside, to dramatic vistas, to busy thoroughfares, the current context and has a lot of charged factors that will influence its development. The challenge is to understand each piece as an opportunity as oppose to simply an obligation.
Initial investigations are revolving around the spatial sequence; how is the site entered by car? By bus? By foot? In a site with such a large elevation change, how can Universal Access be best handled?
Ultimately these questions -as well as a host of others – will flesh themselves out with further discussion and research. A next step may involve zooming out and understanding the project at the scale of the city. How does the project greet the city? Is it an internally or externally focused development? Can it be both? Looking to the city in all its layers – its histories, topographies, ecologies, etc. – will help the project find its voice in defining its place.