After a successful small group design review on Monday at Frierson Elementary, we reconvened as a whole group to discuss the biggest takeaways from Monday’s review. We got some great feedback from the teachers and Nurse Nicole—even the kids had some ideas in their own designs that we hadn’t thought about, like soft comfortable seating.
One of the main features of the pavilion is a greenhouse element that will allow students to learn about gardening and help build up the larger garden. It is very important that our design considers the orientation of the greenhouse space in relation to the sun path on the site, so we decided that setting the pavilion along the North-West corner with the greenhouse exposed to the South was the best option.
According to Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language, the greenhouse should have “easy access to the vegetable garden and the compost…arrange its interior so that it is surrounded with waist-high shelves and plenty of storage space…perhaps give it a special seat, where it is possible to sit comfortably” (pg. 814). These guidelines might offer some useful ideas as we develop our overall design more.
