῾Corners᾿ in ῾curves᾿. A critical understanding of Takis Zenetos’ school in Brahami, Athens
Abstract
This paper studies the ῾Round school᾿, designed by Takis Zenetos in Brahami, Athens. The paper focuses on the visualization for a future organization of the school in a more open educational system where the typical class would not function in the traditional way. Instead it would be based on flexible learning groups of different sizes. A few questions arise on whether space could actually be sufficient for the activities that the architect envisioned. The open plan together with the centralized circular shape create doubts whether all those educational activities, described on Zenetos' diagrams, could actually occur simultaneously in the same spaces. Visual, acoustic and kinetic disturbances among learning groups might be rather intense. The school did not have an adequate number of learning ῾corners᾿ where a group of children could gather for learning activities.
The paper makes a comparison of acoustic, visual and kinetic properties of two ideotypical shapes: a circle and a corner. The spatial configurations are examined according to the potential for communication between people. A small corner provides different learning conditions than an open circle. The comparison between those spatial configurations is applied on the analysis of Zenetos' school and gives the opportunity to showcase the connection between space and its potential for human coexistence.
Article Details
- Section
- THEMATIC FIELD Ι Transformations of schools’ spaces and educational change
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