Education — in the K-12 world and beyond — is rapidly evolving in significant social, cultural, and pedagogical directions. Innovative schools take on a wide range of social and cultural challenges in their ultimate mission to prepare students for a dynamic future. Incorporating new technologies, reaching out to support under-served and disenfranchised groups, nurturing creative thinking, and engaging the business community are just some of the ways that creative schools are re-defining public education.
Today’s approach to K-12 innovation is all about flexibility and change. School architecture is driven by pedagogy, which is profoundly affected by the fluid development of information and classroom technologies. Learning, subject to this type of broad evolution, calls for the architecture itself to be less about a building and more an operable, adaptable platform. The Samohi Discovery Building exemplifies this important trend.
This project has been a rich and collegial collaboration between two architectural firms — Moore Ruble Yudell and HED — a very engaged client / owner, and a deep consultant team. Intensive workshops with teachers, students, and administration fed into the design. The project is part of a multi-phased redevelopment and replacement plan for the historic campus, and includes a new aquatic center.
This project represents a new approach to long term building for a community, and to blending public and private uses for mutual benefit. The new Discovery Building at Santa Monica High School was conceived as an open building. It considers the whole building as a learning environment that anticipates change.