| dc.description.abstract | Blending architecture with landscape is not a new feature in design. For the Montessori schooling system, directly relating the natural world into the school’s methods of teaching is crucial for the development of the children. This thesis connects the two ideas in an investigational method catering to the child’s memory, experience, and the ability to explore freely within limits of safety and ingenuity.
The project is designed for children ages 3 to 12, set up in multiage groupings for peer learning, uninterrupted blocks of work time, and guided choice of work activity, as the Montessori system adopts. Dr. Maria Montessori believed that teacher, child, and environment create a learning circle for the child, prepared by the teacher, while encouraging the independence they need to prepare themselves for the world of adolescences.
By creating artificial space for a Montessori school, the designer must be aware of the needs of the people occupying the volume and the needs around them. The program, though, changes culturally and locally. In Alexandria, MN, the specific site was chosen to indulge the needs for this region giving children the ability to maneuver through the site’s landscapes in a very real and experimental way. | en_US |
