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Recreation center

By Miguealv21 | XL Design an Addition for your School

Overview Instructions

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Ralph Ellison Campus, Chicago

Many schools were designed for the past and don’t reflect the 21st century learning environment. Some buildings need better ventilation or lighting, while others are simply not large enough to accommodate students comfortably. For this project, you are encouraged to envision an improvement for your school, something that would benefit everyone who uses it. The most successful designs will be ones that identify a specific need and present a strong design solution. The challenge is to add something that changes the footprint of your school building, while addressing a specifically identified need. Projects should include research and development, real world images and information showing why the need exists, in addition to final project design and information.

The addition i would like to add to my school is a recreation center with a field that serves for multiple reasons. The main building will serve as a gym for sports such as basketball, volleyball, and other indoor activities for our students. The place will also hold a bike shelter since many of our students ride their bikes and it is very save for students to leave the bikes outside in. The field will be a soccer/football field with a track for our track and cross country team since we don't actually own a field for these sports. Our school always has to travel because we don't own our own home field. The place will eventually save us a lot of money we spend in traveling and will bring more spirit to our school. Sports play a major role and is very important to our school and to the students here at curie. This construction could be made across the street from our school on an empty lot that no one has used or made plans to build anything there. The place is also near the orange line train station so it will be easy for visitors to come here to the many events we could hold there.

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Reeds Spring High School Addition, Reeds Spring, MO

Think About

  • What is the size of your school building? Using Google Earth and other online resources, generate a site plan for your school location.
  • What are your initial thoughts about the building? For example, is your school lacking room for art classes? Physical education? Band practice space? Common areas? Cafeteria space?
  • Talk to someone who has been at your school for a while, like a teacher or administrator. They will most likely have great insight as to what areas could stand to be improved.
  • Has anything like this ever been done in the past? If so, what were the results?
  • For more research, we recommend looking at “The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Design to Transform Teaching & Learning,” by OWP/P Architects + VS Furniture + Bruce Mau. The book is easy to digest with lots of great images and design ideas, meant to inspire readers like you. The website for the book is also a great resource.
  • Search online for newly built schools and others that have been upgraded through similar processes. Do you notice anything in common among newly built schools?

Miguealv21's work for the Collect Information step:

Summary
I collected information by going to the site where i would like my project to be designed.
This is an image of the area where my project will be designed.
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The site is close to the train station therefore is easy to find for those who want to attend an...
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From this image on top of the Pulaski Orange Line you can see on the left the empty lot where i...
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this is what we have as a field which is just baseball fields and a tennis court that no one uses.
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The grass is very damaged and full of mud holes. It is not save to play in such rough conditions.
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Karns High School Addition Plan, Knoxville, TN

Identify the problem you want to solve based on the information you have collected.

Explore at least three possible solutions, each of which will no doubt help you as you search for the best addition to your school.

  • What could your ideas look like?
  • How would it change the landscape of your school?
  • Who will benefit most from your design solution?

Try to answer these questions visually through sketching, and in words by taking notes.

Miguealv21's work for the Brainstorm Ideas step:

Summary
I took pictures of where i want to build something and also discussed with some friends what school addition would be useful and necessary.
This is an sketch of what i am going to be creating.
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This is the food stand. The building on the right is an idea of what i want to build.
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This is the ticket stand along with half of the field.
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This is another addition i will be building. it will serve as a big gymnasium for all sorts of...
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Fridley High School Addition Plan, Fridley, MN

From the previous step, where you developed multiple solutions to the design problem, you should select one of your designs.

  • What is your favorite design? Why?
  • What aspects of your school would it improve?
  • Who would benefit most from your new design?
  • What materials would you be using, and why?

Ideally you will want to create plans of some kind to communicate your final vision, so start to sketch site plans, elevations, and even a floor plan if necessary.

Miguealv21's work for the Develop Solutions step:

Summary
My final solution will to create a gymnasium building, a field along with other small addiitons using Revit. The place will be used for multiple purposes needed in our school.
This is the base of the gymnasium. structure I am designing using revit. More details will be...
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This is the 3d view of the basic structure I will be using as a gymnasium.
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This is the field I am designing. This is the the basic design which is what my final project will...
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This is the overall of all the additions together.
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This is what the final design will look mostlikely.
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This is the overall look of everything that will be included. More details will be added in the...
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Alexander Graham Bell School Addition, Chicago

Present your final design to your class, to get feedback before completing your project. If you talked to other people while working on and researching for this project, show them your design and get their feedback. If they talked to you before, they will want to see what you’ve created! Take notes during these conversations, and try to understand their suggestions before deciding if you wish to make any changes to your final design.

Carefully take stock of feedback from others and do your best to find the information that will help you finalize your project. Someone might tell you something seemingly small, but that bit of information might be the difference between a good project and a great one.

Miguealv21's work for the Final Design step:

The student did not provide any content for this step.

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