As part of my Case Studies in Architecture and Cities class we performed a case study of a school in Pittsburgh over the course of a semester (Fall 2017.) Our group studied the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School which is a Private Lab School in Pittsburgh that was developed in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh.
For our final presentation we created a Zine that compiled the information we had learned about Falk over the course of the semester. We structured it in the form of an atlas or map that flows from a zoomed-in view of the school outwards in a way that peels back layers of information as you unfold and read through it.
Our research took us through different ways the school taught their students, including ways the school used the architecture of the building itself to create learning opportunities for the students. We studied lighting conditions, siting, circulation, various views from the school, and even materials used in the construction and renovation of the building in order to help analyze how the school uses architectural properties to further their educational goals.
This diagram is a study of electricity flow from the local power plant and electric company to the University Pittsburgh as a whole and also to Falk specifically as a subset of the University. It is valuable to see how much power is spent towards computing for Elementary and Middle School students in Falk and shows how much they value technology even for students of such a young age.
This diagram looks at ways the school could expand and continue to use architectural spaces to teach students about their surroundings and also to foster interesting interactions between Falk students and other Pittsburgh residents.