School of Dance, Birmingham

Architectural Design | School | educational place | auditorium | theater | garden | public realm

Nature Inspired & Nature Friendly Learning Environments - ‘THINK NATURE’

Have you ever wondered why story-telling is so powerful in achieving deep effortless learning? The rhythm of a well-narrated story puts the listener in a receptive frame of mind, ready to take part in the journey of discovery that is the story thread. All senses are engaged by a good storyteller, who invokes new learning experiences through powerful descriptions that resonate with the audience.

Good architecture can create a similar effect. A building designed as a THINK NATURE ‘home of learning’ combines architectural features with interior design elements to create a flow and a rhythm that relaxes and prepares its users for a positive learning experience, one that will be reinforced and sealed by all the endorphins that the body produces when engaging in learning something new in a conducive environment, conductive to learning.

Take the THINK NATURE School of Dance as an example – one of Debbie Flevotomou Architects’ award-winning designs. Inspired by the Tarantella choreography, the building is linear along the side elevations and transforms into an exciting curved building in the centre of the site, where the big auditorium is. Like a dance choreography of a ‘grand-jete’, the external walls seem to be lifted off the ground at the auditorium entrance. The roof appears floating above the building like an artful ballet movement and the supporting columns seem to be following the dance with their ‘cambre’-like shapes. Entering the building through the dramatic opening, and climbing an impressive spacious staircase, puts the audience in the perfect frame of mind for immersing in the ballet experience that awaits them inside the auditorium.

The dancers and performers have a similar flow-inducing experience. The building includes a number of dance studios and dressing room facilities that are positioned on the periphery of the auditorium forming two segments of a helix that channel the flow of the building into a dramatic swirl leading to the auditorium. The story of the Tarantella Dance starts with gentle adagio circular movements and gathers pace and rhythm culminating to a dramatic allegro spinning finale. Progressing through the studios, dressing rooms and wings emulates a Tarantella-like gathering of pace leading each dancer to a packed auditorium where the excitement of performing begins.

The liner part of the building is dressed in limestone, giving its place to a 3-d Roman-style brick pattern, at the front circular part of the building. The upper level of the building, occupied by the auditorium, is glass-fronted and supported by a prefabricated layered grid of fibre-composite elastic members. The roof appears floating and is supported by trusses and flowing columns. Adhering to THINK NATURE principles, the building is pre-fabricated reducing waste and carbon footprint.

In addition to the 110-seat auditorium, complete with all theatre-technology and facilities, the school of dance also includes an impressive number of 14 dance studios, 4 piano rooms, 4 changing rooms, a large library, dressing room facilities, offices, board-style meeting rooms, 2 spacious break-out areas, ancillary facilities, and a roof terrace with spectacular views, that is accessible to the public even when the school is closed.

The design has won several architectural competition awards, not only because of its innovative approach to construction that employs prefabricated elements, but also because of the sentiment of the story that it represents and the authenticity of expressing this sentiment in the building design, creating a building with a story that resonates in a unique way with students, staff and public alike. The building tells the story of each student and all those that support her/him, entering the school as an inexperienced learner, spending time practicing, all the while being transformed into a confident skilful performer, progressing towards a grand performance in a packed auditorium.

This is a representative THINK NATURE design, emulating natural flows, nurturing receptiveness and inducing euphoric states of delight and calm excitement. During consultation sessions, students and staff concluded that the calm, pleasant and inspiring atmosphere of the building is conducive to learning, sharing, growing and performing. A perfect environment where students and staff as well as visitors and audiences, all connect to each other in a Tarantella-like experience. The perfect learning centre, a place of THINK NATURE architecture, the ultimate environment for learning, expanding, growing, becoming, sharing of concepts and innovating.

THINK NATURE design can be applied to any field of learning and education. Imagine the home of learning of the future. An educational centre that is carbon neutral and it also produces energy; a place that cares about students, staff and the visiting public by providing an environment that reduces stress levels, increasing productivity, creativity and self-reported wellbeing and boosts learning. An environment where every unit of space is utilised. A place where personal space is highly valued and communal areas are catalysts of fusion of ideas. A space that learners, teachers and staff look forward to experiencing every day.