Sentire Elementary School

Sentire Elementary School

Issue:

Building climates are typically controlled by centralized mechanical systems that lead to extensive energy consumption and lack individual control and diverse sensual experience of space.  Architects are required to satisfy eighty percent of the occupants, thus compromising the health and productivity of the remaining twenty percent.  Human comfort can enhance the experience of space, increase concentration and performance, and improve occupants’ health.  Consequently, human comfort affects the individual, the economy, and our society at large.   

Sentire Elementary School architectural context:

The Toronto District School Board advocates equitable and inclusive education.  Sentire Elementary School fosters equality and inclusion through its ambition to design spaces that are climatically comfortable to all occupants, in attempt to enhance students’ concentration and learning abilities.  Adaptive spaces will respond to various activities and their optimal weather requirements.  The school will visually demonstrate changing climatic conditions to foster students’ awareness and understanding of weather parameters, and to encourage them to playfully change their surroundings; thus increasing their understanding of the impact they have on the environment.

Sentīre (Latin)

·       Perceive, feel, experience

·       Think, realize, see, understand[1]

Site:

The Sentire Elementary School will be located in the emerging West Don Lands neighbourhood.  The West Don Lands Precinct Plan indicates that the community will have approximately 860 elementary school children, and that the building will be constructed when 250 children require school.  The Sentire Elementary School will be designed for 250 students, yet account for future expansion.  The plan calls for designs that foster innovation and creativity and for “smart” buildings and education.  The Sentire Elementary School will strive to meet these criteria through its form and materiality, and through its playful interaction between building and students that make invisible climatic phenomena visible. 

Client:

Toronto District School Board

Strategy 1:

Respond to the ideal temperature levels based on the human circadian rhythm and the type of activity taking place in each space.

Educational | architectural context:

Elementary school operates between approximately 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.  During this time the body is primarily in heat-gain mode, and students are generally most active.  Human comfort will depend on individual parameters such as metabolic rate and clothing, and on external parameters including temperature, air movement, and relative humidity.  The building can respond to students’ metabolic rate by adapting the climate, for example through reducing the temperature and increasing air movement after breakfast and lunch.  Furthermore, the building can respond to types of activity; higher levels of activity such as exercise and play require lower temperature and relative humidity than calm activities including studying and performing arts.

Tactic #1:

Organize the school according to the various activities and their corresponding climatic necessities. 

Tactic #2:

Create a relationship between spaces such that thermal conditions in one place can transfer to another as necessary.

Tactic #3:

Design the building’s form and envelope to utilize external weather conditions to reduce the building’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Strategy 2: Design spaces that adapt to several climatic requirements.

Educational | architectural context:

Several activities that require different climatic conditions take place in classrooms, such as studying and playing, and necessitate adaptive surroundings.  Teachers nowadays typically control a classroom’s climate by opening windows or managing the HVAC system.  Spaces can naturally adapt to the occupants’ needs based on the activity taking place; thus creating comfortable spaces both when teachers are and are not around. 

Tactic #1:

People produce varying degrees of vapor based on their activity.  Sensors that track the vapor level can change the climatic conditions of the space as necessary.

Tactic #2:

Provide a control panel that will override the sensors and condition the space based on a prescribed activity.

Tactic #3:

Utilize smart materials that respond to climatic stimuli.

Glass Panel Shutter System [Illustration]. dO|Su STUDIO ARCHITECTURE. Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.dosu-arch.com/smartwindow.html

Tracheolis [Illustration]. dO|Su STUDIO ARCHITECTURE. Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.dosu-arch.com/tracheolis.html#

Strategy 3: Visualize climatic conditions to stimulate a rich sensual experience.

Educational | architectural context:

Visualizing relative humidity, temperature, and air movement velocity will foster occupants’ awareness of interior climate and an understanding of their individual comfort level.  Building components can playfully react to climatic conditions to encourage students’ engagement with and transformation of the building.

Tactic #1:

Utilize smart materials that respond to climatic stimuli.

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[1] Latin definition for: sentio, sentire, sensi, sensus. (n.d.). Latin Definition for: sentio, sentire, sensi, sensus (ID: 34697). Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.latin-dictionary.net/definition/34697/sentio-sentire-sensi-sensus