Architecture of Dualities
The design of four new elementary schools in Federal Way employs tension between dualities to not only propel learning environments into the next evolution of educational approach, but also reorient perceptions of what a suburban school should be as place and space. By observing children in their daily environments, you find dualities of significant physical responses regularly expressed: order / outburst; work / play; focus / exploration. By realizing these dualities, the design resonates with the tensions between them. As with any polarity, this architecture of dualities engages users with energy, vitality, excitement and connection.

Context
This suburban community is located between two major cities, Seattle and Tacoma. The city envelops a major highway and a secondary highway, and is characterized on first impression by the swaths of strip malls and suburban retail and restaurant chains fronting them.

Process to Solution:
This submittal exhibits how the team explored the following to develop the Dualities concept:
1. Learning Paths: How an elementary school contributes to a child’s educational trajectory
2. Suburban Fabric: How an elementary school connects to a larger community network.
3. Program: How the distillation of a typical program can create a flexible condition.
4. Site: How an idea can adapt to each site, and how analysis of each site will contribute to a unique school in the context of a larger network.

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