Técnicas e instrumentos

Nine months later, the old buildings renovated, repainted, and to some extent re- shaped, were now in use. Some improvements had been completed, some deferred, some half-done – most notably, the rooflight sunshades had been removed, but the canopy and pergola to replace them not yet built. This we acutely felt when indoor temperatures allegedly reached 120°F.

I was back to start the high-school design process. The first half-day was spent in discussion, preparing for two days of design workshop – what should be in a high school and how should these bits relate to one another?

Recapitulation and reconfirmation

The next day, the group having new members, we introduced ourselves around the circle, then recapitulated what we had done nine months previously, and why we had come to the decisions we did. Changing circumstance, experience of the new loca- tion, geo-structural investigations and a long period of ‘sleeping on it’, however, cast some decisions in a different light.

The hall, in particular, which asked to be all things to all people (sports, music, drama, festivals) and hold the largest audience possible, but still be affordable, could have taken a whole day’s discussion. Each activity was considered essential on edu- cational and financial grounds by its proponents. (I pointed out that something large enough for sports and with the environmental quality necessary for music would not be cheap. A pole barn for sports and a separate smaller hall for the more environ- mentally demanding uses would be more economical.) As there was no money for it at this stage I had a good excuse to return to the task in hand. Most of the earlier decisions still stood, but we only had two days to shape the high-school, and provi- sionally design the hall and library.

Shaping the building

Focusing now on the high-school site, we briefly repeated the four-layer observation and incarnation (outline design) processes. This fixed the extent of the undulating crest line and the gesture of the socially enclosing arc. On engineer’s advice, we had to move everything back from the edge for soil stability reasons. We were, however, still able to retain the outlook over the lower school and valley – the pupils’ past and future. We again paced both building faces as best we could among the bushes, located them in relationship to features identifiable on the site plan, then drew this at 1/16″:1′0″ (approximately 1:200) scale.

Next we laid out paper pieces representing classroom, hall and specialist rooms onto this plan-gesture drawing. Being rectangular, they naturally overlapped or left gaps – but then the rooms probably wouldn’t be rectangular either, so no problem. For upper storey rooms, we laid paper above paper.

A tracing of this with ambiguously loose lines gave us a rough plan at 1/16″ scale. This showed room relationships and approximate areas, but no form. There was some discussion, some refining, but in principle, this would remain the high-school plan. Next we made clay rectanguloids of the approximate proportions of the princi- pal rooms (not toilets, stores and suchlike smaller rooms). Like the paper rectangles, these didn’t fit so had to be moulded together. The small-component volumes helped join, or extend, the larger ones to serve the gestures we sought.

This basic building form modified the plan. So did a review of room sizes, orien- tations, entries, and storage needs. By the end of the day, we had the basic high school plan.

Design development

A month later I was back to further develop this design. To refresh memories, visu- alize and re-appraise the design, we walked around the high-school site. There had

been many ‘slept-on’ afterthoughts in the meantime, so much discussion and many changes, but only minor ones. The clay model had dried so the revised forms had to be rebuilt. This was the heat-wave of the decade and as the temperature climbed, moist clay dried and we wilted. Shading – particularly topical! – was given serious attention, further modifying both model and drawings.

The design now had enough substance for us to draw meaningful sections: what levels were needed for view across the valley, concealing the car park? Would the stream flow downhill (as streams should)? With the sections, we could refine wind- shedding, cross-ventilation, indoor air movement, and – again – shading. We also optimized winter sun penetration for heating – though, sweat-soaked as we were, it was hard to feel enthusiasm for this. The design, though not complete, was now well rounded – insofar as it ever can be at such a small scale. That evening, therefore, we enlarged the drawings to 1/8″ (approximately 1:100) on a photocopier.

At this enlarged scale we could instantly see which elements we had oversized and which undersized. Doors and toilets, for instance, hadn’t looked wide enough at 1/16″ scale so were drawn too large, while lots of little things, from stair-landings to cupboards, too small to bother with at that scale, we now needed to find space for. It may not sound much, but we – about 15 people – were a full (and hot!) day refin- ing the plans and sections at this scale.

Future growth: East bay Waldorf School, California 161

These roughly drawn, but substantially accurate, drawings I then took back to my office in Wales to refine, work out more sections and elevations and re-draw in a legible form.

162 Projects

Gesture to support this mood.

Mood: enclosed, sheltered, socially focusing, but outward looking.

Rough plans (paper rectangles).

Reflections

Of the five-and-a-half days groupwork, rescuing the existing building took one, site development one, and the high-school design, three-and-a-half days. How easy was it to achieve five-and-a-half days of consensus? Well, it didn’t happen automatically, nor all the time, but it did most of the time.

Mostly, the process of gradually condensing design went smoothly. Occasionally, however, some members rushed too fast toward form. For larger things I felt it important to hold this back, but for smaller matters, when everyone seemed in agree- ment, it felt better to just keep momentum. Things tended to go less easily toward the end of each day, when we were all tired. This would be when idea suggestions increasingly appeared – and were argued about. Also some forceful personalities would resurrect their favourite pre-process ideas. At times like this, I had to assert my steering role and asked what decisions had we reached at the previous level. What, then, did that decision imply? This steered us back onto a consequential- decision path so that individually held ideas fell to the sides. Despite such – albeit rare – lapses into idea-pushing, the process as a whole was consensual. Certainly

every decision was by consensus and so, therefore, was the design.

Notes

Future growth: East bay Waldorf School, California 163

The first of the new (straw-bale) buildings. Design: East Bay Waldorf School, Greg van Mechleren, Bob Davidson, Christopher Day and Vital Systems (the part professional, part volunteer, building group).

1 Sunny in the mornings. In Waldorf schools, the kindergarten ‘day’ is mornings only – it’s enough for small children. Because of parents’ needs,

however, many schools make provision for children to stay on to rest and play in the afternoons.