Center for Architecture

Edgeless School
Exhbition

“The Edgeless School: Design for Learning,” an eight-month exhibition at the Center for Architecture, presented nineteen innovative, recently built elementary and high schools in the United States. Sage and Coombe conceived of the exhibition design and installation, which required the conceptual and practical placement of architectural models, photographs, text, and videos. The design addressed ways physical spaces embody pedagogical philosophies, shape students’ learning experiences, and the effect of new technology and contemporary approaches to pedagogy on school design.

Awards

AIANY Honor Award The American Architecture Award, The Chicago Athenaeum, Museum of Architecture and Design, 2014
Global Design Award, SEGD (Society of Environmental and Graphic Designers), 2013

To meet the assignment, nine elementary school desks from the 1960s were suspended in the double-height storefront, creating a familiar and evocative image of the traditional classroom and effectively casting a shadow on any conversation about school and classroom design.

The double-height storefront joins the two primary exhibit spaces: a street-level gallery and a mezzanine below. Projects are displayed at both levels.

Enlarged and pixilated images of two projects are displayed on each side wall: one represents teaching, and the other represents “edgeless” architecture. The pixels are customized as 2-inch rounds and represent images from various projects. This motif is echoed in the traditional graphic of a standardized test – represented by a larger-than-life scantron form filled in with a number two pencil that marks the entry to the lower level.