River Valley School

1. 2008 Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture River Valley School Sundre, Alberta, Canada Elementary School (K-8) New Construction / Addition Group2 Architecture Engineering Ltd.

2. River Valley School Introduction: This project began as a modernization initiated as a result of a mold outbreak. This created an atmosphere of extreme mistrust and concern in the community. River Valley School – main exterior

3. Student Art Planning Process: In response, the planning process was completed as a community activity. The process focused on dealing with the safety concerns and reshaping education in the community. Community developed artwork project relating the “learning neighbourhood”

4. Main Entry Planning Process continued: Visioning sessions, design charrettes, and community forums were open and held with teachers, parents, community leaders and government representatives. The “learning neighbourhood” was conceived as a place of support to the students and community creating global connections through learning. River Valley School - main entry and parent drop off area

5. Community Library Community Environment: The greater “learning neighbourhood” included vibrant new shared facilities for the community. Portions of the existing school were redeveloped to provide a new home for the community library, a shared community gymnasium, recreation and arts facility. Community library and learning resource centre

6. Community Centre Community Environment continued: The community playschool along with offices for Neighbourhood Place – a community support agency – were also created. Entry to the greater “learning neighbourhood” community

7. Student Gathering Area Learning Environment: In the school itself, three distinct “learning neighbourhoods” serve the student population. Each neighbourhood has a theme providing an identity for the neighbourhood and connecting it to the curriculum. The three neighbourhoods are Water, Plants, and Earth. The Water neighbourhood focuses on major river systems including the Amazon, Nile, Saint Lawrence, and the local Red Deer River. The relative sizes of the systems are depicted in the flooring patterns in the hallway and information about the systems is incorporated into signage and displays in this neighbourhood. Student gathering in earth neighbourhood

8. Learning Neighbourhoods Learning Environment continued: The Plant neighbourhood focuses on the major types of plants both locally and across the globe with flooring patterns relating to the numbers of species of each type of plant classification. The Earth neighbourhood focuses on a scaled representation of our solar system. Signage and displays on the walls highlight various information about the planets including the number of moons, length of the year, and length of day for each planet. “Learning Neighbourhoods” - earth, plants, and water

9. Exposed Building Systems Learning Environment continued: Each neighbourhood incorporates experiential lessons relating local information globally to develop the student’s understanding of their environment, context of the globe and even the universe. Innovative lessons reveal the relationships of the neighbourhoods and allow students to research and discover the systems that connect us all. Exposed building systems create an instructional opportunity

10. School Gymnasium Physical Environment: The school is a teaching tool layered with lessons and discoveries. The gym’s acoustic block provides a dramatic representation of 100 years of local population growth. School gym – 100 years of provincial population growth represented in acoustic blocks

11. Open Project Space Physical Environment continued: The facility incorporates various sustainable elements such as heat recovery technology that become further opportunities for learning as many of the systems are exposed and a weather station allows research on the performance of the built environment. Open project spaces and several smaller breakout rooms support differentiated project instructing for each “learning neighbourhood.” Earth “learning neighbourhood” open project space

12. Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2008 Project Data

13. Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2008 Project Details

14. Supporting Images School library and resource centre Exterior of the student gathering area

15. Supporting Images Details of solar system discovery tool

16. Supporting Images Plant “learning neighbourhood” open project space

17. Supporting Images School 3D artwork relating to earth and the global community

18. Supporting Images Kindergarten learning area