Project Description
Building promise and potential in the heart of our community. Iditarod Elementary School’s unique learning signature was created through intense collaboration between the design team and school students, teachers, and administrators early in the programming and design process. This signature speaks to the school’s core identity and informed all aspects of the planning and design. More than just a design tool, the learning signature embodies the school’s promise to the community and the commitment of staff and teachers to their students. Design responses include:
• The planning process discarded the isolated classroom/hallway model, creating active common connecting space that provide pathways and engaging learning opportunities. This literal and figurative heart of the school carries the message of the school promise through its connective tissue.
• Iditarod is one of a few schools in the Mat-Su School District that is located in an urban area and is surrounded by mature birch forests. The school is configured to be an active community center with gathering spaces, classrooms, and athletic facilities readily accessible while emphasizing views, materials, and textures that respond to the natural surroundings.
• The vibrant colors and transparency of the school’s wedged-shaped clerestory is a warm and welcoming beacon to the community when used during dark winter evenings. Active and engaging interior functions are readily visible from the street. Color-shifting lighting provides a varied and programmable `light show’ in the high bay windows.
• Views within the school connect all learning spaces, creating a transparency of purpose while simultaneously displaying its vibrant learning activities to students and visitors alike. The library and learning lab can be configured independently from the common areas or left open, allowing the spaces to serve multiple functions: quiet study, active learning, community gathering, hands-on learning, and much more.