The Children’s School: Maryann Thompson Architects

In an adult world, there are few places specifically designed to fit the way children perceive space, let alone space that comes alive through their experience. We’re not talking about a fantasy space, but a real place dedicated to nurturing children so that they grow into individuals who are able to navigate the world confidently and creatively.

Such a place does exist. Nestled in a wooded area of Stamford, Connecticut, The Children’s School features a very special building designed by Maryann Thompson Architects of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school asked the architects to create a “one-room schoolhouse” for its sixty or so students, ages two through eight, in accordance with the Montessori Method of teaching and learning. As the method’s late founder, Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori, once declared, “It is almost possible to say that there is a mathematical relationship between the beauty of his surroundings and the activity of the child; he will make discoveries rather more voluntarily in a gracious setting than in an ugly one.”

A gracious setting is exactly what the architects gave The Children’s School. Soaring, light-filled interior spaces provide a perfect setting for the sun to cast changing patterns through windows and doors that open onto outdoor decks and play areas. Slanted roof planes create a sense of place among the trees and subtly tilt against one another to let in light from above and define the classroom spaces below without the use of walls. The interior is divided into two classroom “wings” that are joined by an entry area and spaces for quiet and calming activities. The floor plan allows for access and views between the classrooms and the outside.

“We designed the building to respond to different ways in which a child perceives space,” says company founder Maryann Thompson, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. For example, minimal furnishings and even door knobs are at heights that children can easily reach. In the classroom areas for younger children, the floors have their own “landscapes” with what Thompson calls “little stages and stepped depressions” that the children can use as learning or play centers. “We did this because the floor is an important experience for the small child,” she says, noting that the furniture was designed by the firm and many pieces were scaled to allow the children to sit on the floor.

Throughout the structure, the windows are near floor level “so that even the youngest student would be able to see out and have a direct sense of connection to the outdoor space,” Thompson explains. Sensitive to the importance of light, the architects placed the classroom areas for the younger children, who attend school only in the morning, in the east-facing “wing” of the building, where they can bask in the early light. The older children’s classroom space faces west to take advantage of the afternoon sun. Throughout the structure, sun streams in from clerestory windows created by the intersection of roof planes. The design is not merely for effect, but to eliminate the need for electrical lights, even on cloudy days. “My research and experience shows that natural light coming in from above mimics our experience of sunlight and is very peaceful for children — it helps to center and balance the child emotionally,” says Thompson.

Thompson, who is a mother as well as an architect, found inspiration for designing child-centered spaces in a toy — a simple ball — which allows both the child and the ball to be active. She wondered if a child and a building could have a similar relationship, where the movement of a child through the structure creates the structure’s identity. “It is like the saying, ‘If a tree falls in the forest, is there sound?’ I wanted to ask, ‘Does the building exist without the perception of the child?’”

Indeed, The Children’s School allows a free flow of activity and provides a sense of journey and moments of discovery for students, with hidden spatial sequences that are revealed in layers of spaces, light, shadow, and activity. This jibes with the Montessori philosophy, which urges children to engage with their physical space to heighten their sensations of it.

The Children’s School is one of the first LEED- (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified schools in Stamford. It was designed “to tread lightly on the earth,” according to MaryannThompson.com. For example, it applies passive solar technology for energy efficiency, with south-facing windows and a thickened floor slab for heat gain and storage in cooler weather and trellises and louvers on the windows for shade from the hot summer sun. Natural light from the expansive clerestory windows practically eliminate the need for artificial lighting, while operable windows offer cross-ventilation. Large overhangs cover deck and patio areas, sheltering them from sun in summer and inclement weather year-round. The roof captures rain and snowmelt, which are diverted for use in the gardens.

The project features natural and regional materials, most of which come from within a five-hundred-mile radius of the site and a large percentage of which feature recycled content. The steel for the building framing and the aluminum roofs, for example, contain at least eighty percent recycled metals. The glass tiles in the bathrooms are also made of recycled materials, as is the carpeting, which is low in volatile organic compounds.

Diisynology asked Thompson what she likes most about the finished school. “You know, kids are very weather-oriented. I like the way the walls and ceiling are transparent to the outside world. On a rainy day, the kids enjoy the sense of being part of the storm. I also really like the way the light moves through the building during the day. It mimics the exterior environment that surrounds the building, and it has the same effect and feeling as if you are under a canopy of trees. Yes, it feels like you are in a grove of trees; a very nice feeling.”

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