FUN HOUSE | environmental charter school

Carrick, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

The design of ECS responds to the immediate neighborhood by using the gesture of Westmont Avenue to seperate the building into two zones- a community amenity and an organnizational parti. The community amenities are open to the public and therefore sitting closer to the commericial area. The other zone on the west side is closer to the residential area and it is right across Carrick High School. Therefore, individual classrooms are all sitting on the west with three of them facing south (the street) and one facing the woods.
Environmental Objectives:
- frontyard served as a social gathering space for students, parents, teachers, and neighbors: an apple tree garden providing shading, sitting steps with plants, a planting garden in front of the kitchen growing seasonal veggies
- solar panels on the roof for energy conservation
- different dense levels of sunshading devices to avoid direct sunlight in the classroom
- backyard functionsed as an outdoor activity space for students
- roof rain garden served as an outdoor classroom to reduce the thermal mass of the building