WATTS LEARNING CENTER MIDDLE SCHOOL

Watts, CA: Current

RSAUD was asked by Pacific Charter School Development to design a new, ground-up middle school for the nationally-acclaimed Watts Learning Center (WLC), on a roughly 1-acre, mid-block site in Watts (South Los Angeles). The 20,000 SF program called for 14 classrooms, administrative offices, a multipurpose room, and community technology center. Outdoor spaces were provided for both active (sports, lunch area, etc.) and passive use, as well as for staff and visitor parking. In reference to WLC’s own motto: " It Takes a Village", RSAUD’s design emerged through the production of a program book of image sources for the project, organized according to three themes. The first researched the indigenous form of African communal life which is the spiritual source of the school’s culture; this was exemplified in such features as playful roof profiles, bold surface graphics and decorative stucco work. We also studied how sustainable living practices might be built into the architecture of the school as a kind of "visual curriculum"; these included the use of green roofs (for vegetable gardens); systems of stormwater drainage, collection, and reuse (in fountains, gardens, etc.); the incorporation of operable skylights (to supply natural light and ventilation, minimize heat gain); and the use of locally-manufactured building materials. Finally, the book--and by extension the resultant design--explored opportunities for interaction between students, as in the easy communication between indoor and outdoor spaces (each classroom has an outdoor classroom immediately adjacent); and transforming ordinarily mundane stairways and corridors into gathering places through the addition of landings, benches and built-in furniture.

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