Prospectively situated in the Edinburgh areas of Leith Walk and Canonmills on McDonald Road, this learning centre affectionately called Earth School is the 4th year final project of Interior design student Violette Chumbe.
The project involves the repurposing of the McDonald Road fire station into a centre for interdisciplinary learning. The centre aims to bring the newest generations closer to a deep understanding of the living world and interconnected organisms that support their life. With everything from labs for the dissection and study of locally found organisms, a workshop to chisel and carve found wood, to a theatre for a moving performance on the effects of throwing plastic bottles and straws, this learning centre has connectedness at its core.
“The greatest lie that humans ever told is that Earth is ours, and at our disposal.”
The Golden Mole
K. Randell
The Theme
We, human beings, need to care for the planet we live on. But there is a problem – we just don’t seem to care. A root of this bewildering lack of concern stems from humanities loss of connection to nature.
The design of education spaces is one channel through which this issue could effectively be addressed. The experience of place, especially at the formative time of early education has an impactful effect on a person’s identity. It is this undeniable effect on people’s identity that this project aims to harness.
To achieve this sought after harmony, the design of this learning centre must endeavour to harmonise with the new curriculums taught within its walls and emulate nature. This project will incorporate various biophilic design patterns as well as take nature subjects as a precedent for various design problems to propose a space with nature as its inspiration and intention. The interior will aim to be a gateway, a place that opens minds, hearts, and access to a world we have been far removed from for years.
