A School House With No Walls

A school house with no interior walls?!?! Yep, you read it right! The Swedish Free School Organization Vittra operates by the philosophy that there are no classes or classrooms – instead, the students are taught in groups according to level based on the school’s pedagogical principles of ’the wateringhole’, ’the show-off’, ’the cave’, ’the campfire’ and ’the laboratory’ – didactic approaches that create different types of learning and teaching situations.

This created an interesting program for the architects at Rosan Bosch Ltd., who had to create a school house for an establishment who do not believe in regular classes, but instead a place where individual development is based on living cultural work and challenging learning environments. The architects brainstormed through the schematic design phase to reveal a creative solution - Instead of classical divisions with chairs and tables, a giant iceberg for example serves as cinema, platform and room for relaxation, and sets the frame for many different types of learning. Moreover, flexible laboratories make it possible to work hands-on with themes and projects. In essence, the architects created "a school where the physical space is the school’s most important tool in their everyday and pedagogical development."

Photographer: Kim Wendt and Rosan Bosch