ROOMS in the yard

2019

Collaboration with Open Architecture New York

Bard High School Early College exterior yard renovation

Lower East Side, NYC

The BHSEC yard is a shared commons, a spatial resource available to students for individual and collective benefit. The future, improved yard will provide a collection of loosely divided “rooms” intended for various occupations and scales of activity. Design elements will visually define these spaces and create specific environments for flexible uses.

‘Rooms in the Yard’ is the design outcome of a process that engaged the students and faculty of BHSEC through surveys, meetings, and group discussions. A series of architectural elements will subdivide and define the space of the future school yard, including small inhabitable structures, partitions between various activity areas, and infrastructure for additional new planters. Complemented by a graphic surface application on the ground, the elements will provide an open and adaptable framework for a variety of uses as well as visually enhance the BHSEC yard.