108 SCHOOLS


‘In environments where there are shapes that are curved but there are also triangular shapes, the triangle has a crisp reaction on your eye – like a firework – where a curved line is the opposite: your eye begins to drift over. When you see them together your mind really dances with it, because it’s trying to understand two very different things. Tat links to the idea of voluntary and involuntary perception. When you are studying – say, you are looking at a spreadsheet - you are very focused on that information. Or if you are walking down a linear city street, that is tied to voluntary perception, which is shown to


In environments where there are shapes that are curved but there are also triangular shapes, the triangle has a crisp reaction on your eye – like a firework


tire your mind out after a short while. But involuntary perception is when you walk through a park or valley, or are looking at water or a fire burning. You are, involuntarily, perceiving all this extra information… Tat stimulates your mind and is regenerative as opposed to exhausting.’ For Farrow, perhaps unsurprisingly, the private, independent schools sector in Canada has proved most receptive to his vision, including Te Toronto Montessori School, whose educational principles, established by 19th century Italian education pioneer Maria Montessori, are all about supporting children in learning as


CASE STUDY TORONTO MONTESSORI SCHOOL


Toronto Montessori School (TMS) is a not-for-profit independent school, situated on two campus locations within Richmond Hill, where pupils from the age of 18 months to 18 years are taught. Like many schools, TMS has, through its success, grown in a piecemeal fashion over the decades and, until recently, its overall architectural impact and quality had not been addressed. To this end, TMS hired Farrow Partners as masterplanners and architects of new facilities to improve welcome and well-being in ways that articulate both Montessori’s and Farrow’s commitment to an education and architecture enriched by nature, and informed by educational and developmental psychology and principles of good design. The newly expanded Bayview Campus, where the junior school sits, was completed in 2020. Previously, visitors and students would arrive at a large parking lot immediately outside a long brick building with an entrance that was allegedly dificult to find, but that car park has now been transformed. A garden courtyard sits between the old block and a new, semi-circular glazed and timber entrance lobby, with a covered arcade along its edge, for pick ups and drop offs. The open air courtyard between these buildings proved immensely


valuable during 2020–21, as it could easily transform into an outdoor classroom. Equally, the covered arcade at the front could be adapted for a variety of outdoor learning activities, even in colder weather. Founder and director Tye Farrow’s timber structure of intersecting geometric shapes provides a pleasing choreography of light and shade throughout the day. Farrow explains: ‘The space is so responsive to light, it changes all the time. If it’s cloudy, sunny, misty, early in the morning, late in winter, the light becomes very different. When you walk in, you come from the low arcade, and then the roof slopes up, the structure begins to expand, the roof looks like it’s pivoted. Then there’s this grillage, this brise soleil of wood, creating diamond patterns. All of these things play into your voluntary and involuntary perception to create a very rich, very uplifting experience.’ Also included in this new wing are administration ofices, meeting rooms, a multi-use space and athletics centre. Farrow was additionally asked to help


re-organise corridors and classrooms across both sites to improve flow, atmosphere and lighting to create a more consistent overall architectural impression. Transformation of the Elgin Campus, known as Phase Two, is currently under way.


Clients Toronto Montessori School


Architects Farrow Partners Architects Cost $12m Completion Bayview Campus, 2020


Consultants WSP (Structural); GPY + Associates (Mechanical); Summit Engineering (Electrical); Timber Systems (Timber Design Assist, Fabrication); Quinn Design (Landscape Architectural services)


ALL IMAGES: TOM ARBAN PHOTOGRAPHY INC


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