Oliver Simpson
Non-prescriptive Play
Located on Balloch Pier, Scotland, this project is a dolls house, if you will, for Sistema. At the core of the scheme is an adaptable frame in which Sistema can learn and grow.
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The core idea of the scheme is interlinked with its approach to Energy. The project is adaptable in that it implements the idea of ‘loose fit long life’, making services compact and providing a frame for adaptable spaces in-between. This adaptability will hopefully give the building a longer life as its spaces can be changed easily to serve Sistema’s or another owner’s needs. Further embellishing and celebrating sustainable design decisions, the project also elegantly expresses its highly sustainable skin of windows, shades and vents.
The building’s language sits in-between the vernacular and the contemporary. Complimenting the existing landscape and expressing its modernity. The campus is welcoming, highly legible and non-institutional. Expressing Sistema’s core ethos, which is all about inclusion and diversity.
Linked with the approach to Energy, the project embodies the idea of ‘non-prescriptive play’. It provides all the elements – the tools – required for Sistema’s teaching and cultural philosophy, without prescribing how they should be used. Instead of imposing a programme on the buildings users, in the way architects traditionally do, there is ample scope for spontaneity and improvisation.