The Atelier, a Reggio Emilia based school, is designed as a temporary structure in response to site limitations. This entails that it can be dismantled and the materials and land recovered in entirety. Conforming to the education system, the spaces are designed in a permeable sense. Eight branching columns support a sloping roof which effects a gentle change in scale. The interior is visually liberating, being perceived entirely as one volume. Walls of varying heights enclose curvilinear spaces, blurring volumetric definition. The external envelope is a pattern of permeable, opaque and transparent surfaces, lighting and ventilating the space. Dotted with skylights, the roof has an insulating bamboo plywood false ceiling which contrasts with the metallic frame. Construction techniques such as chappadi stone foundation, paver block floor, paper tube partition walls and a bolted steel structure make the building transposable.
