Modular Schools

Quelling the “Invasion of the Campus Snatchers”.

Los Angeles, CA.

In the last thirty years, we who have been to school, sent our kids to school, or worked in a school, all stand as witnesses to the occupation of our playing fields, quadrangles, and parking lots by a flotilla of modular classrooms. Although campuses across our education system are unique reflections of place and pedagogy, the result of the deployment of trailers on the learning environment –-both in the classroom and on campus— is a pervasive provisionality.

That said, perhaps the modular is “almost all right.” As a solution it might be,

* Adaptable, but it is not accommodating
* Speedy, but not sustainable
* Viable, but not valuable.
 
Our approach to the Los Angeles United School District’s (LAUSD) call for a system-wide alternative strategy for new charter school’s and existing needs is to accept the modular as a starting point, but to introduce subtle and intelligent modifications.

The district ran two competitions in tandom, one for a 6,000 to 8,000 square foot building and one for a 25,000 charter school. We began looking at the project “urbanistically” – with the aim of using our modified modulars as building blocks that could contribute to shared outdoor spaces that make a campus.