SET TO WELCOME ALL THE STUDENTS THIS AUGUST, VERSO IS A NEW AND PROGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL IN BANGKOK THAT WAS BORN OUT OF THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE SCHOOL’S LEARNING DESIGN TEAM AND THE DESIGN CONSULTANT IDEO
TEXT: PAPHOP KERDSUP
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN EXCEPT AS NOTED
(For Thai, press here)
Technological progresses are happening at a pace that is far too fast for us humans to keep up with and its far beyond our imagination. It’s becoming more evident that the original roles of existing social institutions may no longer be able to provide answers to the changing characteristics of our society and people’s behaviors. Such disruption has brought monumental changes to the lives of the people in both contemporary and future generations, it is now perhaps time for us to rethink how spaces such as educational institutes can play its role in the creation and nurturing of modern global citizens, and how the structure of the learning experiences they’re facilitating as well as the architecture to be realized and developed.
A 21st-Century school where ‘education’ meets ‘innovation’ and ‘design’ serves as the core concept behind the genesis of VERSO International School, the latest international school project in Bangkok set to open and welcome students in the coming August of 2020. “What makes VERSO different?” is the first question that comes to everyone’s mind. Certainly a good question, investing in a project of such nature, particularly in Bangkok where the competition between international schools is undeniably high, several disruptions have been made to many aspects of the development to create a truly original model. Cameron Fox, the Founding Head of School, talks to us with great enthusiasm about how VERSO is different for its incorporation of ‘design thinking’ to the search for novel learning approaches that will best suit each and every student.
Photo courtesy of VERSO International School
“When I was first contacted about the project, I was very excited to be a part of the design process of these new learning experiences for the school. I had invited a number of people from the education field, with experience working as teachers in several international schools to work on the project. We brainstormed intensely, going over and choosing the strong points of each school that each of us used to work with, integrating the strengths to achieve the most perfect result. We were very glad that we were able to create what we thought was the best model for an international school. But when all the ideas were crystallized, we ended up feeling disappointed because even though the new model was able to bring together all these strengths, it was still just a model for another international school that wasn’t that much different from what others had done. This became the reason for us to rethink the whole process before finally deciding to contact the expert who would be able to unlock the idea for us. And that expert was IDEO.”
The California-based design consultancy firm is reputable for its development of design thinking processes into the success of their incredibly diverse projects, ranging from products, services, and environmental designs to user experience on the digital platform. All the innovations they have achieved are based on human-centered designs. With VERSO, a team of specialists from IDEO readjusted the method to better cater to the school’s demands with the use of design to help find solutions to the problems the school’s prospective students may be facing. Created as a result, is the student-centered design, in regards to both the learning curriculum and environment.
What’s even more interesting is that this is the first time for IDEO to utilize their expertise to develop solutions for every aspect of this new international school. It encompasses the division of the learning contents by placing emphasise on extra curriculum activities, to the design of the architecture and landscape architecture that encourages children to be more interactive with nature. It also includes the role of teachers to contribute as ‘learning designers’, who provide consultancy and adjust the learning experiences to best correspond to the needs and demands of each individual student. As a result, the learning design team, in this sense, will not be standing in front of the classrooms, teaching 1, 2, 3, following the norms of conventional curriculum.
Photo courtesy of VERSO International School
Apart from the reinvented approach to the students’ learning experience, VERSO’s principle, which aims to propose unprecedented possibilities to the educational system of international schools, has been translated into the design of the school’s physical environment. On the vast 66.4-acre land located near the massive real-estate development project known as Thana City in Bangna district, and only 4 kilometers away from Suvannabhumi Airport, each building is designed with flexibility as its conceptual core. Such an approach allows the development of spaces that can accommodate diverse learning experiences. In the meantime, children are able to freely exercise their imagination through different physical elements of the school’s architecture. The architects of Palmer & Turner took over the design of the donut-shaped school building from the design team of IDEO. They worked with the idea IDEO had initially drafted, which the facilitation of a seamless relationship and conversation between humans, architecture and nature. With that, the ‘loop’ concept was developed.
The loop comprises of Lower Loop, Middle Loop and Upper Loop buildings, which are used to accommodate students in the Early Years to Grade 4, Grade 5-8 and Grade 9-12, respectively. Each building has its own separate learning spaces as well as sports facilities. Only the Upper Loop uses the facilities inside the gymnasium building which is standing separately from the loop. We cannot help but imagine each ‘loop’ as a ‘microcosm’ with its own Eco-system and social structure. While the concept, to a certain extent, ends up isolating each part of the program from one another quite a bit, the management of the more specific learning facilities such as the dance studios, music practice rooms, science labs, art and multimedia studios, all the way to exhibition spaces inside the building called The Hub, allows each of the worlds to connect. They’re independent from each other while not entirely separated from each other. Not only that, The Hub also houses a room designed to be a co-working space for VERSO’s learning designers to share their ideas and experiences, which is a feature that we haven’t seen from other schools.
In addition to the architecture, the materials, colors and lighting of the interior design by August Design Consultant and the landscape design by PLandscape are just as special and interesting, and together they complete the 66-acre land of the school perfectly. The curated environment references back to the land’s original geographical characteristics and Eco-system. Once known as the ‘cobra pond’, the area used to be a vast wetland of flooded plane. Different species of plants are chosen not only to provide shade and create the quality of space to the program, but also to attract natural living creatures such as local birds back to the Eco-system, which runs alongside the existence of the school. Several details are designed with great emphasis on sustainability, particularly the water management system (water storage and retention ability and efficient water treatment), to minimize the effects the project may bring to the nearby projects and to the community. The kitchen garden can be found growing in different corners of the school, turning a green landscape into a learning space for the students.
Taking a closer look, VERSO International School operates similarly to a high functioning apparatus of sorts. It is comprising of, not just the software (the structure of the curriculum) and hardware (the architectural structure), which seem to work together in such an ideal unison to conceive this novel international school, but it is also complemented by both the aforementioned conceptual and physical apparatuses. In the midst of the time when conventional education systems are losing popularity, VERSO is showing endless possibilities that an educational institution can offer and its ability to nurture the younger generations to become the citizens of tomorrow who are prepared to face and overcome many other disruptions that await them in the future. “At VERSO, every budding spirit has the potential to become a great individual.”