The Forest Classroom: An Integrated Re-Imagining of Restorative Elementary School Environments in the Pacific Northwest.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the unpreparedness of most elementary schools in the United States to cope with major climate, health, and wellness crises. The pandemic has heightened stress levels among educators and students and exposed problems in existing school infrastructures, but simultaneously created an opportunity for design to address these challenges by conceiving of schools as restorative environments through an integration with nature. Through strategies that integrate architecture and landscape architecture design approaches, this thesis re-imagines elementary schools in the Pacific Northwest as spaces that can promote the mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing of their users. The intent of the study is to question the conventional boundaries between the built and natural realms to imagine an educational futurism that can adapt to future crises and provide lasting benefits to students and educators.