Edgeless School: Design for Learning

Designed by Peter Gluck and Partners, the East Harlem School in New York City incorporates community while also providing a respite and calm. “There is a solitary component to it, a cluster component,” Mellins explains. “It’s much more shielded from the street. A lot of kids have chaotic environments, not just from cities, but in all sorts of ways. There is a sense of sanctuary.”

The schools in

Edgeless provide examples of new ways of thinking about the intersection of education and space, and how our ideas about learning are changing. “It’s no longer about school being in your childhood,” Mellins says. “The goal of education is to create lifelong learners. What you’re learning in school is how to learn.” Photo by ©Erik Freeland.