The selection of the architecture for the competition proved to be one of the most controversial aspects of the precompetition workshop. The decision to provide the competition participants with a prototype for a modular school was taken to avoid turning the competition into an architecture competition and to keep the focus on the landscape, with designers situating the major building arrangements on the site and modifying the interface between the school building and the outdoors. This also made sense from the school district’s perspective, since prototyping is a growing trend in North America. But designing with prototypes is challenging.
Here, architect Lisa Gelfand describes prototypes and how they might learn as types, and not default into stereotypes…