Amphitheater High School’s Outdoor Classroom: a study in the Application of Design

Background:

Lafayette Greens, located in Detroit, Michigan, is another notable community garden design. The site was designed by Kenneth Weikal Landscape Architecture, for Compuware Corporation, and was the recipient of the 2012 ASLA Honor Award for General Design Category. The garden was in part a reflection of the urban gardening trend occuring in Detroit in response to the food deserts of the freshly abandoned neighborhoods of Detroit. Lafayette Greens was also a statement about the commitment of Compuware to the city of Detroit. The garden functions in cooperation with first floor company daycare, where employees of Compuware may take their children. Through the daycare children are brought out to engage with many aspects of the garden, which features fruit trees, a kiwi vine, berry garden, art circle, lawn, and plentiful gardens beds. Community members are welcome to rent out garden bed, engaging multiple demographics. The physical configuration of Lafayette Greens makes a broad range of considerations. The garden beds are spaced in rows and columns aligned so that the tops of beds are level, but grow deeper as they descend along the slope. In conjunction with swales placed between the beds, the garden effectively manages storm water, makes it an asset. Aesthetically the site tells a story about the surrounding area. The material palate of exposed rebar, unstained wood, corrugated metals, and even planters made from oil drums, reflect the industrial nature of Detroit. (Weikal, 2012) It is the interface between engineered aspects, and the interpretative, which make a case for the sustaining value of community gardens designed by landscape architects.

With respect to the three pillars of sustainability community gardens are the product of social sustainability, but design allows for the incorporation of economic and environmental sustainability. Where gardens are not designed there are generally two different places that community gardens appear. There are those which develop in urban neighborhoods, and those which appear in schools. The first type of garden, neighborhood, is the type of space that the Viet Village Farm shows economic sustainability. The second type, the school garden, is reflected in Lafayette Greens, where children are brought into the garden to learn as a part of the daycare program. Even without design both garden types strive to bring people into contact with foods they produce, and to consider the foods which they consume. goals may diverge; in neighborhoods gardens serve as places of community contact, or enrichment of the built environment; in schools they are used as spaces for hands-on learning. The evidence for the benefit of school garden is not based in sentiment; one study from Griffith University, England, shows a study at two middle schools where garden beds and school kitchens were introduced, alongside cross-disciplinary curriculum. The end result at each school was respectively 16% and 9%, for both reading and mathematics according to the National Assessment Program test data. (Manzo Elementary School, 2016)

These examples and results that might inspire teachers, staff, and parents to take interest in gardens at their school. In Tucson, Manzo elementary sets a prime example of how a determined set individual can transform a school. Starting with a student constructed tortoise habitat, the school has grown its infrastructure to include, water harvesting cisterns, Garden beds raised, and sunken, a chicken coop, greenhouse, aquaponics tank, compost bins, and worm bins. The infrastructure has been accompanied by the development of garden and outdoor curriculum which integrates common core education goals, by the University of Arizona Department of Geography. Outcomes so far have resulted in an increase of 22% and 20% of passing scores for the AIMS (Arizona’s instrument to measure standards) for Math and science respectively. () This begs the question of design might have to offer school gardens like this.

Currently there is a gap between community gardens, which are generally grass-roots community oriented projects, and carefully designed landscapes. The question begs as to how they might benefit from these designs, and if they do, how can we ensure there are procedures in place to aid in these designs. With respect to schools there is proven educational value, and accordingly there is strong backing for these sorts of projects by teachers who wish to expand their learning space beyond the chalkboard. An opportunity to expand that learning space has presented itself with the Science department at Amphitheater High School (AHS) has expressed interest in pursuing these goals, and has an open space which they are willing to invest efforts for this experiment. The department has expressed interest in developing the space beyond just a garden space, and would like to include space for class meeting space, recreational space for students, and the incorporation of sustainable practice like water harvesting, and native low-water use plants.

Completion of this project will require careful exploration of structured landscape design processes. A quick overview of this process will require that I perform a site analysis of how the space is currently used, and perform interviews of students, teachers, and the people who provide maintenance of the site. In addition to current use, the interviews should include what the desirable outcomes would include for these users. With case studies of successful outdoor classrooms, interviews of the students and faculty, additional site analysis, then a series of conceptual plans, a recommended preliminary plan, and plan for implementation and maintenance will be produced for the eventual construction of the “Outdoor Learning Classroom” at AHS.