The Whole Story

Raymond Carver was one of the world’s great short story writers.  He inhabited small moments in a way which captured the whole story of a relationship or a situation.  The small pieces were not only a part of life – they represented the whole of life.  The same could be said of a painter like Vermeer who said everything he wanted to say about the society of his time in a timeless image of a domestic moment.

 

Schools are not only part of a bigger picture – they are themselves a representation of the whole picture.  The way we design our schools speaks volumes about how we view children and how they connect with the rest of our community.  So, we need to know what we are trying to say.

 

Indeed, a good question to ask of any design is – does it convey the message I want to convey.  This is not spin, it is the reality of buildings.  Design speaks whether we want it to or not.  Our challenge is to make it say what we want it to say.