Wonder School is an innovative, new, educational model founded on the belief that every child has the ability to find a calling and change the world. Through providing a studio-based education, students are challenged to take ownership of their learning and to put that learning into practice by solving complex, real-world problems through critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and innovation. The 45,000 SF building will be located on a 16+ acre plot on the east side of Wichita, KS. An expansive site allows the school to become a pavilion within a field, maximizing the identity of the building and providing a natural safety and security buffer. The new Wonder School building provides a tailored backdrop for its unique pedagogy, providing spaces for social, exploratory, and student-driven learning.

In lieu of normative classrooms, the school comprises 5 divisible studio environments organized by age range and nested with a programmed exterior space, creating a charged reciprocity between building and landscape. Alongside the Studios are the project Characters, each with a specific functional program which supports the holistic learning environment, each identifiable in form, and each embodying an essential characteristic of applied learning:

The Forum - Engaging each other
The Repository - A place for research
The Droplet - Silence in Nature
The Playpit - Sensory immersion
The Recreator - Physical wellness
The Fabricator - Maker factory
The Luncheonette - Surrounded by Sustenance
The Canopy - Welcome to campus

The architectural and material qualities of the Wonder School embody the seemingly infinite horizon of the prairie into which it is immersed. Implicit in the building form is a mirror at the horizon between ground - what is knowable, tactile, made of the aggregate of the earth; and the vastness of sky; a diaphanous materiality melting into an unbounded realm of discovery. The architecture of the Wonder School articulates this convergence of knowledge and curiosity; a horizontal datum casts a playful silhouette between land and sky.

Wonder School

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