Amy Biehl Community School at Rancho Viejo

Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Amy Biehl at Rancho Viejo Community School is a unique endeavor for the Santa Fe Public School system. Its primary focus is not only educating children, but educating them in an outdoor learning environment. To that end, ideas about using the exterior environment as a central teaching tool were explored and reviewed by the building committee, Santa Fe Public Schools, the design team, the Santa Fe Children’s Museum and Anne Nelson from the Children’s Workshop.

The outdoor schoolyard is a learning environment that fosters observation and interaction with natural systems, maximizing use of all of the senses. The participatory landscape encourages daily, hands-on, imaginative and expansive teaching and learning, exploration and experimentation. In order to focus on this type of learning and play, each traditional classroom has a door that leads to a variety of outdoor classrooms at different scales. The design establishes an exterior framework of walls and paths to delineate classrooms and play areas. The elements within the boundaries of the exterior classrooms and play areas beyond the walls will be built incrementally over time in concert with the curriculum and with assistance from the community.

Team
Greer Strafford / SJCS Architects

Award
2014 Green Ribbon School, US Department of Education
2011 NM ASLA Honor Award, Communication