DESIGN NAME: Regenstein Learning Campus
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Botanic Garden
INSPIRATION: This regenerative project is envisioned as a gateway to the natural world. The conception of the Regenstein Learning Campus emerged from a shared concern about children’s increasingly distant relationship to nature as they are further plugged into the digital world. As the idea of getting dirty in the outdoors becomes more of an abstraction for children, we have designed this garden to highlight process, transformation, and creative discovery.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Regenstein Learning Campus is a new environmental discovery center and nature playground at the Chicago Botanic Garden serving more than 125,000 people each year. The design immerses families and children of all ages in a variety of outdoor experiences that engenders a deeper understanding of ecological systems. Visitors encounter a variety of natural experiences and explorations as they weave through the grassy mounds, water runnels, boulders, diverse woodland plantings and willow tunnels.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: The design immerses families in a variety of outdoor experiences for inquiry focused learning and play, engendering a deeper understanding of ecological systems and highlighting discovery in all seasons.
Diversity defines the experiences within the garden as visitors weave through grassy mounds, a water-play runnel, boulders, and willow tunnels. As an educational landscape, the garden has many engaging elements that naturally bridge the transition between play and intuitive experiential learning.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The Project is in Glencoe, Illinois, USA. It began in 2012 and was finished in 2016. The campus links the Grunsfeld Growing Garden, an herb and culinary garden, and the Kleinman Family Cove, an aquatics learning center for families and children. Together these learning environments now read as one experience providing a rich and highly programmed learning center for the Chicago Botanic Garden; one that is as much about touching, smelling and feeling as it is about visual beauty.
|
PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Sustainability drove the design of the runnels, the stone bridges, the fire pit and the upper paved terrace. Local and regional materials from the Midwest were sourced for the play runnel, providing a cooling oasis during the summer months. Regionally sourced boulders offer moments of discovery throughout the landscape. Rain gardens in the Northwest corner of the garden provide additional opportunities for discovery and learning while addressing important stormwater management issues.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Reclaimed logs were carved to create moments of play for children to crawl and hide and seek. Regionally sourced boulders offer moments of discovery throughout the landscape. Rain gardens in the Northwest corner of the garden provide additional opportunities for discovery and learning while addressing important stormwater management issues.
TAGS: Chicago, BotanicGarden, Regenstein, learningcampus, MYKD, landarch, CBG, Outdoorclassroom, jacobsryan, play
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Discovery and imagination are emphasized in the vision of this design, offering visitors fertile ground for the expansion of the mind and body. The conception of the Campus emerged from a concern about the relationship of children to nature as they are further plugged into the digital world. This garden is an important first step in providing a place of learning by doing as it encourages direction engagement with the natural cycles of nature and reconnects our youth to the ecological world.
CHALLENGE: The hardest creative challenge for the Regenstein Learning Campus was managing the design of the grading. The site, at its lowest point, was prone to flooding and so the site strategies had to include mitigation of this condition.
ADDED DATE: 2018-02-27 18:07:52
TEAM MEMBERS (2) : Principal Designer: Mikyoung Kim, Mikyoung Kim Design and Partner Landscape Architect: Terry Warriner Ryan, Jacobs/Ryan Associates
IMAGE CREDITS: Image #1: Photographer, Kate Joyce, 2016
Image #2: Photographer, Kate Joyce, 2016
Image #3: Photographer, Kate Joyce, 2016
Image #4: Photographer, Kate Joyce, 2016
Image #5: Photographer, Kate Joyce, 2016
|