Maker’s Hub Taking Shape at Gruss Center at Lawrenceville
Sasaki's newly-designed maker spaces at The Lawrenceville School encourage students to forge creative, hands-on projects, together.
Establishing a sustainable, contextually sensitive connector between learning environments on the historic Lawrenceville School campus
The Lawrenceville School Gruss Center for Art and Design
An open and transparent lobby space connects all rooms, as well as with the existing adjacent museum and studios. Students can visually engage with all activities at GCAD
The Gruss Center for Art and Design is a new 21st century student learning center and makerspace at The Lawrenceville School that bridges museum space and the schoolâs visual arts studios. The strategy for enclosure responds to this new typology with simple, neutral materials that allow for transparency and student engagement with the activities happening inside.
Todayâs shift in educational paradigm centers on project-based learning to promote cross disciplinary teaching. Students realize their potential world impact by making things with their hands and fostering their creativity through group collaboration. The project aims to nurture this hands-on culture.
Maker spaces occupy the ground floor, while labs and forum stair connect with the basement. The floating Flex room hovers over the lobby space
The GCAD sits in between the Museum and the Visual Arts Studios, creating a connection between the art being conceived, crafted, and exhibited. The generous 2,000 SF Flex room echoes in scale the double height spaces at the rotunda in the Museum and the Visual arts Studios
All spaces are connected in section to allow for visibility and for natural light to enter all rooms in the building. The pop-up roof is designed to bring natural light into the Flex room, bringing the sky into the space
A neutral and transparent enclosure brings contrast to its adjacent buildings, while also acting as a connector
The entrance from the Noyes Quad connects both the Museum and GCAD
The back façade is completely transparent to allow for maximum visibility into the building’s activities
The Forum stair engages with the lobby at GCAD and with the entrance to the Museum, while creating a double height space that brings light into the basement
The Forum stair is designed to host informal presentations and connect to student engagement spaces
The basement houses clean Labs, a computer Lab, and student club rooms, all open into a Virtual Reality and robotics shared space
Work-focused spaces are organized across three levels and include a forum for student engagement, wood and metal shops, clean labs, print and seminar rooms, and large storage areas. The âflex roomâ, which floats over the forum, is a 2,000-square-foot space that can be divided to suit a variety of needs.
The wood and metal makerspaces occupy part of the ground floor at the Visual Arts buildings. Across the transparent wall are the 3D printing room and the Assembly room, where students gather to discuss and bring their material together
The Flex room is designed to be able to host large settings such as 100 people lectures, as well as working rooms for 12 students each. Movable partitions, smart screens, large storage areas, and perimeter desks are distributed to allow for the spontaneous use of the space
Given the multidisciplinary nature of the Center, the Flex room does not have a fixed program. Instead, it allows for multiple and simultaneous uses of the space, from multiple departments and students to take over and transform it
Pinable and writable folding panels divide the Flex room in halves or quarters, while the ceiling continues above the glass partition to make students feel engaged with the rest of the space
The Flex room is designed to be a living cabinet of curiosities. Through time, its shelves, furniture and storage will be filled with studentsâ work on constant display
The clerestory at the pop-up roof brings natural light and sky views into the Flex room. The windows connect it back with the rest of the building and Campus
Pinable and writable folding panels divide the Flex room in halves or quarters, while the ceiling continues above the glass partition to make students feel engaged with the rest of the space
The Flex room is designed to be a living cabinet of curiosities. Through time, its shelves, furniture and storage will be filled with studentsâ work on constant display
The clerestory at the pop-up roof brings natural light and sky views into the Flex room. The windows connect it back with the rest of the building and Campus
At the start of the 2020 school year the versatility of the new maker space provided an ideal venue for Lawrencevilleâs new faculty members to participate in orientation, utilizing its flexible space to accommodate social distancing regulations (Courtesy of The Lawrenceville School, photo by Jessica Welsh)
The entrance to the Museum is located off the lobby at GCAD and across the main stair, connecting all spaces into a welcoming entry
The visual connection between all spaces has been a design fundamental for all elements of the project, including handrails and butt glazed storefront systems detailing
For more information contact Vinicius Gorgati.
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