Sycamore High School, Synnovation Lab

Cincinnati, Ohio

Firm

SHP

Client

Sycamore Community Schools

Area

6,500 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$300,000

Completion Date

08/2018

JH Photography Inc., SHP

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The Synnovation Lab project at Sycamore High School took an underused theater and transformed it into an open, flexible and collaborative learning space.

Designed for a multidisciplinary team of teachers and a mixed cohort of students, the space employs a new mastery-based learning pedagogy in which students take responsibility for their own learning and behavior. Offering a series of zones with different functions, the design encourages teachers to inhabit the entire space and foster a high degree of interaction and connection between and among students and teachers. Each zone supports both individual and group work and offers space for specific needs and movement learning:
• A section of auditorium seating that supports more formal presentations
• Tiered/stepped informal seating to support more casual postures and a variety of points of view
• Casual movable/reconfigurable soft seating and lounge furniture to offer respite from more task-focused learning
• High-top mobile tables and stools for task-focused work
• Workbenches and lab space for hands-on learning.