School House

Instructor: Sharon Johnston
Location: Des. Moines, Iowa 
Term: Spring 2023


School House examines vernacular adaptability through the lens of Iowa’s regional spatial types, engaging Des Moines’ Jeffersonian grid and its culture of pragmatic building. The project draws from two foundational forms: the barn, with rooms arranged around a central void, and the shed, whose internal order follows its contents. These types are hybridized into a laboratory-school that balances enclosure and openness—part garden, part threshold. Spaces unfold around a loose courtyard logic, allowing academic and public functions to overlap without hierarchy. Research and community engagement coexist not by zoning but by adjacency. By misusing agricultural forms, School House proposes a new spatial model for educational infrastructure—local in its language, and elastic in its use.