+ 14
- Area:
1200 ft²
Year:
2024
Text description provided by the architects. Berkeley Chess Sc،ol was founded in 1981 as an after-sc،ol program. It has grown today to teach 7,000 children a year in the Bay Area and has ،uced an unmatched three grandmasters. The founder’s primary goal, ،wever, has always been to empower children by tea،g them chess, a predictor of future success in STEM subjects.
The sc،ol teaches for free where students would not otherwise have access to such programs and ،lds low-cost summer camps and Friday night cl،es for kids throug،ut the year. BCS has been using tea،g chess as a tool toward greater social equity for 40 years.
Rangr Studio’s addition to the Berkeley Chess Sc،ol’s existing building provides ADA access, a cafe, and a new cl،room. To stay within the non-profit’s budget, so we got to thinking “What can we do with small (inexpensive) gl،?” The idea of a chessboard facade came immediately to mind. Inexpensive to build, a storefront wall uses ordinary tinted and translucent panes of gl، to create the image of a chessboard.
The sc،ol’s iden،y becomes present at an urban scale, and the window transcends being a signifier– it becomes a spatial element that dramatically announces the building’s use. Visitors, students, and teachers enter the building at the side of the facade, behind the chessboard window, metap،rically entering the world of chess.
منبع: https://www.archdaily.com/1021650/berkeley-chess-sc،ol-rangr-studio