PBK created a colorful and dynamic space for play and learning at the Jefferson Early Learning Center in Houston, Texas.

The Early Learning Center is a schoolyard project that aims to set a precedent for creating climate-ready and biodiverse schools. The building and site are designed to tell the story of the community and provide the youngest students with a sense of place. The center captures students’ wonder for learning by providing scaled indoor and outdoor environments that are carefully designed for the youngest learners. The goal was established to develop an early learning center where students interact with nature and to create a strong sense of place with themed environments that would visually connect young learners to their city, region, and nature.

With over 80 different languages, the surrounding city is one of the most culturally diverse school districts in the nation. To address this diversity, the “play experiences” provide a variety of themes that showcase important local identities. To overcome potential language barriers, the center’s design caters heavily to the sensory spectrum through realistic visuals, exciting textures, and vibrant colors. The interior courtyards connect students to the nearby gulf lowlands of Texas with reeds, water and coast as well as the highlands of texas with rock formations. Growing outward, the new center also connects students with their region of Texas. The center celebrates regional industries and ecosystems that the region is known for. With the majority of students not having access to backyards, the center provides easy access to a spectrum of outdoor play spaces. Students now have a backyard, play courtyard, and nature preserve within their school.

Treating every student as an individual with equal access to education drives the design. Various learning environments are provided for different types of learners. Outdoor learning drives the site, passive learning drives the corridors and exteriors, play based learning drives the neighborhoods, and immersive learning drives the classrooms. With this toolkit, every student has a safe space to enrich their education. Developing a love of learning at the earliest age looks like textured and colorful materials along corridor walls, views to nature at every corner, and materiality choices that speak to their natural environment. To blend the indoor experience with the natural environment, the design is inspired by nature through its form, materials, and visual experience. Walls of glazing connect children with nature at all points of the day. Playful columns mimic trees in nature. Colorful wall graphics are nature inspired and help students find their way “home.” Wood ceilings, natural rubber flooring, and textured wall coverings create a nature inspired interior environment

Design: PBK
Contractor: Satterfield & Pontikes Construction
Photography: Wade Griffith