Pratt Institute
Architecture/ Graduate Architecture and Urban Design
Project Name: Resilience and Recovery: Classroom
Project Website: https://prattshows.pratt.edu/2021/portfolios/the-anthroposcene
Emerging designers are envisioning new spaces in NYC to revitalize the city and implement solutions to build a more sustainable future for the city. Pratt Graduate Architecture and Urban Design student, Carlos Balza Gerardino, is exploring the future of Governors Island as an educational hub by redesigning the parade grounds as an open-air classroom. The thesis project seeks to pioneer a new model of education that combines outdoor spaces with today’s learning models. Leveraging Governors Island’s natural infrastructure to create the outdoor classroom will empower the island’s role as an environmental hub by providing an experimental space that would transform the education system for over eight thousand students from the surrounding school districts. The project aims to not only shift the future of classrooms from “artificial” to “natural,” but presents a window of opportunity to redefine architecture as the point of interaction between humans and the environment. @cbalzage, @prattsoa, @governersisland
