Anastasia Zabarsky: Delirious De Beauvoir

Goal & objective
By removing ourselves from segregated silos of education and creating a network between students, adults, older people, and tutors, we can engage forms of production that construct new shared spaces for the exchange of liminal learning and knowledge.

Strategy
The objective of the urban plan that sits within the last modernist estate in Hackney, the De Beauvoir Estate, is to get schoolchildren out of the conventional classroom, which is usually focused around the traditional linear corridor that lacks stimulation of environment and imagination. Acting as a testbed for deconstructing and opening the school system to the city, the project implements a microcosm within the estate that supports children’s education and journey into adulthood where the students, adults, local practitioners and residents can thrive within a unique, diverse and collaborative environment. By allowing children to interact with the city, nature, water and the architecture puncturing the landscape throughout in a unique and meaningful way, we can create a journey of wonder that focuses on movement, wellbeing and interaction that becomes an integral part of the everyday school routine.

Impact
Through an education focused on the liminality of learning the in between – the classes, the city, the lessons, the people. We learn how to respond to the city around us. Education is where our sustainable future begins. We must start early to instil the most important lessons through ‘school’. For children – the life lessons and challenges that we will have to embark on as adults. For adults – the freedom of play and wonder through childhood. The loop of education should not start and stop, it’s a life’s journey and a life’s work.

Site location
De Beauvoir Estate, Hackney, N1 3JF