Downtown Design and boutique interior design firm Pallavi Dean Studio discuss design for education spaces, implementation of sustainability in design and more.
Tell us a little bit about Pallavi Dean Interiors, your style of work and the projects you undertake
PDI is an award-winning interiors studio based in Dubai’s new design district, D3.
Our mantra is “creating experiences through design”, with the key word being “experiences”. The interiors of our hotels, offices, homes and schools are all unique, yet they share a common philosophy: every space is built around the people who use it. So for a school like the Sharjah English School, we don’t start by drawing pretty designs. We start by listening. It’s by listening and observing that we truly understand the way educators, parents and most importantly students will experience the school. Then we go away and think about it. Only after we’ve done all of this – listening, understanding and thinking – do we start designing. Because if we get these elements right in any project, the building will have a natural harmony – and the aesthetic beauty, the style, flows from that. Don’t get me wrong, we love giving free reign to artistic flair and creative genius to design stunning spaces that make people go ‘wow’ when they walk through the door, or see them on a magazine cover. But that can’t be self-indulgent – it has to be about the people. We joke that while we have ‘designer’ on our business cards, a lot of the time we’d be better described as social anthropologists! Design is simply a tool we use to create experiences. So I wouldn’t say we have a design style - our work is always in response to the context, client brief, latest research and commercial viability.
Our portfolio spans three continents across the hospitality, commercial, residential and education sectors. In the Education sector we are currently working on The Sultan School in Muscat, Sharjah English School and North Collegiate London School in Dubai. Our flagship hospitality project is the first Delano Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai – it’s currently on site due for completion in 2017.
Image: Project Designed by Pallavi Dean Interiors
Designing for schools and universities can be quite diverse, what factors do you consider when designing for an educational project?
There are so many factors, so let me give you a couple of examples. First, we always benchmark our designs against world-class education projects: there’s always something you can learn from. Second, our approach is to create a design narrative that is centered on local context and culture. This is crucial to give students a sense of belonging.
Sustainability is now a key consideration in large scale projects, how do you implement this in universities and schools?
The obvious starting point is to embrace best practice in green building design and construction, whether it’s LEED or some other code such as Estidama in Abu Dhabi.
Just as important, it’s about influencing and informing the students about being environmentally conscious. They’re the next generations of decision-makers and designers. A curriculum and school that encourages student-led activities centered on the environment is a good first step, so as designers we have to understand how this will work.
In The Sultan School in Muscat we are using local materials and joinery workshops to build the perimeter bookshelves and case-goods in the library. The false ceiling has been removed to reveal the concrete soffit of the building, only adding acoustic ceiling rafts where required. This reduces the material quantities, and it exposes the ‘bones’ of the building – early design education is always a good thing! We’ve also used furniture pods to partition the space rather than walls where possible. This allows for flexibility, uses less material and floods the space with natural light – a key part of our ‘passive’ sustainability strategy. The space planning allows for natural cross-ventilation in the cooler months. All new materials such as flooring, paint, fabrics and plastics meet International eco score ratings.
Image: Project Designed by Pallavi Dean Interiors
The physical environment in an educational space is a huge factor in holistic learning and is given prime importance, how do you think the traditional classroom has changed and what is being implemented differently?
Students need a variety of learning spaces. It's no longer about square-shaped classrooms, high windows and long corridors. Like modern workplace design, learning spaces need to have a variety of settings to encourage different activities and teaching styles. Some spaces are designed for group/collaboration activities, while others are quiet/contemplative/concentration areas. Educators are now asking for 'Shared Learning Areas'; dedicated flexible community spaces that become the 'hub' or 'heart' of the school. These are often realised architecturally as large atria linking school corridors or floor levels. Corridors and staircases are being activated and used as these ‘shared spaces’ – they aren’t just for getting from point A to point B.
How does the aesthetic and visual impact of the learning space affect the student and teacher experience? Are educational institutions in the region taking this into account?
Designers need to understand 'Scale and Materiality' appropriate to age groups. For example, primary education spaces should not be too bright and colourful or 'Disneyland-like' because these tend to over stimulate of the senses.
In the Sharjah English School, covering Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2, our material approach uses a neutral base palette, to prevent over-stimulating students and teaches, and to allow student artwork to be displayed without competing against a busy background. We use colour as accents, for orientation and code identification. We also used reflective/writable surfaces to allow children to develop their phonics – watch how their lips move as they create sound. Spatially we create spaces that can be discovered so children learn through self discovery – in SES we have nooks to hide and stage areas to perform.
In secondary school, instructors have to deal with the distraction issue. Active/blended learning classrooms encourage student engagement through movement and technology. Furniture on castors is key, allowing a classroom to transform into a lecture setting or collaborative team work space. These spaces need a seamless integration of technology so students can switch between tasks easily.
Image: Project Designed by Pallavi Dean Interiors
Students crave a sense of community as part of their learning experience, what do you think are the spatial requirements to fulfill that aspect?
From a student’s perspective, community spaces are not just limited to assembly halls! In our designs, community spaces are spread across the entire floor plate. These are integrated in the main traffic paths of the school, such as staircases that double up as amphitheaters, locker areas that become a platform for interaction, or circulation pathways that serve as shared learning spaces.
Image: Project Designed by Pallavi Dean Interiors
Please tell us about a recent project that you worked on and some challenges you faced
For the Sultan School in Muscat Oman we started the project with a renovation of the school’s existing library block and IB Centre. It’s an old school dating back to the 1970s, so it was a big challenge. The closed/fragmented rooms gave the interiors a stuffy and institutional feel. So we knocked many of them down; in their place we created a central collaborative space which is open-plan and flexible. Incorporating natural light in this space is an example of the passive sustainability strategy that we employed. Media and technology is integrated throughout the environment forming an integral component of the interiors.
In the library, the challenge was to take an old-fashioned space with one dominant function – storing books – and transform it into a modern, multi-media knowledge hub. In the new space, book shelves are kept on the perimeter to leave open, multi-function spaces with flexible furniture at the center. This allows the space to be transformed into collaborative or private learning zone, depending on the requirement. The Primary and Secondary students share a central amphitheater to encourage cross-learning between the age groups.
Culture is also a challenge. For international schools catering to, say, Western expatriates, co-education is a given. But for schools with, say, Emirati or Omani students, you need to create spaces that react sensitively to co-education, with boys and girls learning together respectfully) This means ensuring that the students can be seen at all times, with no dark corners they can skulk off to, while also allowing for more private areas where groups of girls and groups of boys can work together in small groups.
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