Over the past year public health has become an increasing concern in many aspects of everyday life. As designers we are asking ourselves how do we reinhabit public spaces in a way that is both safe and beneficial for future generations? One of the most challenging spaces to reinhabit are schools. Instead of repopulating the traditional educational architecture, what if the way we think about schools could be completely reinvented? My thesis aims to explore the ways in which educational architecture can be reimagined for a healthier, more sustainable, and more creative future of learning. How can designers work not to build from the ground up, but to transform an existing space into an opportunity for social change?

New Yorkers do not live as they did a century ago and remnants of the past can be found scattered about the city, such as the Victorian houses in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The Victorian period is well known as a time of innovation and patented invention.

In this vein, I explore the ways in which one of these historic homes can be transformed into a machine for learning. A series of interventions weave throughout the house creating moments of tension between the historic versus contemporary, residential versus educational, and form versus function.

Through reusing and preserving a historic Victorian home, and relearning through sustainable and healthy environments, we can reimagine what an educational system can provide.