The New York Small World project is an interior renovation of the second floor of Avenues: The World School’s Chelsea, Manhattan building to expand its existing Daycare Center.
At the heart of the newly transformed Small World level lies an interior Movement Room, an undulating playscape that encourages discovery, creativity, and exploration.
To facilitate a more open flow through the Small World space, Efficiency Lab reconfigured the floor layout. The project scope totaled 4,345 sf and includes a Movement Room, restrooms, an office, and updates to the existing classrooms and corridors.
The four classrooms are renovated with new lighting, millwork, and furniture to shape a more welcoming and functional learning environment.
BEFORE: Corridor
AFTER: Corridor
By strategically positioning the Movement Room at the center of the floor, the design maximizes access for students in all classrooms and sets the stage for a more participatory interaction.
“Designing for empathy has been a key concept for all our school projects,” says Aybars Asci, founder of Efficiency Lab for Architecture. “For New York Small World, we designed a fun environment for social learning through play.”
Efficiency Lab’s custom playground system is designed specifically for interior play—with code compliant materials such as fully fire-retardant plywood, wrapped in impact resistant padding with high-grade, easily maintainable fabric.
Another primary consideration in the design of the play environment was safety. All surfaces have a minimum padding layer of ½”. All of the vertical surfaces facing the movement area are covered in a minimum of 2”, which is industry standard for wall padding. In addition, the design uses a flooring mat that was tested to a 5-foot fall height—far exceeding any of the heights the children would be able to climb to within the play area.
The custom interior playscape is designed as an environment where children’s physical sensations can be fully engaged, allowing them to use their entire bodies and strengthen their muscles, through crawling, running, and jumping.
Designed specifically for toddlers, an age during which children are actively developing their gross motor skills, the playscape allows children to test the physical limits of how far they can run, and how high they can climb and jump.
The Movement Room is protective, yet encourages risk-taking, discovery, and creativity through play. The upholstered pieces form nooks and niches, curving around the corners and the columns of the space to support movement and experimentation.
The children can rearrange many of the pieces to shape their own surroundings, allowing a sense of active participation and direct engagement.
New York Small World is part of Efficiency Lab’s long standing work with Avenues: The World School, designing spaces for education around the world, contributing to research, and collaborating to develop learning environments of the future. Iterations of the fluid geometry that encourages creativity through play is being explored in movement rooms in other campuses around the world.