Hammock Room
Focusing on the power of participatory design + mindfulness to support mental health in the classroom, Impact Wrkshp partnered with Newark Yoga Movement, to design and build The Hammock Room at the Sussex Avenue Renew School in the Summer of 2019.
Impact fellows designed and fabricated a set of interactive partitions to help divide an open plan classroom into activity zones for yoga, art-therapy, and writing, to help students reduce stress, develop relaxation and breathing skills, and unleash creativity through art and writing.
The partitions serve as active interfaces, helping to engage the students as participatory learning tools within the classroom. Our design features a hand woven macrame system which varies in opacity to maintain sight-lines while reducing visual distraction within the larger space. Partitions contain storage compartments and integrated signage to encourage students to physically interact and play with the textiles themselves. Design is considered an active participant (rather than a passive backdrop) in the classroom; engaging, enabling, and empowering the activities within.
2019 Impact Wrkshp Fellows:
Vanwalee Chansue
Maya Ponzini
Samantha Garcia
Project Lead:
Irina Schneid, AIA
Visual Impact Coordinator:
Naz Ertugrul