Carefully controlled light at the Emmaus School evokes a sense of calm.

The crisp edge of the water mirrors the mass of the building. Set in Wybourn, just outside of Sheffield, UK, carefully positioned windows create viewports of a breathless beautiful view of the landscape. Inside, natural daylight softly illuminates the building. Architecture becomes dynamically intertwined with landscape.

The description is that of the Emmaus Primary School built in 2007, which replaced two faith schools that had been gradually losing students. Though built on a small budget, the detail of the design elevates an ordinary school into a dynamic learning environment. The project of award-winning architectural firm DSDHA in London, the primary school, situated in a town that has suffered from industrial decline, is part of a master plan to reinvigorate the area. The firm has designed more than 12 school and university buildings, and has won three Royal Institute of British Architects Awards for buildings that are not only of high architectural standards but also positively impact the community. DSDHA has critically engaged contemporary social issues in relation to the design of spaces.

On Wednesday, October 17, Deborah Saunt, co-founder of DSDHA with David Hills, will kick off Education and Design, a series of lectures, panel discussions and exhibitions about exciting contemporary school designs, hosted by UB School of Architecture and Planning, UB Graduate School of Education, the Buffalo Public Schools, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Western New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

The practice of DSDHA reflects the increasing interest in school design. Contemporary approaches move beyond code, regulations and budget for schools and instead incorporate and balance feasibility and safety with exciting possibilities and dynamism.

Emmaus School in Wybourn, UK

Following Saunt’s lecture, the series continues on Thursday, October 18, with a discussion panel of local school design in Buffalo. Saunt, local architects, members from the AIA and representatives from the Buffalo Schools will come together to discuss new contemporary practices.

The lecture series continues on Friday and will feature landscape architect Walter Hood at 5:30pm at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Like DSHDA and Saunt, Hood has worked on the rejuvenation of impoverished neighborhoods, including the transformation of Lafayette Park in Oakland, California, for which he has been heralded by the New York Times as “the Frederick Law Olmsted of the city’s dispossessed neighborhoods.” His landscape studies in the exhibition are for the de Young Museum, which opened in 2005 in San Francisco, and show different stages of landscape design, from quick elevation sketches to a beautiful mixed-media painting. He uses watercolor to create different planes of space, light and atmosphere. He also incorporates photo montages to show people in various states of different activities. Through these drawing techniques, Hood communicates his vision of imbuing spaces with life. In these drawings, buildings and landscape come alive with the people in the spaces. This lecture will be followed at 7pm by a talk titled “Drawing Architecture,” with Hood, collector LJ Cella, Associate Curator Claire Schneider and Dean of UB Architecture and Planning Brian Carter.

The exhibition Schools of the Future highlights exciting contemporary school designs. The exhibition will be on display in Hayes Lobby of UB South Campus, October 15-29. Another exhibition of second-year architecture graduate students will display process studio work at the Albright-Knox for one night only, Friday, October 19. Under the tutelage of Assistant Professor Shadi Nazarian, the studio is focused on the design of a K-8 school.

The lectures on October 17 and 18 will take place at 5:30pm at UB South Campus in Crosby Hall Room 301.