Creating a space that inspires is a weighty responsibility for architects and designers. KieranTimberlake's 2000 master plan for Sidwell Friends School, a Quaker K'12 day school in Washington, D.C., called for updating, uniting, and optimizing an aging urban campus, reflecting the school's desire to become a model of sustainability. As part of its scheme, the Philadelphia-based firm renovated the existing gymnasium, transforming the 1950s structure into a hybrid Arts Center and Meeting House (actually a large room within the building) to be used for the students' weekly worship.
Gleaning from the philosophical and spiritual teachings of the Religious Society of Friends founder George Fox, the architects created a simple diagram that configures the space and materials around a core of silence and light. According to partner Stephen Kieran, this arrangement literally defines the room, so it becomes a magnet that draws everyone around it into its sphere, providing form, order, and meaning where none existed
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