The Garden Stimulus project is an installation from a larger set associated with Charlie Hailey’s 2022 Design Build Studio. The prompt was simple, an outdoor classroom. The contextual parameters were considerably more complex: no overhead conditions, must be capable of off-site construction, and must fit on a modest trailer for transport. The physical context, Rawlings Elementary, is an alternative education facility that restructures the traditional approach to public school. The Garden Stimulus installation provided the culinary department with a coupling of seating and performance structures that are intended to facilitate the relationship between the body and the ground. The diagram of the response was a floating tiered cedar deck that occupies the fence edge. This concept developed into two congruous yet different structures. The first installed structure parallel to the fence boundary is a tiered seating structure with a lower deck extruded for performance and more casual occupation. The secondary structure offers less seating but incorporates a protruding trellis along the back of the seat for vertical garden growth. The final space creates a pocket of educational occupation that begins to form porous edges of an implied garden classroom.
