Alief ISD’s Maria del Carmen Martinez Early Learning Center (ELC) is an award-winning, fully immersive facility that introduces pre-k learners to the district’s career pathways with 12 interactive classrooms, each of which provides tactile experiences centered around a theme. From floorplan to finishes, the interiors encourage engagement, community, and connection with the outdoors.
Inspired by Alief’s agrarian community roots, the campus of this ELC is organized between two villages, each home to three neighborhoods. The neighborhoods consist of four interactive classrooms centered around a multipurpose space for instruction, gathering, and dining. The villages also connect to two secure outdoor courtyards, which flank a central spine of shared resources, including fine arts, administration, and planning spaces.
As students move through the building, the interiors meet them at their level. Corridors curve and meander to create a playful and wandering approach, in lieu of long hallways that can be overwhelming to young students. Leaf patterns along the floors help them navigate to their neighborhoods. Structural columns that resemble tree trunks line the walls, stretching toward green acoustic clouds like leaf canopies in the ceiling. Down the length of the halls, low windows allow students to peer out toward the courtyards, building a sense of community around their experience.
Wood walls mark the front porches of the neighborhoods, which open to multipurpose spaces that feature a muted palette and natural light filtering through pop-ups. The design creates a space meant for calm, structure, and focus. By contrast, the classrooms that connect to these spaces encourage learning through sight, sound, and play. One room features life-size dinosaurs and the site of an archeological dig. Another, themed around architecture and the building industry, contains construction equipment and materials. These interactive spaces are largely void of windows, an intentional design choice aimed at heightening the immersive experience.
Huckabee partnered with a museum consultant to curate the interactive experiences. In the end, the success of the project was the Interior Design team’s ability to collaborate with Alief ISD, the museum consultant, and their fellow teams at Huckabee. Collectively, the group pushed the boundaries of conventional K-12 education to create a playful, beautiful, student-centric space.
