Hawken Brown Innovation Lab

About Hawken School

Hawken School is a private k-12 school with multiple campus locations in Cleveland, Ohio. With a mission to "prepare students to navigate a complex and dynamic world with self-confidence and determination, embrace challenges with disciplined analysis and creativity, and engage others with empathy and integrity." Looking to encourage innovation and creativity in their students, Hawken Brown contacted studioTECHNE to develop their Innovation Lab.

About the Innovation Lab

After Hawken School reached out in search of a "...place of innovation where students will explore complex, ill-defined problems and engage in non-sequential iterative processes to solve essential questions," our main goal in the design process was to create a space that would encourage students to brainstorm, explore, think critically, and collaborate. Providing an opportunity for students to define a problem, organize a solution, develop prototypes, test, fail, and repeat is critical to help students develop resilience at a young age. 

Our Design Process

Hawken School decided their Innovation Lab should be sited in an existing 1930's gymnasium. Our team began the design process by developing a set of criteria and sketches in collaboration with students and educators. Through open communication and a clear understanding of the school's needs, we successfully developed inspirational drawings and images that reflected the school's vision to their donors and community. Our earliest iterations envisioned a place where students could openly collaborate - a place for students to develop and present their ideas. However, these iterations proved to be much more than the existing gymnasium's size could accommodate. The design team decided to utilize the height of the gym by adding a mezzanine (a second story with a low ceiling) to create collaboration and ideation that overlooked the fabrication and making equipment. 

The completed Innovation Lab meet Hawken's curriculum and educational goals, and we were excited to see students utilizing the space by engaging in hands-on learning, exploration, and making. With this project, we successfully achieved techne.