Alliance Francaise Learning Space - A New Design Project

Suanny Dugarte, Erin Fleming, Krupa Patel

Our team went to Alliance Francise located on 24 Spadina Rd, Toronto, ON, M5R 2SR, to participate in a volunteering activity to re-work an existing space to a learning space. The objective was to redesign two children’s classrooms to accommodate activities for children during after school hours (3 pm to 6 pm). Children’s age ranging from 5-12 years old. We were given our project requirements which included keeping TV screens in each room, having movable tables and chairs, area for storage, area for coats and boots, and bookshelves to be in rooms. The bigger room needed to be turned into a science lab/ workshop area, and the other room needed to accommodate family reading time for secondary use. None of the dividing wall and windows were to be touched. During our on-site visit, we took pictures of the surrounding area and took note of what interior design aspects can be improved. Our team was given a PDF version of the floor plan, we were able to convert it into AutoCAD. Which we used to space plan a simple layout where the center of the rooms can be configurable, while millwork such as the bookshelves will surround the rooms. We created some ideations, researched furniture, lighting, paint finishes, and used SketchUp to render a 3D perspective. Lastly, we completed a proposal that presented Alliance Francise’s re-designed learning space, and project budget. The learning outcomes we team took from this volunteering project includes: - Creating a realistic budget with local products - Managing tasks between members - Figuring out what was doable and not from client’s initial requests.