Thaden School is an independent school located in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas. Andropogon, working with Eskew+Dumez+Ripple and Marlon Blackwell Architects, designed a campus for an innovative, integrative science and humanities curriculum revolving around the three themes: meals (food), wheels (bicycles), and reels (filmmaking). The design team developed a series of complementary, indoor and outdoor teaching spaces that promote sustainability and hands-on learning.
The Thaden School campus is designed to challenge students to fully engage their minds and bodies throughout an integrated campus with programmatic centers for teaching, gathering, and celebrating. The design is comprised of agricultural landscapes for eating, feeding, and cooperative work, and natural landscapes and corridors to provide ecosystem services and exposure to natural processes such as water and plant communities of the unique eco-region, as well as spaces for motion and reflection.
