Hallway Stained Glass St. Alcuin Montessori School Dallas, Texas Roger Brasel, Kailua Kona, Hawaii Five half-circle windows @ 4.0' diameter The school's two classroom wings are built around central hallways that ramp and turn in acknowledgement of a sloping site and offsetting pairs of classrooms. Above the entry doors to each classroom pair is a clerestory in which an east facing and west facing window is located.
With their exposed ductwork, ramps and turns, and expansive and contrasting spaces, the hallways are exciting, movement-encouraging corridors. The picture plane imagery of the stained glass design is secondary in these hallways. Their primary intent is to wash the interior surfaces with color.
Each pair of clerestory windows has its own unique pair of complementary colors that allow even the youngest students to identify their classroom. The easily recognized stained glass design does not elicit circulation- stopping contemplation. It is based on the idea of mazeway or life-path and increases in complexity from lower to upper grades. The immediate and subliminal response to filtered, colored light is most evident when the children dance within and tease the projected patterns and splashes of color.