School Architecture

The Design of a Waldorf Classroom

A thought-provoking and elucidating exploration of the need for different classroom space and configuration as the student progresses through the grades at a Waldorf school. Anyone interested in architecture or in the process of school design will want to read the booklet.

Comments on the Building of a Waldorf School

An excellent discussion of how architecture can help support the goals of Waldorf education

A Child's Garden

It's clear that Molly Dannenmaier loves children and gardening with all her heart -- and has shared those loves with us in A Child's Garden, a heart-stoppingly beautiful, wonderful book.

I should be clear that this is not a book about gardening with children, but rather a banquet of ideas for creating gardens that invite children into the wonder and beauty of nature. Between its covers, she presents us with ideas for gardens large enough to encompass areas of parks and schools all the way down to postage stamp gardens and wee corners made to delight a child.

Among the hundreds of photos beckoning you into the realm of garden design are articles that invite us adults into the world as seen from the eyes of a child. In fact, her essays on the history of children's gardens and the nature of play could easily grace books on Waldorf education, so to-the-heart-of-the-matter are they.

Whether you are considering your window box, your back yard, or the landscape design for a school or community play area, A Child's Garden will breathe life, inspiration and lots and lots of warmth into your gardening and into children's lives. Simply wonderful!

Living Buildings

This is perhaps the most beautiful book of anthroposophically-inspired architecture ever published! A feast for the eyes and heart all the through its 180+ pages -- color photos, watercolor paintings, floor plans, sketches, and all of them of actually buildings that are in daily use throughout the world. To gaze at pictures of these buildings is a healing experience -- imagine what being in them and near them must be. Everyone who as looked through these books with me agrees that these buildings fulfill some deep yearning of their soul -- how wonderful to know they exist somewhere.

Joan de Ris Allen has been designing buildings for Camphill Villages since 1961 - Living Buildings reflects her enthusiastic commitment and practical involvement in furthering Rudolf Steiner's architectural impulse in Camphill Communities throughout the world.