The final phase of construction for Montreal's Yaldei School, designed by the city's Stendel + Reich Architecture Inc., was completed just about one year ago. But the journey began back in 2017 when the firm got to work on understanding what it takes to set its students up for the best success stories possible.
The Donad Berman Yaldei Development Center was originally founded in 1998 by Menachem and Devorah Leifer to help their profoundly developmentally delayed children. What started in their home with only three children blossomed into a school for 370 in a 1960s-era, three-story building in need of extensive renovations in order to accommodate the students' extraordinary needs in both therapy (second floor) and classroom settings (first and third floors). Stendel + Reich conducted extensive observations of children in both and laid their focus on color and lighting in order to reduce distraction and anxiety while turning up the volume on fun and engagement. Click through the photo series above to see how they achieved it.
All photos courtesy of Yaldei School and Axis Lighting.